The Japanese start-up company Sky Canvas plans to sell colorful artificial meteor showers launched from satellites.
Sky Canvas plans to create the first orchestrated artificial meteor shower, then sell the display to any interested party. The company hopes to have one of its first demonstrations at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Sky Canvas’s first satellite launch is scheduled to occur in late 2017.
“I’m very excited about this project, not only because it will turn my childhood dream into a reality, but also because it can contribute to fundamental scientific research in a new form without relying on public funds and donations,” Lena Okajima, who started the company and is funding the project, told Universe Today.
WATCH:
The company’s satellite will launch tiny pellets that will turn blue, orange and green when entering the atmosphere, creating a display that should be visible from 120 miles away. Each satellite launched by the company will carry about 300-500 pellets. Each pellet would be about as visible in the night sky as some of the brighter stars.
Such a display would be relatively cheap, costing about $8 million, or about $16,000 per artificial meteor.
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