As the private space industry has been on fire in the recent years, ultra rich people could buy their services which range from space travel to planet colonization. Now, a Japanese aerospace entertainment firm has put forward a plan to create made-to-order shooting stars for people who are wealthy enough to afford a custom-made celestial show for their needs.
If everything goes well, the night sky over Hiroshima will fill with graceful meteor fall in the summer of 2019. The manmade fireworks from space will be triggered by a satellite 220 miles above the Earth. Astro Live Experiences (ALE) is the company which will create this spectacular meteor show in blue, green, and orange colors.
Aerospace entertainment on demand
The new initiative is the brainchild of Lena Okajima, an astronomer at the University of Tokyo. Josh Rodenbaugh, a member of ALE's satellite operations team, told BuzzFeed News that the company wants to provide meteor showers on demand.
"ALE is announcing a change in schedule for the world's first artificial shooting star challenge project 'SHOOTING STAR challenge' to the Spring of 2020. This change has been made in order to further improve the technical specifications of the micro-satellite, which is currently under development," said Astro Live Experiences in a statement.
The company also added that their mission is to promote science through entertainment.
"ALE creates artificial shooting stars by sending microsatellites full of shooting star pellets to space and releasing the pellets, which enter the atmosphere and burn as shooting stars visible to the naked eye," the statement continues.
Many rumors have also surfaced stating that this manmade meteor shower will be used in the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Potential risks of manmade meteor showers
The proposed plan to create manmade meteor showers has fetched mixed reaction from space experts. According to experts, this plan to create meteor showers using satellites will add up to the clutter in space, and there are absolutely no positive effects of these space shows on earth. Many experts also believe that these manmade meteors will collide with existing satellites creating unexpected problems.
