Moonvertising! Is it for real?

[Mijin]

It’s funny, it seems intuitively feasible, doesn’t it? The moon seems like a little rock not very far away.
When I opened this thread I immediately thought “advertising on the moon, really!?” then immediately realised how gullible I was being.

@Krokodil

Let’s say it is. They could project a message on the Moon’s surface. You wouldn’t be able to clearly see it without a telescope.

…

If an image were feasible, it would have to be a very simple one, like the Volkswagen logo and no info about any of their products. VW has better, cheaper venues for advertising.

Advertising on the moon would bring incredible exposure to the product, even if it was a tiny blip that you needed a $1000 telescope to see.
But yeah, at all-the-money-in-the-world, it’s not the most cost-effective means of advertising…

[tanstaafl]

@panache45

Read Asimov’s story, “Buy Jupiter!”

Or Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon. (He was using black dust instead of a laser, but still…)

[Chronos]

Or Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon. (He was using black dust instead of a laser, but still…)

Actually, the way Heinlein’s hero did it, it required (almost) no effort at all, since what he actually sold was the rights to not use the Moon for advertising. So he got the money, the company involved got publicity, and nobody had to do anything with the actual Moon itself.

To put things in perspective, NASA does shine lasers at the moon, and get reflected light back. But they have to bounce the light off of mirrored retroreflectors left behind by the Apollo astronauts, and use a huge telescope to detect the reflections, and they still count the reflection in terms of individual photons that they get back.

[Apollyon]

@tanstaafl

Or Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon. (He was using black dust instead of a laser, but still…)

Or Roger McGough’s poem "Mad Ad ".

(Hideous page, but figured I shouldn’t repost the poem here – it’s on the right side, second poem down under McGough’s name).

[Schnitte]

Of course Wiki has an article on it, complete with references to legislation.

U.S. Code, Title 49, Section 70102

In this chapter-

[…]

(8) “obtrusive space advertising” means advertising in outer
space that is capable of being recognized by a human being on the
surface of the Earth without the aid of a telescope or other
technological device.

And later on, there’s

U.S. Code, Title 49, Section 70109a

Section 70109a. Space advertising

  (a) Licensing. - Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter
or any other provision of law, the Secretary may not, for the
launch of a payload containing any material to be used for the
purposes of obtrusive space advertising - 
    (1) issue or transfer a license under this chapter; or
    (2) waive the license requirements of this chapter.

  (b) Launching. - No holder of a license under this chapter may
launch a payload containing any material to be used for purposes of
obtrusive space advertising.
  (c) Commercial Space Advertising. - Nothing in this section shall
apply to nonobtrusive commercial space advertising, including
advertising on - 
    (1) commercial space transportation vehicles;
    (2) space infrastructure payloads;
    (3) space launch facilities; and
    (4) launch support facilities.

Agree, it doesn’t seem to ban projecting images on the moon from the Earth, but at least the issue of commercial space advertising is covered.

[ChrisBooth12]

(1) commercial space transportation vehicles;
wait so that means that commercial space travel cant happen unless that gets recharted?

[Chronos]

wait so that means that commercial space travel cant happen unless that gets recharted?

Quite the opposite. What that’s saying is that that statute has no problem with commercial space vehicles with advertising on them. Presumably, there would also be no problem with commercial vehicles without advertising.

[nd_n8]

So, if a company wanted to print “Budweiser” or “Verizon” on one side of the ISS and had the money to do it they could?

Whose authorization would that involve (assuming the country building that particular module already authorized it)? Would the other ISS people have to approve it as well?