Artist rendition of Earendil deploying in orbit.
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In response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval in early July [pdf] allowing the startup Reflect Orbital to fly a demo mission, dubbed Earendil-1, to test a mirror for providing sunlight to any place on Earth, as needed, activist groups have now filed a petition with FCC opposing this mission.

Four environmental organizations filed a petition Thursday asking the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its approval of a startup’s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space to Earth, arguing the agency ignored the project’s potential impacts on wildlife, astronomy research and eye safety.

DarkSky International, Environment America, the American Bird Conservancy and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility called on the FCC to overturn a decision last month authorizing Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 demonstration satellite, which will carry a 59-foot-wide mirror to reflect sunlight onto a specific spot on the planet during periods of darkness.

While the FCC approved only a single test mission, the groups argue it could pave the way for a much larger constellation of satellites in the future.

From an altitude of 400 miles Earendil-1 will try to reflect sunlight into a specific area on Earth at night, focusing a beam of light on an area about 3.1 miles wide.

I missed this FCC approval of Reflect Orbital’s demo mission last month. When the FCC approved it, it went into great detail about why it rejected similar objections, noting repeatedly that these objections were outside its statutory authority. First, it was asked for approve this single demo mission, not the entire constellation, so any objections to the entire constellation were irrelevant. Second, its authority involved use of spectrum for communications, not environmental concerns, and the demo mission’s plans did nothing to harm other communications. Finally, the FCC went into great detail discussing these objections anyway, and found them wanting.

Reflect Orbital hopes to build a 50,000 constellation of such mirror satellites if the demo mission proves the technology and it can then raise the necessary investment capital. At this moment this possibility is merely a proposal and hardly a reality. Before such a constellation is finally approved it certainly will have to demonstrate its ability to mitigate any of these issues, since it will be beaming heat and light down to Earth. The demo mission will help do so.

Nonetheless, the same players who object to every new orbital constellation as well as every new technology anywhere are back again, attempting to use the law to force their Luddite desires on everyone else. Make no mistake, these groups represent few people and are typical “watermelon” leftist environmental activists — green on the outside and red on the inside. Rather than work with Reflect Orbital to mitigate their concerns, they want to use the blunt arm of the law to smash a boot into the face of the company.