It sounds like a James Bond villain's plan: launching a giant mirror into orbit to capture the sun's rays and redirect them to a target on Earth.
Yet, that is exactly what the Russian space agency Roscosmos attempted to do on February 4, 1993.
The goal of the project, called Znamya (which means flag in Russian), was not a sinister plot to blackmail the world.
Its utopian purpose, as host Kate Bellingham explained on the BBC show Tomorrow's World before launch, it was "to illuminate Arctic cities in Siberia during the dark winter months".
Essentially, the mirror was supposed to "turn on" the Sun again for the polar regions of Russia after nightfall.
Even today this seems like an innovative concept, but the idea of using space mirrors to reflect light onto the Earth's surface is actually not new.
As early as 1923, Hermann Oberth, a German physicist and engineer who is considered by many to be the founder of rocketry and astronautics, proposed this in his work "Rocket into Planetary Space".
His book, based on his doctoral dissertation that was rejected by the University of Heidelberg as too improbable, mathematically showed how a rocket could leave Earth's orbit.
This book also considered the possible effects of space travel on the human body, the method of launching satellites into orbit, and, crucially, the concept of creating a network of huge adjustable concave mirrors that would reflect sunlight to specific points on Earth.
Obert concluded that such lighting could help prevent disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, or help rescue survivors.
He also speculated that space mirrors could be used to clear shipping lanes by melting icebergs or even to manipulate Earth's weather.
This idea of space mirrors was revisited by German physicists during World War II.
At the Nazi weapons research center in Hillersleben, scientists worked on designing a terrifying reflective orbiting weapon called the sun rifle or a sun cannon.
The American weekly magazine Time (Team) reported in 1945 that captured German scientists had told American military investigators that the Sonnengewehr was designed to act as a death ray, capable of redirecting sunlight and setting cities on fire or draining water from lakes.
Despite the obvious skepticism of American investigators as they downloaded the technical drawings, German scientists believed their sun cannon could become operational within 50 years, Colonel John Keck, head of Allied technical intelligence, told reporters at the time.
And in the 70s, another German rocket engineer, Kraft Erik, became interested in this concept again.
During World War II, Erik was a member of the German team working on the V-2 rocket.
At the end of the war, he surrendered to the Americans and was recruited as part of a then-secret operation codenamed Stapler (Paperclip), during which 1.600 scientists, engineers, and technicians who were considered valuable were protected from prosecution and secretly transferred from Germany to the United States (USA) where they were allowed to continue their work.
Eric became part of the American space program and in the 70s he re-dedicated himself to the idea of a space mirror.
In 1978, he published a paper detailing how giant orbiting mirrors could illuminate the sky at night, allowing farmers to sow and harvest 24 hours a day, and how sunlight could be directed to solar panels on Earth, where it would be converted into electricity when needed.
He called the idea Power Insole.
Erik, who had been a space travel enthusiast since childhood and a long-time advocate of colonizing other planets, died in 1984, before the concept could be realized. Power Insole.
However, he posthumously fulfilled his long-held desire to travel to space, as his cremated remains were sent into Earth orbit in 1997, along with the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the television series "Star Trek."
The US space agency NASA repeatedly considered the concept of producing solar energy using an orbiting mirror system called Solares during the 80s, but despite government interest, the project never managed to secure funding.
However, in Russia, the idea of solar mirrors has taken root.
Space travel
At the time, Russian scientist Vladimir Syromyatnikov was investigating the possibility of attaching large reflective solar sails to spacecraft.
Siromyatnikov was a pioneer in the development of space technology.
He worked on the Vostok rocket, the first manned spacecraft, in which Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin traveled into space in 1961.
He also developed an advanced spacecraft docking system, the Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APAS).
This mechanism was first used in July 1975 during the Apollo-Soyuz test project, the first joint spaceflight by the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR), which were then in the Cold War.
On that occasion, an American module with three astronauts successfully docked with a Soviet Soyuz launch vehicle, which carried two cosmonauts.
