A Japanese tech start-up is preparing to offer out-of-this-world space fireworks for deep-pocketed customers, with a 鈥渕eteor shower on demand鈥� service slated to launch in 2019.
says its Sky Canvas project will position multiple satellites in Earth鈥檚 orbit, each containing hundreds of particles waiting to be released into the atmosphere. ALE expects the particles to burn up on the way down, creating spectacular meteor showers that should be easier to see than the natural phenomenon.
Josh Rodenbaugh, who works in satellite operations at ALE, says the company鈥檚 man-made meteor showers will be much more spectacular than the real thing.
鈥淥ur shooting stars will move slower across the sky, they鈥檒l burn longer and they鈥檒l burn much, much brighter, even brightly enough to see within a major city like Tokyo,鈥� Rodenbaugh told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Wednesday.
Rodenbaugh says the key to building a better meteor shower lies in the particles used to create it. Natural meteor showers are generated by tiny bits of space dust and grains of sand burning up in the atmosphere and moving at high speed. ALE plans to improve upon that process by using larger particles measuring approximately 1 centimetre in diameter.
鈥淥ur shooting stars will be larger,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey burn up in the atmosphere like natural shooting stars, but much, much better.鈥�
Rodenbaugh adds that the project will not contribute to the mass of space junk currently orbiting our planet, because the particles are small enough that they will have burned up within the first 40 kilometres of their fall.
鈥淭here鈥檚 absolutely no space debris created,鈥� he said.
The company was founded by current CEO Lena Okajima, who holds a PhD in astrophysics from Tokyo University.
Rodenbaugh says Okajima got her idea for the company from her own experience as a young girl.
鈥淪he grew up in a rural part of Japan and she frequently got to see shooting stars as a child,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is something that she鈥檚 always wanted to share with people.鈥�
He added that ALE wants to inspire young children to pursue a career in astronomy or another STEM field.
However, there are few children in the world who will be able to afford one of ALE鈥檚 on-demand meteor showers.
Rodenbaugh says the company hasn鈥檛 yet worked out how much it will cost to order a meteor shower, but it鈥檒l probably be prohibitively expensive for any but the most wealthy corporations.
鈥淭here鈥檚 probably not too many individuals that can call us up and order one of these,鈥� he said.
