A correspondent Emailed me today and asked for an opinion on these space mirrors that are rather romantically being referred to by the MSM as “moons”. He wanted to know if I thought that the whole idea was a clandestine cooperation with the US. Here’s my response:
As with most military and technological things that China does, this was not a case of co operation, but a case of China exploiting an idea that has been floating around (if you’ll pardon the pun) for decades. The idea was first proposed in Germany in the 1940s and of course developed further by the US under Paperclip,
and there was also a proposal by Russia to do this a few years ago, but as usual with Russia, it was all talk and bluffery: Plenty of smoke but no actual mirrors, despite all the hype!
Even New Zealand got in on the act with an orbiting “Star” recently (amidst much controversy), which didn’t survive long.
Considering the amount of space junk currently in orbit, (much of it of China’s own creation when they blew up their own satellite for target practice), I’d say these “extra moons” are unlikely to survive long either!
…especially if Trump’s Space Force decides to use them as target practice!
The same correspondent supplied the following PDF:
http://jxcrystals.com/publications/Mirrors_in_Dawn_Dusk_Orbit_AIAA_Tech_Conf_Final_2013.pdf
Thanks Richard!
Martin H
