In 1999, astronauts on the orbiting Mir space station unravelled a mirror made of plastic coated in aluminium. Once deployed, the aluminium was 25 metres across, with a fan-like structure, and was able to shine light down to the Earth’s surface. The experiment ran for 18 hours, during which time Mir circumnavigated the Earth 12 times.

The Russians believed there would be potential benefits, including illuminating the scenes of natural disasters during hours of darkness such as earthquakes. Since then, more countries have joined this type of experiment, most recently China.

According to trtworld.com, China takes energy just as seriously and is already competing with Russia for conventional nuclear energy.  On December 4, 2020, China turned on its “artificial sun” for the first time using a Russian-designed reactor it has been improving for some time. While China is working in collaboration with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and is joined by 35 other countries, the race to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor is still very much an individual one for China.

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