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Outdoor advertising may seem like a common idea, but it has a long history. It is also becoming more and more popular because of the cost of going to space. But side effects, such as light pollution and space debris, may not be worth it.
In August, the Geometric Energy Corporation of Canada (GEC) announced that it wanted to launch a small satellite with a sign on a SpaceX rocket. The story immediately went viral, and was heavily criticized by SpaceX and the GEC.
In 2019, Russian businessman Vlad Sitnikov was caught in a similar controversy. “I’m a kind of advertiser,” Sitnikov told Al Jazeera. “So I thought it would be nice to see a new kind of media in heaven.”
Sitnikov had previously set up his own advertising agency, and now wanted to do something with space advertising. So he turned to friends in the space industry, and eventually to the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, a private university located in Moscow. They decided to upload a small group of satellites, all with screens, to act together as a bulletin board to show the ads that could be seen from the ground.
He posted conceptual images of a Coca Cola ad appearing in the sky. It was then that criticism began to creep in, saying the proposal was rude, but that it could also help with issues such as light pollution.
“These images were republished everywhere,” he said. “I was crushed by a big wave of hatred. I decided to stop the project because people around the world started hating me. ” His startup, StartRocket, has been in limbo ever since.
A great wave of hatred overwhelmed me
What the GEC and Sitnikov proposed is just the latest example of space advertising, a concept that goes back decades in its history. In the 1990s, the Russian space program, for example, had several collaborations with brands. In 1996, they paid $ 5 million to float a Pepsi can outside the Mir space station, and in 2000 Pizza Hut paid them $ 1 million to print their logo on one of their rockets.
Not in the low orbit of my earth
As space becomes more accessible and access becomes more expensive, there are growing proposals to use the space for advertising or entertainment. In addition to the GEC and StartRocket projects, the Japanese startup ALE wants to use satellites that drop small balls to create artificial star launchers on demand – it raised about $ 50 million in venture funding. In 2019, RocketLab also sent a disk-ball-like satellite called Humanity Star as a promotion.
“You can become the next media mogul,” Sitnikov said. “When we launched our idea, we immediately put in customers who wanted to pay. People want to pay for space advertising. ”
People want to pay for space advertising
A key objection to these proposals is that they will contribute to space light pollution, a problem that is growing even in unpublished orbit.
“Until recently, most of our work has been on light pollution on Earth,” said Jeffrey Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory and chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Waste Commission. “The issue of light pollution from space is new territory for us, and it only started in 2019 with the launch of the SpaceX Starlink satellite,” he told Al Jazeera.
The so-called “constellation” of small low-flying satellites has risen sharply in recent years. For example, SpaceX Starlink aims to launch tens of thousands of satellites to provide Internet connections around the world.
The issue of light pollution in space is new territory for us
Astronomers, however, need relatively dark skies to observe space. However, bright outer light from the Earth or satellites that emit or reflect light, like the constellation Starlink, can ruin what they do. And Hall fears that space posters could exacerbate the problem.
“The satellites leave very bright lines in the images,” he said. “Scratches can saturate the pixels in the image and completely damage them.”
According to Sitnikov, that would not be a big problem. In his proposal, an ad would only be visible for six minutes.
But that would also be problematic, Hall said. “Six minutes will not be the end of Earth astronomy. But it is the beginning of something that can turn into a ramp. Moreover, there is one more thing in heaven that affects observation. It’s an aggregate effect that has the potential to have a negative effect on the night sky. “
Opponents of space advertising say it can also help with space debris. The more objects you throw into orbit, the more likely it is that they will collide with each other and trigger a chain reaction that will fill your low Earth orbit with debris, making it much more difficult or perhaps impossible to get into space.
“Things are going so fast, it makes sense to slow down until we understand the impact of what we’re doing,” Hall said.
Space law
The law of space may prevent satellite posters. Space is subject to the 1966 Outer Space Pact, which sees space as a global common space.
“There is nothing specific in the treaty about space advertising,” said Professor Joanne Gabrynowicz, director of the International Institute of Space Law. “But Article 9 requires signatories to take the‘ necessary ’interests of other signatories into account and to avoid‘ harmful interference ’in other nations’ space activities, ”he told Al Jazeera.
This could be due to the fact that satellite boards that hinder astronomers from observing space may be dependent on it. In addition, the U.S. passed a national law in the 1990s that banned space advertising that could be considered “crucial.”
Of course, the space constellation of the Starlink satellite constellation was reviewed and approved by the US authorities, even though it had an impact on astronomy. International law also depends on the way treaties are applied at the national level. The Russian state, for example, should decide whether a Russian space advertising startup complies with the Outer Space Pact. However, there is a legal argument to block advertising in space if it causes too much light pollution.
All this leaves Sitnikov without a phase. His idea may have been dormant for a while, but now he wants to return to space. StartRocket recently merged its activities with another Russian startup. This time they don’t want to release any ads, just small satellites that can send morse messages to the ground by laser.
“You can use a camera phone to read laser information,” Sitnikov said. “It can be used by independent media in countries like Iran, Russia or North Korea.”
It remains to be seen whether this idea will be implemented. It is likely that as the cost of going to space decreases, so will advertising space plans.
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