China's Ambitious Plan: Launching a Second Moon

The innovative mind of China's leadership never ceases to generate 'patents', though this particular one is remarkably bold and hard to ignore: in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, an aerospace technology researcher pondered intensely about how to significantly cut the city's electricity costs.

After much thought, the solution emerged: an artificial moon could solve the problem. Yes, you read that correctly, though at first glance, it might sound like it's straight out of a fantasy novel.

According to the inventor, Wu Chunfeng, this solution is expected to save China millions, and he plans to bring this concept to reality by 2020.

The engineer and researcher's plan is to launch an artificial moon into the city's sky, which would be eight times brighter than a full natural moon. "The artificial moon will light up the city, allowing us to forgo street lighting expenses, which amount to 173 million dollars each year," he explains in an interview with the BBC.

"Even the slightest deviation can shift the lighting by miles"

He claims that this artificial moon will also prove beneficial during power outages caused by technological failures or ecological storms. "If the initial project succeeds, we plan to launch two more moons by 2022," he concludes.

However, as utopian as the idea seems, there are dissenters who think differently. "It's true that economically, the idea is appealing," says Dr. Matteo Ciriotti, a researcher at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. "But for such a satellite to truly function, it must be positioned extremely precisely above the city, and even the slightest deviation can shift the lighting by miles."

According to Dr. Ciriotti, this could also adversely affect animals and plants by disrupting their natural day-night cycle and providing them with unnatural light. "And if the light isn't sufficiently strong, what's the purpose of such a project anyway?" he questions.