Advertising haunts us everywhere: in newspapers, on the streets, on TV, on the Internet and even inside virtual reality. It seems that very soon we will see advertisements even in the night sky - this is the technology that the Russian company StartRocket intends to launch. She wants to deploy satellites in low-earth orbit with reflective sails, from which advertising slogans will be composed. It is easy to guess that there are a lot of opponents of such an idea in the world, and astronomers are most indignant.
Orbital advertising is planned to be deployed at an altitude of 400-500 kilometers - each reflective satellite 10 meters in diameter will play the role of a pixel that makes up a text or drawing. Since the brightness of the 50 sq. Km image will directly depend on the sun, the ads will be visible only at dawn and dusk - the company intends to display 2-4 ads per day. Advertising, which will be seen by millions of people, will cost truly cosmic money - 600 thousand dollars per impression.
The satellites will shine about the same as the moon. Astronomers fear that this will prevent them from conducting research using ground-based telescopes. For example, astronomer John Barentin shared his concerns:
Each of these moving reflections in the night sky is something that can prevent us from collecting photons from astronomical sources.
If space announcements take root, scientists will be forced to use orbiting satellites. There will be too many of them, which will greatly increase the risk of their collision. Subsequently, there will be more space debris in the Earth's orbit, which is already so much that scientists from China propose to destroy it with lasers.
Promotional video:
StartRocket founder comment
The editorial staff of Hi-News contacted the founder of the startup Vladilen Sitnikov and found out how he feels about criticism from astronomers. He is confident that they will not interfere with the conduct of research, and made several arguments. First, the orbital advertisement will be shown for 6 minutes - during this time astronomers will be able to relax and drink coffee. Secondly, research is usually carried out in remote areas, while satellites will be located only over populated cities. Thirdly, observations are carried out over certain areas of the sky, and the probability that there will be advertising there is extremely small. In any case, the company will be able to remotely close the reflectors when complaints are received.
The entrepreneur also recalled Elon Musk's project to create Starlink satellite Internet, which implies the launch of 12,000 inexpensive satellites:
Similar projects
Interestingly, StartRocket is not the first startup intending to leave unusual devices in orbit. In October 2018, researchers from China proposed sending an artificial moon into space, which will illuminate the streets of Chengdu at night. It is believed that such a satellite will reduce energy costs. The technology is planned to be tested in 2020.
As for StartRocket, it does not yet have investors and the company is looking for them. In October, it intends to create and prepare satellites for test launches in January 2021.
Ramis Ganiev