Later, APAS was used to dock American shuttles to the Russian Mir space station, and is still used today to dock modules on the International Space Station (ISS).
Siromyatnikov believed that solar sails, if attached to a spacecraft, could harness solar energy similar to the way ship sails harness wind.
If the reflective sails were tilted correctly, photons, particles of energy coming from the Sun, could bounce off their mirror-like surfaces and gently propel the spacecraft through space, without using fuel.
However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was difficult for Russia to secure funding for ambitious space projects unless they had a clear economic goal.
That's why Siromyatnikov decided to adapt his idea for this purpose.
He concluded that reflective solar sails on an orbiting spacecraft could act as a mirror, with the spacecraft's propulsion systems used to adjust the angle of the sails and maintain synchronization with the position of the Sun.
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This mirror could redirect light to the polar regions of Russia, where days are extremely short during winter, illuminating areas covered in darkness.
Additional sunlight could extend the working day and increase the productivity of agricultural land.
He also believed that additional sunlight could reduce the cost of electric lighting and heating in those areas and improve the quality of life for the population there.
It turned out to be an idea the government was willing to support.
So, with funding from the Space Regatta Consortium, a group of Russian state-owned companies and agencies, and under the supervision of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Siromyatnikov began work on the Znamya space mirror project.
The first prototype, Znamya 1, was never sent into space, but remained on Earth for testing and to allow Siromyatnikov to troubleshoot any technical problems.
The first model to enter orbit was Znamya 2.
The mirror was made of thin sheets of aluminized polyester foil, a lightweight and highly reflective material that was thought to be tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions of space.
It is designed to spread out into eight sections and form a circular shape from a rotating central drum, and to maintain that shape thanks to centrifugal force.
"During flight, the reflector is tightly wrapped around the body of the aircraft, and to open it, the aircraft will have to rotate rapidly, forcing it to open like an umbrella," Kate Bellingham explained on a BBC show in 1992.
"The key is that the reflector, 20 meters wide, at this height will be able to capture the sun's rays that normally do not reach the Earth and reflect them to the dark side of our planet."
Siromyatnikov planned to launch a series of such mirrors, with each version having a larger mirror that would burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
Russian engineers could thus study how thin reflective mirror surfaces behave in space and refine the project.
The ultimate goal was to launch a permanent Flag with a huge reflector 200 meters wide.
Brighter than the moonlight
The ultimate goal was to place a network of as many as 36 of these huge mirrors in space, which could rotate so that the reflected light could remain focused on the same point.
One spotlight would be used to illuminate a specific area.
"On a clear night, a space searchlight could illuminate an area the size of a football stadium, bringing some light into the long winter nights," said Kate Bellingham.
Also, multiple spotlights could focus light on the same point to increase the intensity of the light or to illuminate a wider area together.
Estimates showed that a combined network of space mirrors could reflect light 50 times brighter than the light from the Moon and illuminate an area up to 90 kilometers in diameter.
The project was ready on October 27, 1992, and the unmanned Progress M-15 spacecraft carrying Znamya 2 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
After the transport spacecraft docked with the Russian space station Mir, the crew on board placed a drum of complex reflective solar sheets on the Progress spacecraft.
The Znamya 2 mirror was originally scheduled to be tested later that year, but was delayed while the Mir crew conducted tests for other upcoming missions.
Finally, on February 4, 1993, they were ready to put the plan into action.
The autonomous Progress spacecraft separated from the station, and when it reached a distance of about 150 meters from the Mira station, it began to rotate, opening a mirror like a giant fan, which caught the sun's rays and directed them towards Earth.
The reflected light was approximately equal in intensity to that of a full Moon and created a circle of light about five kilometers in diameter on the Earth's surface.
At a speed of eight kilometers per second, the beam of light rushed from southern France, through Switzerland, Germany, and Poland, all the way to western Russia.
The crew on the Mir station managed to see a faint beam of light as it passed over Europe, and despite much of the continent being covered in clouds that day, some people on Earth reported seeing it as a flash of light.
