TECH
2020 Tokyo Olympics May Open With Huge Meteor Shower Launched By Satellites [WATCH]
- Jason Gussen , Design & Trend
- May, 23, 2016, 10:59 AM
Japan will attempt to go down in Olympic history by kicking off the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with a man-made meteor shower, Quartz reported.
The Japanese research company ALE plans to use satellites to deploy up to 500,000 manufactured shooting stars into orbit during the Olympic opening ceremony. The project is known as Sky Canvas.
The imitation meteors, which ALE refers to as "source particles" or "the ingredients of a shooting star," will be discharged by satellites and orbit a third of the length around the Earth before entering the atmosphere. Here, they will burn up in a process known as "plasma emission," according to the startup's site.
The secret formula for Sky Canvas' pellets was researched and developed at Japan's Nihon University which has also experimented with different colors, according to TechTimes. ALE has also considered using the particles to display images or words in the sky.
The synthetic shooting stars will not come cheap. TechTimes reported that each pellet comes at a price tag of around 1 million yen or $8,100. The high cost of the materials hasn't deterred ALE, which hopes to launch its first test satellite at the end of 2017, according to Qaurtz.
Cost is not the only potential obstacle. Earth's crowded atmosphere means collisions between Sky Canvas and other orbiting structures could occur. However, ALE has insisted Sky Canvas is safe.
The project claims to utilize a database from the Joint Space Operations Center, or JSpOC, which tracks satellites and space debris. ALE claimed it has used this data to develop "software that calculates the probability of our particles colliding with other objects."
Sky Canvas can be aborted up to 100 minutes prior to launch if weather or concern over collisions pose a safety threat, according to ALE. As for the satellites, they are projected to eventually enter the atmosphere and burn up, much like the faux meteors, over a period of 25 years.
The high cost and design considerations required to bring Sky Canvas to Japan seem to be worth it for the startup. The unprecedented display would be visible over a 62-mile radius and be seen by an estimated 30 million people in the Tokyo area.
Ultimately, Sky Canvas would secure Japan's place in Olympic history.
Watch ALE's promotional video for Sky Canvas below.
