At present, the "House of Light" satellite (Mayak), which Russian scientists are preparing, is nearing completion. If it is launched into the sky, it will become the brightest "star" in the night sky. It is reported that the scheduled test launch will take place on July 14.
The designers said the satellite could trap space junk through parachute structures, lowering their orbits, thereby entering Earth's atmosphere and eventually burning up. The surface of the satellite's reflector is made of polymers that are 20 times thinner than a human hair. It has a length of 2.7 meters on each side and an entire surface area of about 6 square meters.
The satellite is equipped with a braking system that opens the parachute structure and grabs space junk fragments.
However, this has been attacked by many astronomers. For this "House of Light" satellite, astronomers consider it a "ridiculous" project that would "destroy" all the night sky.
With reflective materials on the surface, the House of Light satellite will be the brightest object in nature. Of course, it is impossible to compare with the sun during the day. It was manufactured by researchers at the Moscow-based Mechanical Engineering University, funded by crowdfunding, and is scheduled to be launched in Kazakhstan via a Soyuz-2 rocket on Friday, July 14.
Project leader Alexander said: "We will launch the space vehicle into orbit, which will become the brightest star in the sky, visible from any corner of the earth." ”
But Nick, vice chairman of the Kielder Observatory in the UK, said: "It is heartbreaking that we are fighting so hard for the night sky of the Earth and seeing that this is about to be destroyed by such a ridiculous crowdfunding project." ”
The project team plans to place the spacecraft in a sun-synchronous orbit 600 kilometers above the Earth's surface. That means it will be in the path of sunlight, and as it rotates, the pyramid-shaped House of Light satellite will flash toward different locations on Earth.
According to reports, the brightness of the reflector will reach -10 and so on, which is extremely disgusting to astronomers. You know, the brightness of the full moon is only -12.6 and so on. Jonathan, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center, said that since many telescopes scan the night sky every night, this can cause considerable trouble.