After a few hours, the space mirror deorbited and burned up upon re-entry into the atmosphere over Canada.
In Russia, the Znamya 2 experiment was declared a technical success, but it also highlighted serious problems with the project.
The reflected light was far weaker than expected and too diffuse to practically illuminate a large area on Earth.
Also, maintaining the stability of the Znamya 2 mirror in orbit proved to be a problem, and its light beam moved too quickly across the Earth's surface, which limited possible practical applications.
Nevertheless, the mission yielded useful data and encouraging results, so Siromyatnikov continued to plan the next experiment - Znamya 2.5.
This time, the mirror was supposed to be 25 meters in diameter and reflect light between five and ten times the intensity of the full moon, creating a circle of light eight kilometers in diameter.
The goal was to control the direction of the reflected light so that a specific area on Earth would be illuminated for a few minutes as Znamya 2.5 orbited the planet.
Several cities in Europe, as well as two cities in North America, were selected for the 24-hour experiment, which would be illuminated by sunlight reflected from space.
Siromyatnikov was encouraged by the progress his team had made, and the launch was planned for October 1998.
"We are pioneers in this field," he told The Moscow Times, an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper, in July 1998.
"If the experiment goes according to plan, we intend to send dozens of these spacecraft into space permanently in the future."
Events on Earth
But even before Znamya 2.5 took off, Russian space program officials began receiving complaints.
Astronomers worried that the mirror would pollute the night sky with light and that it would blind their telescopes and make it difficult to observe the stars.
The Royal Astronomical Society even sent a letter of protest to the director of the Space Regatta Consortium regarding the experiment.
Environmentalists have also expressed concerns that the artificial light from this mirror could confuse animals and plants and disrupt wildlife and natural cycles.
Despite these concerns, the Znamja project has attracted great attention and caused excitement around the world.
"Think about what this will mean for the future of humanity," Syromyatnikov told The Moscow Times.
"No more electricity bills, no more long, dark winters."
"This is a serious technological breakthrough."
And so the launch of Znamya 2.5 proceeded as planned, and the larger space mirror was ready to deploy on February 5, 1999.
The mission was monitored from the Control Center in Moscow.
At first, everything went according to plan; the folded space mirror was attached to the Progress spacecraft, which separated from the Mira station without any problems.
It successfully took the desired position outside the space station, the command was given to fire the Progress spacecraft's engines, and it began to rotate to unroll the mirror's aluminum foil.
Unfortunately, at the same time, an additional command was mistakenly sent to Progress to eject the antenna used for communications during docking.
As the antenna was raised, the thin reflective sheets of the Znamja 2.5 quickly tangled around it.
The team at Mission Control in Moscow watched in disbelief as images of the tangled mirror came from the Mira station, frantically giving orders to retract the antenna.
However, by that point, several meters of foil had already wrapped around it, damaging the mirror in several places.
Realizing that there was a risk of further tearing of the reflective layers, the team stopped issuing the command to retract the antenna.
An hour later, an attempt was made to free the mirror by rotating the aircraft, but to no avail.
Mission Control humbly admitted that the torn and crumpled Znamya 2.5 mirror would not be able to unroll, so it allowed it to fall to Earth still attached to the Progress spacecraft.
The next day it burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
"The atmosphere here is very depressing," Valery Lindin, a spokesman for the Mission Control Center in Moscow, told the BBC at the time.
By falling to Earth, not only the Znamya 2.5 mirror was destroyed, but also the future of Siromjatnik's idealistic space mirror project.
His planned version of Znamya 3 with a 70-meter reflective surface, which was to be launched in 2001, failed to secure the necessary funding and was never built.
Siromyatnikov, who was widely recognized as one of the outstanding space engineers of his generation, died in 2006, his dreams of solar sails and mirrors remaining unfulfilled.
"The failure was particularly painful because of the enormous interest in the world in this experiment," Lindin told the BBC in 1999.
"We have forgotten the old principle of the Russian space program - to do something first, and only then boast."
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