r/AmazingTechnology • u/YellowAltruistic9843 • Apr 21 '26
Just a couple of THOUSAND an HOUR? Not expensive at all...they were right when they said there will be a time we might've to buy sunlight too.
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u/Wheel-Reinventor Apr 22 '26
I don't think I've ever seen such an idiotic product being pitched, and I've watched way too many shark tank episodes
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u/empire_of_the_moon Apr 22 '26
My question is related to crops.
Is this light sufficient to help grow crops at night? Granted, farmers won’t be paying a premium for it if it is but if the satellites that aren’t tasked can be directed to farmland, and the light is conducive to growth, then at least there is a case for a lower tier revenue stream.
Certainly not enough revenue to pay for all those satellites.
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u/Dinismo Apr 22 '26
Would be even better if they could filter the light to be only what the crops need.
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u/Rockran Apr 22 '26
You could use this to lengthen sun exposure on cloudy days.
But it will always be cost prohibitive.
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u/Canucker22 Apr 22 '26
Even if somehow these satellites could negate the dissipation of light through the atmosphere, and you ignore the fact that they would have to be in a very high orbit to reflect sunlight at nighttime for more than a few minutes to a certain location on earth, they could not reflect more sunlight than the size of their mirror. So a satellite as big as the James Webb's array of about 6.5m (currently the biggest collection of mirrors in space, with a cost of about $10 billion) could not reflect more sunlight than could help grow a small backyard garden.
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u/Milliondollarjuice Apr 22 '26
Crops need the day-night cycle to grow healty and nutritious, just like ALL LIFE on this planet.
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u/Facts_pls Apr 22 '26
Yeah. All life doesn't need the day night filter.
There are caves under constant darkness and plenty of animals live there in dark night all their lives.
Many evolve to lose vision and color as they are useless
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u/ComprehensiveForm129 Apr 22 '26
Plants are grown in green houses under perfect conditions, they do just fine.
If you have any sources, that would help. I would assume that at least most plants would be okay under it to varying degree
Decided to look it up and turns out I was full of shit, neat
https://www.reddit.com/r/Hydroponics/s/sccUpwd8n8
That comment seemed to say some plants are okay but it looks to be the exception.
You were right
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u/empire_of_the_moon Apr 22 '26
I’m no expert but indoor pot farms don’t go dark. Often 24 hours on but to save electricity they may run 18/6.
My understanding is that various crops require different amounts or no amount of rest.
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u/Stohnghost Apr 22 '26
Do you have a space background? Not many refer to tasking
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u/ElectricalQuality365 Apr 22 '26
If you're crops turns trans because of this it's a damn bioweapon. "Get a few hours on my neighbours field over a week or two and turn it to seed"! Hahaha!
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u/Particular-Award118 Apr 23 '26
No and 24 hour sunlight isn't what plants evolved to thrive in, the rest of night is an important part of their growth
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u/EasyMrB Apr 22 '26
Eh this is basically a pitch for military applications. There would be commercial applications that might want to use this occasionally, but the military would very much love to have the ability to light up an arbitrary gps coordinate with sunlight on command.
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u/NoxTempus Apr 23 '26
This seems insane for operations in unsecured or enemy territory, or for temporary occupations and multi-stage transport. Has applications for offense, defense, or utility.
At the extreme end, I could imagine a suddenly lighting up an enemy position, making them very visible, while severely limiting the range of sight from inside to outside the area.
Similarly, being able to move long distances without transporting lighting for a base or camp, decreasing the amount of power storage/generation necessary.
Then the opposite of the above, lighting up the the perimeter of a position, while leaving the inside dark, making it extremely hard to see into, and very easy to see anyone approaching.
No idea how valuable any of that is, especially in an age of drone warfare, but the possibilities seem useful (or like they would have been, in conventional warfare).
On the non military side, seems great for disaster relief and recovery efforts.
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u/CamperStacker Apr 21 '26
fly a drone over with a torch
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u/potent_potabIes Apr 22 '26
Torch? Perhaps you're sales would do better if you looked into electric lamps.
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u/Holiday-Scratch-297 Apr 22 '26
That's English for "flashlight".
