(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — Imagine you’re out on a warm Simi evening, grilling with friends in your backyard. The sun dips behind the hills, and suddenly—without warning—the sky glows again. Not from streetlights, not from a full moon, but from an actual beam of redirected sunlight.
It sounds like science fiction, but a California startup called Reflect Orbital insists it’s on the verge of making this a reality. Their goal? To sell sunlight after dark, using orbiting mirrors to bounce solar energy back to Earth.
The concept is as ambitious as it is bizarre. The company, founded by Stanford dropout Tristan Semmelhack and engineer Ben Nowack, plans to launch 57 satellites into orbit, each carrying 33-foot-wide Mylar mirrors designed to reflect sunlight back to specific locations. The idea is to provide extra daylight when and where it’s needed most, particularly for solar farms and industries that depend on long hours of light.
“We’re selling sunlight,” Semmelhack said in an interview, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You don’t have to wait for the sun to rise anymore. We can beam it wherever and whenever you need it.”
Skeptics have been quick to pounce. Critics on Hacker News, a popular forum for engineers, have raised questions about whether there are even enough paying customers to justify the project. With most of the Earth’s surface covered in water or uninhabited land, there’s a strong chance these high-tech sunbeams will often be shining on empty deserts or the middle of the Pacific Ocean instead of places that actually need light.
There’s also the issue of light pollution, a concern that’s already sparked debate. Some people fear a world where their peaceful night sky is suddenly interrupted by unexpected bursts of artificial daylight. One online commenter joked, “What happens when the local golf course orders some ‘nightshine’ and suddenly my backyard looks like it’s under a police helicopter?”
Reflect Orbital insists these concerns are overblown. They’ve secured $8.7 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, the same firm that bet early on SpaceX. They’re also working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to fine-tune the technology, ensuring that issues like atmospheric scattering, cloud interference, and precise targeting don’t ruin their ambitious plans. While some light will inevitably be lost to the atmosphere, they believe they can efficiently beam solar energy across vast distances with minimal waste.
The big question is: Could this actually change life in the suburbs?
If Reflect Orbital’s technology works, it could have a massive impact. Solar farms in Simi Valley, Moorpark and surrounding areas could get extra energy after sunset, extending their power production beyond normal daylight hours. Construction projects that normally shut down at night could continue working under natural sunlight instead of artificial lights. Even the city’s streetlights could eventually be replaced with beams of real sunlight, cutting energy costs while keeping neighborhoods bright.
But not everyone is convinced. Ethan Reyes, a mechanical engineering student, is fascinated by the concept but questions the practicality of beaming sunlight from space.
“It’s a cool idea, no doubt,” Reyes said. “But the physics of keeping a mirror stable in orbit and reflecting sunlight precisely to a moving target on Earth? That’s an engineering nightmare. The slightest miscalculation and you could end up lighting up the wrong place entirely. Imagine ordering a beam for your farm and accidentally lighting up a Walmart parking lot 10 miles away.”
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to pull off an idea like this. In the 1990s, the Soviet Union tested a similar project called Znamya, attempting to reflect sunlight back to Earth. The first experiment produced a spotlight as bright as the full moon, but the second attempt failed spectacularly when the mirror ripped apart before deployment.
Reflect Orbital is hoping to avoid that fate. Their first prototype launch is set for 2025, and if successful, they believe it could fundamentally change how the world thinks about light and energy.
Until then, Simi residents can only wonder—what would it feel like to look up at the night sky and see a beam of sunlight where no sun should be? If Reflect Orbital pulls this off, the way we think about daylight, energy, and the night itself may never be the same again.
