# What would the mass of the "Orbital Billboard" have been? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989 "2015-11-08T03:44:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/1 "2015-11-08T03:44:58Z")
About twenty years ago, a company called [Space Marketing, Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_advertising) had a plan for “space billboard” satellites—basically, a mile-long mylar banner that would be unfurled in Low Earth Orbit. Printed with a [distinctive logo licensed by an advertiser](https://books.google.com/books?id=4-MDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13&dq=%22space+marketing+inc%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEMQ6AEwB2oVChMIrrLJh_D_yAIVhJSICh3-ggF1#v=onepage&q=%22space%20marketing%20inc%22&f=false), the thing would appear to be about a third the size of a full moon to an observer on Earth, and would reenter the atmosphere and burn up after a few weeks. For various reasons, including threats of legislation, the project never got off the ground. But my question is…what would the mass of such a billboard have been? What technical information I’ve been able to glean from various sources online say that the billboard would have basically been something resembling a “life raft”—a one mile long, 1/2 mile wide mylar sheet, bordered by an inflatable mylar “tube.” When the tube was inflated, it would stretch the billboard out to full size. My problem is that I have no idea how much that much material would mass, even a ballbark figure, let alone how much mass the non-billboard equipment of the satellite would take up. Space Marketing Inc. never even had a potential launch vehicle selected, AFAIK. So, I’m asking anyone with a better handle of the subject than I…what would have been the approximate launch weight of the Penultimate Pepsi Ad? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/2 "2015-11-08T04:21:51Z")
From [here](http://www.gwtwforum.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=6134.0), .06mil mylar weighs 7/1000 of an ounce per square foot. A 1/2 mile square piece of this would weigh 5280 \* 2640 \* .007 = 97,574 ounces or 6,098 pounds - around 3 tons. Figure on around twice that for the edges and miscellaneous material, so 6-10 tons. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/3 "2015-11-08T05:44:33Z")
According to NASA it currently costs about $10,000 per pound to put something into orbit. From here (interesting article, they hope to get the cost down to hundreds of dollars per pound by 2050): [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/astp.html\_prt.htm](http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/astp.html_prt.htm) So figuring 6 to 10 tons, the price tag is roughly $120 to $200 million dollars just to put the sign up into orbit. That doesn’t include the cost of developing and building the sign itself. Expensive billboard. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/4 "2015-11-08T06:03:07Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > According to NASA it currently costs about $10,000 per pound to put something into orbit. That’s NASA’s cost. The Ukrainian Zenit 2M is $1500 per pound to orbit putting the launch cost at a more reasonable $30 million. $30 million is not that much compared to the media buying costs of major ad campaigns. It’s probably only a matter of time before some company attempts this, even if the launch failed they’d still get a huge amount of press coverage from being “the first” to hang a huge banner in space. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/5 "2015-11-08T06:31:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > From [here](http://www.gwtwforum.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=6134.0), .06mil mylar weighs 7/1000 of an ounce per square foot. A 1/2 mile square piece of this would weigh 5280 \* 2640 \* .007 = 97,574 ounces or 6,098 pounds - around 3 tons. Figure on around twice that for the edges and miscellaneous material, so 6-10 tons. Half that. 2640\*2640. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/6 "2015-11-08T09:01:03Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > . > …what would have been the approximate launch weight of the Penultimate Pepsi Ad? What would they do after that? You imply there’s a step even further… ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/7 "2015-11-08T10:15:49Z")
The ultimate Pepsi ad - MK1 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/8 "2015-11-08T13:50:53Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Half that. 2640\*2640. Yeah, I meant 1mile \* 1/2 mile = 1/2 square mile, not 1/2 mile square. So, my calculations were correct. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/9 "2015-11-08T16:44:42Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The ultimate Pepsi ad - MK1 😕 Don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/10 "2015-11-08T16:55:56Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > What would they do after that? You imply there’s a step even further… I thought everyone knew the final or ultimate ad is carving the Pepsi Logo onto the moon. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/11 "2015-11-08T17:53:08Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I thought everyone knew the final or ultimate ad is carving the Pepsi Logo onto the moon. Already been done - at least for the fictional Moka Cola in Heinlein’s [“Man Who Sold the Moon”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sold_the_Moon), although the idea is much older. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/12 "2015-11-08T18:05:22Z")
There’s also the Isaac Asimov short story “[Buy Jupiter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Jupiter)” in which aliens buy the planet Jupiter from Earth to use as a billboard. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/13 "2015-11-10T03:28:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > What would they do after that? You imply there’s a step even further… Why, causing stars to go supernova, so that they spell out “COME ALIVE WITH PEPSI!” in the sky as seen from Earth, for several weeks, bright enough to be visible even in daylight. ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/14 "2015-11-10T13:56:42Z")
Well, why all the bother of an orbital launch? Wouldn’t it be simpler (_simpler_ not _easy_) to raise a really large balloon-based system to 100K feet or so? (Like they did for the Felix Baumgartner jump.) They’d have to pass through the navigable airspace on the way up, but once there it shouldn’t be a threat to aircraft. It wouldn’t orbit but just being up there for a while would get a lot of visibility. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/15 "2015-11-10T15:10:33Z")
It’s not about the visibility. It’s about the secondary publicity. “Pepsi flies high-altitude balloon!” Ho hum. “Pepsi puts billboard in space!” Front page news, Buzzfeed alerts, retweeted endlessly, etc. ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-mass-of-the-orbital-billboard-have-been/736989/16 "2015-11-10T18:31:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s not about the visibility. It’s about the secondary publicity. “Pepsi flies high-altitude balloon!” Ho hum. “Pepsi puts billboard in space!” Front page news, Buzzfeed alerts, retweeted endlessly, etc. They could still say “Pepsi puts billboard in space!” with the balloon approach. Baumgartner’s jump was described as being from space (or at least the edge, depending on which account you read.)