Artificial Meteor Showers for 2020 Olympics

A project team from Japan is working on a device that will create artificial meteor showers. Combining space technology with entertainment, Star ALE has in plan to offer a unique moment for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The project will be an innovation to pyrotechnics and rocketry, and it will be able to display an artificial meteor shower by demand. The company has named it “Sky Canvas” and hopes that it will become a pioneer for an entirely new type of entertainment, space shows.

Sky Canvas wants to recreate the process of space particles creating plasma emissions while entering the Earth atmosphere. The sky will become an immense canvas for the members of this project, and they will try to display a fascinating patterns above the city.

Tests have shown that the particles launched into the Earth’s atmosphere are perfectly visible from Tokyo, a city that has significant light pollution. While traversing the atmosphere, the particles will become shooting stars for those watching from the ground.

To create the meteor shower, hundreds of so-called particles will be loaded into a microsatellite. Then, a commercial launch vehicle will transport the microsatellites up to the lower surfaces of Earth’s orbit. After that, the vehicle will stabilize in orbit and launch the particles.

This is not just a drop. The particles will travel one-third on the orbit of the Earth before entering the atmosphere and become a falling star. Falling through the air will cause a plasma emission that will appear bright in the sky.

The particles will burn in different colors, depending on which chemical element the company will use – lithium for pink, cesium for blue, strontium for red or copper for green. Also, the components are thus designed so that the trip on the sky will be slower so that everyone could enjoy it.

Measures of safety will be taken in order to avoid any collisions with other objects from space. Moreover, the company reassures the public that they will respect the international regulations and leave no debris in space. The microsatellites are designed to automatically burn-up after the show.

The production of such an artificial meteor shower will cost around $8,100, without taking into consideration the costs of the actual launch in space.

The first time an artificial meteor shower will be displayed on the sky will be during the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Image Source: Flickr