In the 1980s there was a proposal for something similar, a "light ring in space" from Europe. That project was decorative, a pretty object to look at.<p>It was obviously a stupid idea and scientists did a good job of explaining why.<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i6PR8dMk1GUC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=european+satellite+project+reflective+ring&source=bl&ots=DIhVLIUydE&sig=3_JY39T4zy2WbY-QuJGUvrcLi7U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt7Pq2uqTLAhVMDxoKHTluDQYQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=european%20satellite%20project%20reflective%20ring&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i6PR8dMk1GUC&pg=PA60&lpg...</a><p>(For fuck's sake Google. Look at that stupid hideous URL.)
The idea expressed at the end of the article "orbiting mirrors could be used to extend the length of daylight hours for harvests" actually sounds like it could be very reasonable. Vertical farming and aquaponics is currently restricted by light to a large extent. If this solves the lighting problem for vertical farming, we could end up with a 10000 layer farm built into an old mine quary that could feed a large country. And then all of that farm land could be left to nature :) Deforestation could be reversed, and the reversal of deforestation could play a key roll in reducing the roll of carbon emissions...
I hope this idea literally never gets off the ground. If one person/company gets approval to go ahead, there will be no end to the people/companies seeking approval, and there goes ground-based astronomy.
Would it be feasible to deploy massive solar sails to cast a shadow and prevent solar heat from hitting the earth, so that over enough time it might reverse some of the effects of global warming?
This reminds me of a sci-fi book that I cannot remember the name of, in which the Coca Cola company deliberately initiates the supernovae of 100+ stars in order to spell out the message "COKE ADDS LIFE!" in the night sky.
I stumbled upon this article the other day: <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-man-who-turned-night-into-day" rel="nofollow">http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-man-who-turned-night-in...</a> it's about the previous Znamya experiments <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znamya_%28satellite%29" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znamya_%28satellite%29</a>
Has anyone thought of the impact this might have on earth based observations? We already have Iridium flares that happen from shiny satellite parts, and these flares have disturbed observations from various observatories (and this wasn't even intentional).<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare</a>