An orbiting mirror for solar illumination at night

Enhancing terrestrial solar power using orbiting solar reflectors

“…The support structure should provide the required flatness to maintain the desired sharpness of the reflected spot. The effect of deviation of the reflecting surface from an ideal plane geometry on the reflectivity is studied in [5]. The effect of wrinkling on the performance of reflector films is considered in Ref.…”

“…Also, the defects due to packing and transporting to space are eliminated [39,40]. In principle, components of longer length can be produced as there is zero gravity load [5]. It is anticipated that the metal required as a source material for conversion to the thin-film form could be available from a portion of the initial vehicle structure that is no longer required, such as booster tankage or interstage structural components [36].…”

“…As a novel addition, relay mirrors were also investigated to distribute collected solar energy around the constellation to specific ground locations [4]. Rush also considered the concept of orbiting solar reflectors for night-time illumination of urban areas [5].…”