The concept of illuminating the darkest areas of the USSR was a bold one, and it was with this goal in mind that the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos launched the ZNamya project, or “banner,” three decades ago. This ambitious plan aimed to capture the sun’s rays from space and redirect them to the earth, specifically to Siberia, a region that spans 13.1 million square kilometers in the eastern part of Russia. Due to its latitude, Siberia experiences very few hours of light, especially during the winter months, which affects both agricultural productivity and life in cities.
The brain behind the initiative was Vladimir Syromyatnikov, a highly respected chief engineer who had worked on key projects such as the Vostok ship, which put the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit. Syromyatnikov was also responsible for designing coupling mechanisms that are still in use in space missions today. His vision for the ZNamya project was to mitigate the problem of lack of lighting in Siberia, and he had a unique idea to achieve this.
## Two launches
The ZNamya project emerged during a time when Soviet leaders were seeking to expand the working day to maximize productivity. Syromyatnikov saw an opportunity and adapted his original idea of propelling spacecraft without fuel using reflective candles, which helped him secure the necessary funding to develop his proposal. He thought that these reflective candles could be synchronized with the position of the sun and direct light to specific areas of the Earth. With this concept, he designed a 20-meter wide mylar sheet that would act as a mirror to reflect sunlight.
While the first prototype remained on Earth for testing, the second, called Znamya 2, was sent to space. On February 4, 1993, the Znamya 2 satellite was successfully deployed, projecting a beam of light two or three times brighter than the moon, and about five kilometers wide, over Russian territory. However, a few hours later, the satellite lost its orbit and ended up disintegrating when entering the atmosphere. Although it was an experiment, the results showed that the reflected light was less intense than expected and not very practical for the initial purpose.
Despite this setback, Syromyatnikov got a second chance with the launch of the Progress ship that transported ZNAMYA 2.5 in February 1999. This version had a 25-meter mirror with greater power than its predecessor. However, a failure in the deployment caused the candle to be trapped in the propellants, which prevented its operation and led to the definitive cancellation of the project. According to a tweet from a user, the Znamya project was an interesting example of the innovative solutions explored during the Soviet era.
The project’s failure did not diminish the significance of Syromyatnikov’s vision, which continues to inspire new generations of engineers and scientists working on innovative solutions to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
