Lunarpunk

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Lunarpunk is a subgenre of solarpunk with a darker aesthetic. It portrays the nightlife, spirituality, and more introspective side of solarpunk utopias. It can be defined as "Witchy Solarpunk." Aesthetically, lunarpunk usually is presented with pinks, purples, blues, black, and silver with an almost omnipresence of bioluminescent plants and especially mushrooms

What is Lunarpunk, And Can It Fix Solarpunk’s Problems?

Solarpunk Station - What is Lunarpunk?

What is lunarpunk? - Solarpunk Druid

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This Company Wants To Turn the Night Sky Into a Giant Solar Panel (www.vice.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by SteveKLord@slrpnk.net to c/lunar_punk@slrpnk.net

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By 2030, a California startup called Reflect Orbital wants to fill the night sky with 4,000 orbiting mirrors that bounce sunlight back to Earth.

The plan is to use what essentially amounts to space-based disco balls to keep solar farms glowing after dark. The company swears it’s the next step in renewable energy. Astronomers and ecologists disagree.

The project’s first test run, a satellite named EARENDIL-1, is slated for launch in 2026. It’ll unfold a 3,600-square-foot mirror in orbit to reflect sunlight toward targeted solar farms. Reflect Orbital promises “continuous, reliable access to energy, day or night, to increase power generation.”

Astronomers warn that an army of orbiting mirrors would effectively make it “full Moon bright” every night, drowning out faint celestial objects. That’s catastrophic for observatories and not great for wildlife either. Countless species depend on natural darkness to migrate, feed, and reproduce.

Reflect Orbital’s FCC application is still pending. If approved, it could mark the dawn of a new era of perpetual daylight that will disrupt earthly nightlife as never before.

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[–] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I read a pretty compelling analysis that this is very, very, bad.

The negative consequences include making it unsafe to look through a telescope at the sky, utterly confusing billions of animals that have evolved for a specific nighttime light cycle, while increasing the likelihood of a Kessler cataclysm that renders orbit unusable for decades.

The positive benefits are nothing: the amount of power this light would provide is entirely negligible to a solar farm.

[–] SteveKLord@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 weeks ago

I think you summed it up pretty well and that all sounds very accurate. There are enough green energy solutions out there that we shouldn't have to sacrifice all the things you mentioned. I'm not reading much in the ways it would be beneficial or necessary.