Japan Launches Morse Code LED Cubesats

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.

source:
www.engadget.com...






For people who don't know much about space this will confuse allot of people who will think this is some kinda UFO.

I can see this progressing into advertising in the sky. Oh great now we will have Tokyo in the sky, not that Tokyo is a bad place I just don't think this belongs in the sky.

I can see this perhaps being the end to star gazing or at least having a quiet night time walk on a cloudy night. "This moment is brought to you by..." as they get more and more successful at this technology.

Sure hope not and this is just my paranoia...

Maybe it can be hacked and shutdown!!! I would hate to watch commercials in the sky while star gazing!!!

Beacon CW 437.250Mhz
Packet 437.445Mhz
Picture Data 5.840GHz

I really doubt that people would even notice it as advertising. To my knowledge, not that many people understand Morse code on the fly. To 99% of the world's population it would just look like a blinking speck moving across the sky. As the original poster stated, some may even think it's a UFO.

And I'm sure if it were hacked, even if it could, whoever responsible would just put their name or organization name on it (if not something obscene). Hackers tend to have far too much ego to let an opportunity like that pass them by.

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


Its not advertising yes you are right. But it will lead into advertising.

Please make sure you read thoroughly next time.

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 Ginza district.

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 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.

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.

Um. Yeah. Place your bets against Japanese eye-assaults now. They don't care what it costs. They just love to do that sort of thing because they love to do that sort of thing. It's as if they're helpless against their own love of gaudiness....

I wonder who will be the first to file a law suit on FITSAT-1 for causing car accidents!
Imagine while driving. then a blinking light in the sky catches your eye .... you look up then BANG!!!! instant whiplash, car damage etc.. $$$$

This is why Google wants to drive your car!!!!

once they are up there they will pay for them selfs think.
Coco-Cola, Pepsi... all the companies you can think of up in the sky.

There would be allot of money to be made from this.

reply to post by amraks


Will it? Can you guarantee that? Or is that just your take on it? Because nothing in the article mentions advertising. The closest it comes is when it mentions sky-writing, and that isn't even in context of advertising. How often is that used as a medium for advertising?

Please make sure you don't jump to your own conclusions so quickly next time.

reply to post by vox2442



Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this as a method of advertising is completely ludicrous!

reply to post by Ex_CT2


That's um... That's kind of racist. ALL people are like moths to bright lights. You can find examples of cities with tons of neon lights in pretty much every industrialized nation on this planet. It isn't just something the Japanese do.