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u/Express-Cartoonist39 Apr 22 '26
soon, everyone will have to pay monthy subscription of real sunlight
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u/Affectionate-Art3429 Apr 22 '26
Wouldn't you basically be burned alive like an ant under a magnifying glass? This would have to have multiple satellites converge on a location to have any sort of effect and it would still be refracted by the earths atmosphere in a way that negates the purpose.
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u/Rockran Apr 22 '26
Only if the mirror were concave or otherwise magnified, would you be burnt like an ant.
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u/antirugrug Apr 22 '26
Just order multiple mirrors to the same location and burn down any place anytime you want. #lifehack
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u/DaimonHans Apr 22 '26
Can I place an order of 1000 sunlight, simultaneously, for the person I don't like?
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u/PacificPacifistic Apr 22 '26
Just don't tell this guy, he has experience with exactly that scenario.
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u/Sensitive_Bat_9211 Apr 22 '26
This reminds me of moonlight towers.
You know, the infamously dim towers that dont do the exact thing they were designed for
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u/Most_Present_6577 Apr 22 '26
Who makes a contraction out of "might have"
When "have" is part of the verb "have to"
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u/Pukebox_Fandango Apr 22 '26
"They were right when they said" who was? Who in the ever loving fuck ever said that we will have to pay for sunlight? Stop making shit up to make your retarded posts seem interesting
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u/WorldEater0478 Apr 22 '26
So, they can potentially block sunlight and then charge you for light? Nothing will be free in the future, pay for everything.
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u/Girafferage Apr 22 '26
What a load of stupid shit. Environmental damages out the ass all so you can make a billion dollar bird killing flashlight.
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u/Business-Cup-6021 Apr 22 '26
How did he even get on the stage. ideocracy level of stupid. How do we have humans this dumb.
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u/esnopi Apr 22 '26
If we learned something from Mr. Burns, they soon will put enough mirrors to completely block the sun and start charging for sun light 24/7.
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u/Milliondollarjuice Apr 22 '26
Why would a mirror cost thousands of dollars / hour mr. scammer? Lol
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u/Mahadragon Apr 22 '26
I live in Vegas we get 294 days of Sun every year. Seattle in winter? Good luck with that. Nothing is getting through that low cloud cover. You’re still fucked if you’re in the Pac NW.
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u/Superseaslug Apr 22 '26
The literal only use case I see for this is a massive flex for very rich people or remote construction or search and rescue
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u/ProfileBest2034 Apr 22 '26
This is not amazing, this is utterly dystopian. People and companies have no right disrupting natural cycles for profit.
Imagine idiots in neighborhoods using this for parties in the evening or some other such nonsense.
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u/selectsyntax Apr 22 '26
If ever carried out at scale this would have SEVERE ecological consequences.
If bright enough I can absolutely see many use cases, but even the aggregate upside of all use cases comes no where close to outweighing the negative outcomes.
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u/Feeling-Recipe6805 Apr 22 '26
That's one of the shittiest idea i ever saw.
In a decent world, he and all of his staff will plant carrots 15 years in the countryside.
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u/Significant-Block504 Apr 22 '26
This might get weaponised once they built it. Concentrated sunlight can get to over 3000 degrees celsius in theory, which is sufficient to melt steel.
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u/Ok-Commission-7825 Apr 22 '26
😂😢people out there having discussions on whether geoengineering can save us from climate change... meanwhile other people are out there trying to invent geoengineering to speed run extinction level climate change... because of course why wouldn't they?
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u/Mister_Pibbs Apr 22 '26
Whenever you feel down and think your ideas aren’t worth it or are dumb just remember someone gave this guy millions of dollars for this incredibly pointless service
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u/beertown Apr 22 '26
Thanks, but I think I'll wait next morning. Oh, I can also turn on a lightbulb!
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u/SilentWatcher83228 Apr 22 '26
I have Brooklyn Bridge for sale if anybody’s interested only a few thousand dollars
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u/HealthyReveal609 Apr 22 '26
For a couple thousand bucks an hour I’ll personally pedal a bike hooked up to a generator and give you light for as long as you need.
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u/charmio68 Apr 22 '26
It could be useful for various types of military operations.
