Space Mirror Project Scuttled by Mir Crew
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The Mir space station crew abandoned an experiment with a sun-reflecting mirror--a prototype officials had hoped would lead to larger models that could illuminate sun-starved northern cities. The mirror was supposed to work like an artificial moon, reflecting a beam of sunlight across Earth. A deployment mechanism jammed, and scientists could not correct the problem. The Mir crew sent the mirror, attached to a cargo ship filled with trash, into Earth’s atmosphere, where it burned up and dropped into the Pacific Ocean.
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