A Nipponese caller has announce that it wants to create artificial meteor shower , andsome reportsindicate they may do so during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics .
The company is called Star - ALE , and their goal is to found a ballistic capsule that releases pellet – each costing $ 8,000 – in low-pitched Earth orbit . As the pellets re - recruit the air , they burn and produce a flash of luminousness similar to that created by lifelike meteors .
The projection is known asSky Canvas , with the space vehicle being lade with 500 to 1,000 of these spherical pellets . In lab tests , the company found they could deepen the color of the meteors by using dissimilar elements . Lithium will shine pink , for object lesson , while copper will radiate green .
Now , we ab initio report on this proposal inJune of last year , but it ’s doing the rounds again owing to this link to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics . A spokesperson from the company told us that while they want to aim for the Olympics , it had not been settle yet that they would be working with them . “ Therefore clause arrogate that we ' want ' to provide shooting stars for the Olympics are unfeigned , but those that take that we ' will ' or ' have proposed to ' are no , ” the spokesperson said .
What ison the table , though , is that Star - ALE wants to launch a demonstration spacecraft as early as next twelvemonth . The shot will burn up in the atmosphere at an altitude of about 60 to 80 kilometers ( 35 to 50 miles ) , and they ’ll be seeable on the ground across an arena span 200 kilometer ( 125 miles ) , 400 prison term wide-cut than a pyrotechnic exploding at an altitude of 500 meters ( 1,640 fundament ) .
Each meteor would apparently shine with a magnitude of about -1 , which is brighter than Sirius , the bright star in the night sky . The company said that 30 million multitude in Tokyo would see the meteoroid .
“ When the orbiter stabilizes in ambit , we will discharge the particles using a peculiarly design machine on board , ” the company said on itswebsite . “ The particle will travel about one - third of the way around the Earth and enter the atmosphere . It will then begin plasma emission and become a shooting star . ”
You may be wonder what the point of all this is . After all , 1,000 pellets would cost $ 8 million , a rather sizeable toll , and that ’s not even including the cost of prepare the spacecraft or launching price . However , the company ’s founder hopes that the project can inspire more investment in space - based scientific inquiry .
“ This type of project is new in the gumption in that it mix astronomy and the entertainment business concern , ” said CEO Dr. Lena Okajima , reportedCore 77 . “ These shooting stars that are born through scientific discipline subprogram as a eminent - profit entertainment business , and the resulting finances will serve to further supercharge fundamental scientific research . ”
We ’ll have to expect and see if that ’s the case . Still , it ’s a pretty neat approximation disregarding .
