This Start-Up is Producing Man Made Meteor showers – Because Why not? A Japanese start-up is sending a satellite to space to shoot down colourful pellets that will resemble a meteorite shower!
By Rustam Singh
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A startup in Japan has an idea that will take it to the sky – literally. Star-ALE wants a man-made to shoot man-made shooting stars from miles above the sky through a dedicated satellite with about 500 to a thousand particles that will crash onto Earth in a multitude of colors, much like a real shooting star. Not to be confused with mere puny fireworks with will dissipate over a few hundred feet's view; these loaded satellites will display their work hopefully across a radius of over 100 miles.
Due to the high amount of friction on re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, these particles will burn and emit a luminous trail of plasma. The satellite will also allegedly have a method to shoot multiple stars at the same time, so as to replicate a real Meteor shower. To test its efficiency to actually work, the pellets were placed in a vacuum chamber and blasted with supersonic hot gases, simulating the friction they'd experience as they re-entered the atmosphere. Since the epicenter of the view is huge, including Tokyo, the expected audience that can possibly witness this includes 30 million people. And if this wasn't bizarre enough, the pellets contain metals of different metals designed to burn at variable colors, thus adding colors to the whole experience.
The elephant in the room here is – why, exactly? Well the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are one of those few events where nations feel it's necessary to impress the rest of the world and the international media to showcase a side of their country that usually does into exist. Nations in no financial position to support such luxurious expenditures are pressurized into topping other's nation's events, and this comes at a cost. At almost 8000$ to manufacture just one pellet, without including working expenditure, the satellite to get the whole thing in orbit, the launch, marketing and other expenses. While every expenditure cannot be justifiably compared to a more social expense (such as working to elevate poverty), such expenditures that can clearly be avoided must be careful thought of before implementing.
What do you think of the start-up? Should we make things, because we can, or should we invest our resources for more projects that actually help our society progress? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page Entrepreneur India
