In my sociology class today my teacher was telling us of a company that has the capabilities to develop huge Mylar Billboards in outerspace and that can be seen by the naked eye here on Earth. How long will it be before these billboards actually become constructed? Is this even possible or is it just an urban myth? Thanks
I don’t see it. Even at LEO (low Earth orbit) levels, the thing would have to be HUGE to be easily seen from the ground. And even though the atmosphere is thin there, there would be enough drag on what amounts to a giant parachute to require large amounts of energy to maintain a stable orbit. Farther out, the air density begins to approach interplanetary levels witha corresponding decrease in drag, however, the size of the billboard must increase proportionally. There are massive engineering headaches to be overcome before such a thing is possible. I don’t think anyone can do it today, at least not practically.
This is not a new idea. Here are a couple of links from a few years ago, one from a science forum and one from a an Indiana U. online law jouranal:
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=3650
http://law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v47/no3/tomlin.html
I recall hearing about it on the news, but I can’t find a news source through searching right now.
IIRC it would not be intended to last indefinately, i.e. the low-orbit problem of falling out of the sky is known and accounted for in the plans. IIRC, it would appear to be about as wide as the moon and stay up for a month or so. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this thread.
(I love it. I’d love to see it done at least once. They can ban it after that, but I would love to actually see it done at least once.)
That’s not very big. I was thinking more along the lines of something that had an apparent size similar to a 3x5 card held at arm’s length–something you could actually print a naked-eye readable message on.
It would have to be as big as the Great Wall of china, which we all know is the only man made object that can be seen from orbit. :rolleyes:
Right?
Right?
Where’d everyone go?
If I’m recalling correctly. I got the impression it would be like cutting off the top third and bottom third of the moon and writing “PEPSI” on it. I can’t even think of how big the moon appears. Seems like they could legibly print a word on it.
FWIW, here is a size reference from “The International Dark Sky Association”:
Sounds like something that Cristo would try. Did I spell that right?
Who can ban it after that?
What government or inter-governmental body has authority over outer space that they could make such a ban?
Now, since only the USA & Soviet Union & maybe EU actually have working space programs that could send a rocket out there, if they refused to cooperate they could effectively prevent such outer-space advertising. But that’s not really a legal ‘ban’.
Depends on whether Bush can get Star Wars back on track…
Seriously, I have no idea nor do I care. I just know that I want to see it at least once before do-gooders, public outrage, or whoever prevents it from occuring in my lifetime.
Apparently you’ve never read “The Man who Sold the Moon”, by Robert A. Heinlein. One of the gimmicks the protagonist uses to fund his private Moon flight is selling space on the Moon to not use for advertising.