EARTH TO GET RUSSIAN SPOTLIGHT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 3, 1993                   TAG: 9302030095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short
EARTH TO GET RUSSIAN SPOTLIGHT
Turning night into day is the stuff of Bible stories and science fiction. But tonight, an unmanned Russian spaceship will shine a reflected solar spotlight from the heavens onto the dark side of Earth.
Weather permitting, light from the mirror in the sky should appear as a flaring star to those in the 2 1/2-mile-wide path it will illuminate as it sweeps over the surface of the globe, officials said.
If it works, Operation Banner could lead to the development of panels of space mirrors powerful enough to light up nighttime work projects, rescue operations and sun-starved polar regions - something like a cosmic klieg light.
"Nobody has ever tried this," flight director Viktor Blagov said Tuesday from the flight control center north of Moscow. "We could light up any city at its request from midnight until 6 a.m."
Such practical uses of the night light are still a decade away and face many hurdles, including funding, Blagov said.
The experiment tonight also will test the mirror's use as a "solar sail" that could allow spaceships to harness and ride the solar wind like a sailboat catching the wind on the ocean.
American scientists have toyed with the idea of a solar sail, but never have tried it.
The sail itself is made of Kevlar, an extremely thin but strong material used in bulletproof vests. It is coated with a thin layer of aluminum and shaped like a parachute, 82 feet in diameter.
The sail will be unfurled at 7:40 p.m. from the supply ship Progress as controllers on the ground undock the vessel from the Mir space station, Blagov said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB