It’s been a long time since citizens of the United States stared at the night sky and feared the Russian menace. That used to be all we did, from 1957, when Russia beat us to the heavens by launching Sputnik, until the end of the Cold War, when we knew there was no longer a threat of nuclear missiles raining down from above.
That is no longer the case, though. We currently rely on our one-time nemesis to send our astronauts and cargo into space, and now, every time we look up, we will see a sign of Russian dominance.
Maruk is a private, crowd-funded satellite, which will be the brightest object (excluding the moon) in the night sky.
The satellite has no purpose other than to reflect the sun. It’s shaped like a pyramid and made up of a reflective polymer, which is twenty times thinner than the average human hair. It will circle the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning that it will be visible in different parts of the sky on different nights, even brighter than Sirius.
The group raised $23,000 for the project, with the hope that the launch would inspire more people to look toward the heavens and wonder about the possibilities, such as eventually creating a world of permanent daylight in our future dystopia.
Neat-o!
It will launch this summer.
[Via Daily Mail]