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Filed Under Science, Alt Japan's LED-stacked cubesat will burn Morse code into the heavens By Jamie Rigg posted Oct 5th 2012 12:53PM Japan's LED-stacked cubesat will burn Morse code into the heavens If you thought cloud writing was cool, then how about a message from space burnt into the night sky? A group of unassuming cubesats recently left the comfort of the ISS and joined Earth's orbit -- among them was FITSAT-1 (aka Niwaka), a four-inch-cubed Japanese satellite covered in high-powered LEDs. Its mission is to broadcast the message "Hi this is Niwaka Japan" in Morse code, using bursts of intense light to draw dots and dashes across the heavens. FITSAT-1 was originally planned to appear only over Japan, but a flurry of interest means it'll be touring the globe, starting next month. It'll also find time for its studies, beaming VGA images snapped with an onboard camera back to Earth, to test a high-speed data transmitter.
Originally posted by Ex_CT2
This is just the thin end of the wedge. In 10 years advertising in the sky will be a commonplace thing. Remember when ads first started showing up on shopping carts? Neither do I. They might as well have been there forever. In 20 years people will have forgotten that there was a time we didn't have ads in the sky. There will be no more quiet walks on the beach looking at the stars. By that time there will be ads on the moon. In 30 years the sky will look like a nighttime Tokyo.
They've been planning it for years. I remember reading wishful articles about it in the 1980s (probably earlier). It's inevitable. Get used to idea; this where it starts....
Originally posted by vox2442
Originally posted by Ex_CT2
This is just the thin end of the wedge. In 10 years advertising in the sky will be a commonplace thing. Remember when ads first started showing up on shopping carts? Neither do I. They might as well have been there forever. In 20 years people will have forgotten that there was a time we didn't have ads in the sky. There will be no more quiet walks on the beach looking at the stars. By that time there will be ads on the moon. In 30 years the sky will look like a nighttime Tokyo.
They've been planning it for years. I remember reading wishful articles about it in the 1980s (probably earlier). It's inevitable. Get used to idea; this where it starts....
Skywriting and banner flights are cheaper by several million dollars - yet when was the last time you even noticed one of those? I can't say I've seen either in about 15 years, and even then it was someone's happy birthday message.
People rarely ever look up. That's why you don't see ads written across the sky now, and why you won't see them in the future.