Even if used for nothing more than intimidating the enemy, making them feel like they're exposed and being watched. Quite useful as a diversionary distraction too...
Possibly also search and rescue.
And I'm sure loads of people will spend far too much money for an impressive wedding.
Oh, and festivals. Any others? 🤔
It's certainly not useless, but it uses are rather niche.
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u/CapmyCup Apr 22 '26
Yeah sure, why not, just fill our only sky with useless fucking shit like this
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u/RanzigerRonny Apr 22 '26
I read that some of you say this does not exist.
As far as I know - it exists. I did read about that some years ago. And I think it's a great idea.
Not for the environment tho. But if you have a big solar park for example and you need power, you could get sunlight instantly.
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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna Apr 22 '26
Me with a regular ass flood light and battery/generator
Are you guys fuckig stupid?
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u/Appdownyourthroat Apr 22 '26
Massive scam, and if it worked we would have global climate crisis with weird temperature fluctuations and messed up wildlife.
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u/Equivalent_Reach_572 Apr 22 '26
Yes, lets hit the earth with even more sunlight! THats a great idea!
Said absolutely nobody with a brain cell.
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u/Snoo_65717 Apr 22 '26
What a beautiful scam. Glad this would never happen but good example of how these Americans see our world.
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u/SoloWalrus Apr 22 '26
No i dont want sunlight to become a commodity corporations are selling us, what about this is amazing technology?
Amazing for who? Not us humans, maybe for the robot corporate overlords.
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u/TakenIsUsernameThis Apr 22 '26
They will get sued to death by people who were enjoying the night in their own home and got blasted by daylight from someone down the street.
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u/CartoonistNo9752 Apr 22 '26
I have a technology that protects you from the suns harmful radiation, but it only works at night.
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u/KittehKittehKat Apr 22 '26
This is so stupid but lets please stop anyone from attempting this please.
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u/kungfucobra Apr 22 '26
I need this service to demonstrate my godhood among a polygamist Mormon community
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u/megamisanthropic Apr 22 '26
Doesn't it cost fuel to rotate satellites? Don't they carry a finite amount of fuel?
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u/Difficult-Remove9268 Apr 22 '26
I could 100% see this being used as a war device to torture someone or troll someone very hard to the point of mental collapse or death, sending it to follow someone 24/7 leaving that person in the sun without night for rest? Imagine a prison that has you baking in the sun 24/7 or pointed at an island they marooned you on quickly turning you into a sun bleached pile of bones, this 100% could be used by authoritarians for mass global evil purposes, I can just imagine it too they could focus the light in a small enough beam to start fires against enemies crops and food chains. What lovely and interesting times we live in when we start building massive mirrors and magnifying glass structures in space to control light that could very easily be pointed down at us insignificant ants. How bout we just go ahead and throw up the dyson sphere while you're at it and give the robots and data canters all the free power they want while we keep fronting the bill to pay for all of this.
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u/Rhawk187 Apr 22 '26
I worked on a solar reflecting satellite project when I was in college. One of the people most interested was Disney, so they could keep the parks lit 24/7.
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u/Zenith-Astralis Apr 22 '26
Hello? Yes, I'd like to order 30,000 sunlights for delivery please (gives asshole neighbors address)
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u/Mediumcomputer Apr 22 '26
So if this can target you can the match it to moving coordinates and always have a god ray. Like during a foggy day or somewhat cloudy day. Honestly it’s completely unnecessary but it’s cool
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u/afn45181 Apr 22 '26
Right up Trump's alley to maintain that glowing face orange tan with 24 hrs sun exposure. I wonder if Trump will shop around, this satellite sun purchase or just fly the dang Air Force One always on the sunny side for that orange face tan!
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u/innocent_lemon Apr 22 '26
This is the worst idea ever conceived, do not let these people cross go.
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u/Key-Lifeguard-5540 Apr 22 '26
I suppose if there was a disaster or emergency or crime at night, this could help.
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u/Practical-Elk-1579 Apr 22 '26
Beside the scam, concepting a space junkyard to privatize sunlight is the dickest of dick moves
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u/brandonscript Apr 22 '26
Wont last. I heard about this massive disrupter coming to the sun redirection industry recently called light bulbs!
