## 1 Introduction  
Since the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched in 1957, more than 5560 successful launched operations occurred, which means about 9600 satellites in their orbits around the Earth's. The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Space Debris Office estimated that about 5500 of these satellites were in space until February 2020, while 2300 were still functioning [1], most of which are low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These satellites operate fairly close to the surface of the Earth, between 500 and 2000 km. Because the number of artificial satellites in the Earth's orbit is increasing, their life-time must increase so that the quantity of space debris will not increase in a way that will affect space security, i.e., collision between satellites or spacecraft [2]. A satellite's operational life is measured also taking into account the quantity of propellant taken onboard and utilized for the orbit-position correction system, attitude control and specific maneuvers on the orbit. The efficiency of these correction systems depends on the propulsion system type. The most common types are cold gas propulsion systems, chemical propulsion, electric propulsion, propellantless propulsion systems--solar sails and solar thermal propulsion, etc. More details about this propulsion systems can be found in [3; 4; 5]. There is an increasing effort to develop correction systems with an increased efficiency by utilizing energy outside the satellite, e.g., the solar energy for solar sails [6; 7] or solar energy for solar-thermal propulsion [8]. Furthermore, the operational life increase of the satellite leads to environmental protection, the saving of energy, materials, manpower and finally, cost saving. The use of solar energy in the cosmic space was imagined for propulsion systems fitted with a mirror [9] but also for other activities, e.g., space solar power satellite [10] or a specific surface illumination [11]. The idea of a mirror in space to reflect sunlight and thus generate power and light on Earth was proposed in 1928 by [PERSON] who postulated a space-manufactured 5 mm-thick mirror using sodium for the reflective layer, orbiting Earth at a 1000-5000 km altitude [12]. Across time, various solar concentration schemes have been proposed, including lenses, deployable arrays and inflatable arrays [13; 14; 15]. A very comprehensive conceptual, technical and socio-economic study and the exhibition of space mirrors was conducted by the space visionary [PERSON] [16]. He proposed and analyzed in some detail a number of generic applications for providing lunar-type night illumination service (\"Lunetta\"), solar-type light energy services (\"Soletta\"), insolation for bio-production enhancement (\"Biosoletta\") to produce food and biomass, insolation for agricultural weather stabilization, precipitation management, crop drying and desalination (\"Agrisoletta\") and insolation for generating electricity on earth (\"Powersoletta\"). A significant brief step in the development of space mirrors was the Russian Space Mirror Project \"Znamya\" (banner) developed by the \"Space Regatta Consortium\" (SRC) established in 1990 by the Russian Space Agency and the corporation Energia [17]. Detailed information about the Znamya experiments is somewhat sparse [18]. Research on solar-thermal propulsion has been conducted for more than 60 years [19], yet no flight testing has been achieved. An overview of the milestones and program associated with solar-thermal technology since the advent of the technology in 1956 is provided [20]. The solar-thermal propulsion concept is a fairly basic one, relying on highly concentrated sunlight to heat a monopropellant to very high temperatures (typically approaching 3000 K) and subsequently exhausting the propellant through a discharge nozzle to provide thrust.