On Demand Meteor Showers?

A few months ago, I posted about a company that uses cloud seeding to guarantee rain free wedding days but that seems a bit old hat compared to what this Japanese startup hopes to sell.

From Discovery News:

The cubelike satellite that would release the artificial shooting stars is being developed by ALE in conjunction with the outside researchers. The satellite would orbit the Earth from north to south at an altitude of about 250 to 310 miles (400 to 500 km) for months at a time before falling back to Earth and burning up.

ALE is keeping the chemical makeup of the pellets it would launch secret, but the company revealed that it is considering different chemical compositions to create streaks of different colors.

“Making the sky a screen is this project’s biggest attraction as entertainment,” Lena Okajima, the company’s founder and CEO, told AFP. “It’s a space display.” In case of bad weather, the shooting stars could be called off up to 100 minutes before the planned spectacle.

It's interesting to see them pitching it primarily for entertainment when they're estimating a cost of $8,100 per meteor. I suppose there are those who would pay a million dollars for a display of 123 shooting stars and I certainly wouldn't turn down an opportunity to see it (if somebody else was footing the tab).

originally posted by: theantediluvian
A few months ago, I posted about a company that uses cloud seeding to guarantee rain free wedding days but that seems a bit old hat compared to what this Japanese startup hopes to sell.

From Discovery News:

The cubelike satellite that would release the artificial shooting stars is being developed by ALE in conjunction with the outside researchers. The satellite would orbit the Earth from north to south at an altitude of about 250 to 310 miles (400 to 500 km) for months at a time before falling back to Earth and burning up.

ALE is keeping the chemical makeup of the pellets it would launch secret, but the company revealed that it is considering different chemical compositions to create streaks of different colors.

“Making the sky a screen is this project’s biggest attraction as entertainment,” Lena Okajima, the company’s founder and CEO, told AFP. “It’s a space display.” In case of bad weather, the shooting stars could be called off up to 100 minutes before the planned spectacle.

It's interesting to see them pitching it primarily for entertainment when they're estimating a cost of $8,100 per meteor. I suppose there are those who would pay a million dollars for a display of 123 shooting stars and I certainly wouldn't turn down an opportunity to see it (if somebody else was footing the tab).

Cool idea. I think they are going to have an issue with finding buyers though as they can't make it an exclusive event that someone pays for and only they get to see....essentially anyone nearby looking at the sky that night would see it too.

Kudos to the company for trying something new though....that is pretty cool. Shooting stars on demand...I like it.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I don't know about it being difficult to find buyers. Quite honestly, I was surprised the cost was so low. I may not be able to just toss out that kind of cash on my own, but may certainly be able to get others to join in with me to reduce it by percentages. My family and friends all gather our funds together to put on one heck of a fireworks show over the family lake that more and more folks have come to enjoy.

My only drawback would be that there is no guarantee it won't be cloudy and thus viewing would be nada! Lol. Lord knows, it seems every time a good meteor show is predicted in my area, the clouds roll in and conceal it!