Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

TritonTheCat t1_itpux0f wrote

This sounds absolutely horrible. There are already boats going down public beaches with ads, there are too many ads in natural areas.

37

tonsofsoul t1_itpxjlu wrote

I will stop purchasing any product from any company that does this. Unfortunately, there are probably enough morons to make it economically viable.

31

TraceSpazer t1_itq6ja3 wrote

Agreed. Not only cease any purchases I would have made. But talk shit about them for years, even after their satellites fall back down.

I'm already conflicted about the useful satellites that are up there lighting up the sky. And those have utility. Ads are garbage.

3

geomancer_ t1_itq9ovd wrote

100% and actually try to cost them in any way I can every chance I get heh

2

Primordial_Cumquat t1_itpvsau wrote

At least there’s no larger problems looming about that we should be working on.

15

vBLADEv t1_itpvef7 wrote

The nightsky brought to you by Budlite, whilst thinking about the impossibility and wonder of the universe drink a Budlite.

8

GregFeelysCatTony t1_itq7pzu wrote

I would substantially change my own lifestyle to make sure that I never gave a company that advertised this way a cent of my money for the rest of my life.

4

True_Inxis t1_itq8d3i wrote

More, I'd build a rocket to blow those ads out of the sky.

2

No-Swimmers1622 t1_itqyhkz wrote

Good luck doing that with the oligopolisation of the market that we're experiencing. By the time this becomes mainstream there's going to be 4 companies controlling 90% of the market for every available product

1

GetOutOfTheWhey t1_itq5kn0 wrote

Corporations are gonna be happy

Astronomers are gonna be pissed

Astrologists will need to consult their harmonic crystals

3

scpDZA t1_itqgyky wrote

Our society loves to pick the worst ideas possible. So this def tracks

3

SPYalltimehightoday t1_itqcsna wrote

Omg imagine trying to fucking star gaze with your kids camping one night and Tyson chicken is blocking Orion’s Belt. Gtfo

2

CyclicObject0 t1_itr0qvw wrote

I would actively not buy products from a company for infringing my right to a clear(ish) night sky

2

FuturologyBot t1_itpz5tn wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Soupjoe5:

Article:

1

They claim a three-month ad would pay for itself in one month.

Space advertising would cost a lot upfront but wouldn’t be too expensive to turn a hefty profit, according to researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

“As unrealistic as it may seem, we show that space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation could be economically viable,” they write in the journal Aerospace.

Space ads: Thanks to cheaper rocket launches and low-cost CubeSats, space is more accessible than ever before, making it easier for scientists, startups, and others to get into orbit — performing groundbreaking experiments in microgravity, for instance.

But the situation is also making space advertising seem viable. The idea is to use CubeSats equipped with sun-reflecting sails as pixels in giant ads, which would be visible to the naked eye below on Earth — kind of like drone light shows.

“Space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation could be economically viable."

It sounds like science fiction, but some think it’s becoming a feasible marketing option.

While many have talked about space advertising — including beverage giant Pepsi — no one has actually created one of these off-world billboards, though, so we don’t know exactly how they would work, what they would cost, or whether they’d even be worth it.

Ad it up: The Russian researchers’ new study addresses some of the mystery surrounding space ads.

Based on their calculations, it would cost $65 million to deploy an ad made by 50 satellites equipped with 32-square-meter reflectors — the largest size that’s been successfully deployed on a CubeSat — for 1 to 3 months, including the costs of the satellites, launch, and engineering.

The team then estimated the potential revenue that could be generated from one of the ads.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/yd49p6/space_ads_could_earn_2_million_a_day_say_russian/itpuajf/

1

Nottheguyfromxfiles t1_itq8f9v wrote

Trying to do adds in space, but you won’t fix the problems on the ground. Welcome to hell.

1

_wayamaya_3 t1_itqa3de wrote

i will literally go out of my way to not buy from companies that’ll do this.

1

Warm_Cabinet t1_itqgr6g wrote

I’m pretty sure the solution to climate change is just convincing the ads industry that they won’t have anyone to advertise to if we’re all dead. It’ll be solved in like… a week.

1

tdomman t1_itqwy8n wrote

I will donate a month's pay to anyone who thinks they can blow these up.

1

eracerhead t1_itrewqg wrote

Exactly; I'd start a Kickstarter to fund the world's first privately-launched ASAT...

1

Soupjoe5 OP t1_itpuajf wrote

Article:

1

They claim a three-month ad would pay for itself in one month.

Space advertising would cost a lot upfront but wouldn’t be too expensive to turn a hefty profit, according to researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

“As unrealistic as it may seem, we show that space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation could be economically viable,” they write in the journal Aerospace.

Space ads: Thanks to cheaper rocket launches and low-cost CubeSats, space is more accessible than ever before, making it easier for scientists, startups, and others to get into orbit — performing groundbreaking experiments in microgravity, for instance.

But the situation is also making space advertising seem viable. The idea is to use CubeSats equipped with sun-reflecting sails as pixels in giant ads, which would be visible to the naked eye below on Earth — kind of like drone light shows.

“Space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation could be economically viable."

It sounds like science fiction, but some think it’s becoming a feasible marketing option.

While many have talked about space advertising — including beverage giant Pepsi — no one has actually created one of these off-world billboards, though, so we don’t know exactly how they would work, what they would cost, or whether they’d even be worth it.

Ad it up: The Russian researchers’ new study addresses some of the mystery surrounding space ads.

Based on their calculations, it would cost $65 million to deploy an ad made by 50 satellites equipped with 32-square-meter reflectors — the largest size that’s been successfully deployed on a CubeSat — for 1 to 3 months, including the costs of the satellites, launch, and engineering.

The team then estimated the potential revenue that could be generated from one of the ads.

0

Soupjoe5 OP t1_itpuew9 wrote

2

It would cost $65 million to deploy an ad made by 50 satellites, according to the study.

Because space ads would need some sunlight to reflect, but also a dark enough sky to be visible from the ground, they’d be most visible at sunrise and sunset. It’d make sense, then, for the formations to travel with the sun, moving over one populated city after another.

The researchers calculated a possible path for a satellite formation, with the assumption that it would display an ad for about a minute over one city before moving to the next location, and then estimated the revenue to be made during a deployment.

“The revenue estimates are derived from outdoor advertising costs, population, and factors that limit the number of people noticing the space ad: cloudiness, cold weather keeping folks indoors, and the city’s demographic composition,” said first author Shamil Biktimirov.

Based on those estimates, they determined that a space advertising mission could generate up to $2 million in revenue daily — enough for the space ad to pay for itself in about a month.

Why it matters: The prospect of a billboard circling the Earth raises some obvious aesthetic concerns. But it could also create practical issues for studying the night sky.

“Astronomy is facing a watershed moment of increasing interference with observations and loss of science.”

Astronomers have been vocal about their concerns that the expected increase of satellites in low-Earth orbit will hinder their ability to study space, track potentially dangerous asteroids, and more.

“As the number of satellites continues to grow, astronomy is facing a watershed moment of increasing interference with observations and loss of science,” Connie Walker from NOIRLab told BBC News.

This controversy might deter major brands from giving space advertising a go at first, but it’s all but certain that some company will put a billboard in space — and if they end up making a lot of money from it, we might start seeing space ads all across the sky at twilight.

1