Family Mart and Japan Airlines join the Shooting Star Challenge project as official partners.ALE is a Japan-based space entertainment startup with a mission 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.ALE’s technology is currently in development and the first satellite is scheduled to be launched in late 2018 to 2019. The Shooting Star Challenge is the official project name of this undertaking and will follow ALE’s journey as it completes the satellite, launches the satellite on a rocket in late 2018 to early 2019, and becomes the first company to create artificial shooting stars in the history of mankind in 2019. This first showcase will be delivered over the sky of the Setouchi Region (including the cities of Hiroshima, Iwakuni, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama) and can be viewed by audience over an area 200 kilometers in diameter.
In the Shooting Star Challenge, a satellite will be placed in orbit about 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Australia. From there it will release pellets toward Japan which will take about 15 minutes to fall to a height of 60 kilometers (37 miles) above Setouchi and begin to burn. This part of Hiroshima was chosen as the test site for its popularity, nice scenery, and high rate of clear skies.A single 60-centimeter (23-inch) satellite is expected to hold from 300 to 400 meteor pellets which is hoped to last until the end of the craft’s one year life in orbit. In addition to providing a pyrotechnic display like no other, the project will also gather valuable data on physics in the upper atmosphere.
We will launch a satellite loaded with about five hundred to a thousand "source particles" that become ingredients for a shooting star. When the satellite stabilizes in orbit, we will discharge the particles using a specially designed device on board. The particles will travel about one-thirds of the way around the Earth and enter the atmosphere. It will then begin plasma emission and become a shooting star.
Edit 2: On whose periodic table can you find "natrium"? Is it in the same column as unobtanium?
Ale plans to sign a contract with SpaceX in a few months, according to Okajima. The Hawthorne, California-based company declined to comment on its launch schedule or customers' contracts.... Ale's satellite will weigh 50 to 60 kilograms. All told, Ale needs 1 billion yen for its first launch.To pay for that, Okajima is seeking backers for Ale, named after her favorite style of beer. She's seeking funding from individual investors and also considering corporate sponsors.
If everything works out, the night sky over Hiroshima, Japan, will fill with the graceful arcs of blue, green, and orange shooting stars sometime in the summer of 2019.The fireworks will come courtesy of a satellite some 220 miles high, owned by the world’s first “aerospace entertainment” firm, Astro Live Experiences, or ALE....ALE is building two small microsatellites, the first scheduled for launch from Japan in December. Each 150-pound, $3 million spacecraft will carry 300 to 400 shooting star particles and have enough propellant to last 27 months in orbit before burning up in the atmosphere.
A slightly biased article by a reporter (or editor) that apparently doesn't like rich people At least it gives a date for the first launch.[BuzzFeed] Rich People Will Soon Be Able To Buy Fake Meteor Showers On DemandQuoteIf everything works out, the night sky over Hiroshima, Japan, will fill with the graceful arcs of blue, green, and orange shooting stars sometime in the summer of 2019.The fireworks will come courtesy of a satellite some 220 miles high, owned by the world’s first “aerospace entertainment” firm, Astro Live Experiences, or ALE....ALE is building two small microsatellites, the first scheduled for launch from Japan in December. Each 150-pound, $3 million spacecraft will carry 300 to 400 shooting star particles and have enough propellant to last 27 months in orbit before burning up in the atmosphere.
Quote from: Comga on 05/24/2016 05:23 am Edit 2: On whose periodic table can you find "natrium"? The chemical symbol for Sodium is Na because the old (Latin) name for it is Natrium. Cheers, Martin
Edit 2: On whose periodic table can you find "natrium"?
An article from a mainstream news outlet that actually doesn't suck:http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190102-the-plan-to-make-artificial-meteor-showers