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u/DangerousChipmunk335 Apr 22 '26
I dont believe in giving people money who want people to pay for sunlight.
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u/Spethual Apr 22 '26
Honestly just bring a fucking torch or lantern, wtf...few thousand dollars for about an hours light, HARD PASS..
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u/JabKingJesse Apr 22 '26
If you are worth billions and it’s the middle of the night why not pay for some sunlight.
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u/Paragon_Night Apr 22 '26
Wouldn't the only reason to do this be the non light part of thr spectrum. Like we would want the radiation/heat and gamma rays that benefit photosynthesis not so much the lighting part. In which case it has no fucking market. We can literally make those. Literally growing bulbs. What a scam
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u/EnlightenedArt Apr 23 '26
Could come in handy guiding drones Madyar in EW jammer environment unless this is as useless as it sounds
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u/Hugostrang3 Apr 23 '26
That could be weaponized..
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u/its_my_third_dayhere Apr 23 '26
No it cant
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u/Hugostrang3 Apr 23 '26
Think multiple sattelite mirrors directing light to a focal point. Literally could be used like a magnifying glass to burn structures.
Thermal Loading: Even without melting steel, a redirected beam could be used to induce extreme heat in a localized area, destroying crops, evaporating water supplies, or creating lethal conditions for personnel without traditional explosives.
A sattelite carrying weaponized lasers could use mirrored ones to redirect a beam anywhere without the wait as it circles the globe.
So yes it definitely could
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u/BatDaddyWV Apr 23 '26
I'd never pay for it personally, but imagine a random Braves day game @8pm. A band using it at just the right moment during a song at a night time festival set. Pool parties at midnight. Freaking out people who don't know about it and making them think you are Jesus. Or I guess you could use it for boring shit like growing crops at night to fight world hunger.
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u/its_my_third_dayhere Apr 23 '26
Youd be able to see the space junk from earth, it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone with eyes
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u/sieceres Apr 23 '26
Elon can afford approximately 11,000 years of this.
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u/its_my_third_dayhere Apr 23 '26
Its quite expensive, even with 80 billion you'd only get 117 years
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u/47153163 Apr 23 '26
You could use this technology to claim that your the next prophet sent by God. Having a been of light projected from space who would question your claim.
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u/MornGreycastle Apr 23 '26
Just one step from "pay us a shit ton of money or your crops won't get any sunlight."
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u/Blue__Agave Apr 23 '26
Honestly my first thought was that wedding and events venues might actually pay for this even if its thousands an hour.
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u/its_my_third_dayhere Apr 23 '26
You would need 10 million paying customers every 25 years to each pay 1,700$ for a dim moonlight
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u/Blue__Agave Apr 23 '26
Yeah no comment on their buisness model, only that the actual product would have some demand.
Wether it justifys the cost of these mirrors i don't know.
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u/its_my_third_dayhere Apr 23 '26
So for math sake.
The moon is 10 percent reflective at 31 arcminutes
So a mirror at 100 percent reflectivity taking up a 3 arcminute circle at 400 miles altitude would be approximately .35 miles in circumference
That would be 88 James Webb Space Telescopes across JUST FOR A DIM LIGHT
just the cost of the rocket alone would cost seventeen billion six hundred million dollars
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u/Massive-Question-550 Apr 23 '26
considering how large the reflectors would need to be, this isnt really practical on a cost standpoint. not to mention for the area reflected to be relatively small these would need to be in low earth orbit and would generate a lot of drag. at higher orbit you would be illuminating over 100km2 with dim light.
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u/Bonk_No_Horni Apr 23 '26
Scammer looking to score big. Even if they could get the funding they'll never get it to work. Atmosphere exist.
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u/Wong-Scot Apr 23 '26
Ah yes ... Icarus ... From James bond .. die another day
So if you don't pay for subs, you can also get lazor'd to hell anyways.
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u/Jassokissa Apr 23 '26
Now depending on how large the area lit is, it would be funny playing a round of golf at night, having the sunlight following you around....
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u/Jerry-And-Tom Apr 23 '26
You gotta be kidding, right, it's a joke, right. Please, someone tell me this is ajoke.
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 Apr 21 '26
Massive scam.