The American government is reportedly considering plans to install reflective satellites that mirror the sun’s rays in order to create ‘on-demand daylight’ could seriously affect humans’ sleep patterns
A plan to use space mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays in order to create ‘on-demand daylight’ could seriously affect humans’ sleep patterns, boffins have warned.
The US government is reportedly considering plans by space tech company Reflect Orbital to illuminate areas of the earth at night-time by using reflective satellites. The satellites are designed to allow for increased farming, as well as round the clock construction and other industrial action that requires daylight.
Researchers have been raising eyebrows at the concept, warning that the invention could bring ‘untold consequences’ when it comes to the world’s need for a good night’s sleep.
Four spokespeople representing over 2500 sleep boffins from over 30 countries signed a joint letter sent to the US government itself, warning that the mirror satellites could harm the sleep of both humans and animals.
The letter, written by the presidents of the leading European, Japanese and Canadian sleep research units warned: “The proposed scale of orbital deployment would represent a significant alteration of the natural night-time light environment at a planetary scale.”
The letter went on to highlight how any change to the “natural rhythm” of day and night could have devastating consequences on hormone secretion in both humans and animals.
Migratory patterns of many species could also be effected, especially those that are awake during the night. Some seasonal plants as well as vital plankton that underpin the ocean’s food chain could also be impacted.
Professor Charalambos Kyriacou, a leading geneticist at the University of Leicester and president of the European Biological Rhythm Society explained to The Guardian: “We’re saying, please think before you go through with this, because this could have global implications for things like food security. Plants need the night. You can’t just get rid of it.”
Ruskin Hartley, the head of DarkSky International, a non=profit organisation that works to protect and enhance natural night skies, also told The Guardian: “While ideas like mirrors on satellites beaming ‘sunlight on demand’ to Earth or mega-constellations of up to one million satellites for AI data centres may sound like science fiction, these proposals are very real.”
A separate letter from the presidents of the World Sleep Society, European Sleep Research Society, Sleep Health Foundation, Australian Sleep Association and Australasian Chronobiology Society said that any satellites that provoke sleep disruption “is not mere inconvenience; it is a physiological mechanism driving major adverse health consequences”.
The letter continued, “We do not argue against space innovation. The alternation of light and dark is not a trivial background condition. It is one of the oldest organising principles of life on Earth.”
The Daily Star has approached Reflect Orbital for comment regarding the letter.