Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Japanese company develops artificial meteor showers on demand
Boing Boing: A Japanese start-up built a microsatellite that was launched into orbit today. The satellite contains 400 tiny balls that can be released on demand and will burn brightly enough to be seen on Earth as they burn up in the atmosphere.
4 comments:
Yma Hernandez-Theisen
said...
On demand meteor shower is something I wouldn’t have thought to be plosable. The description of the possibilities their star show satellites can produce, makes me think of firecrackers, they play similar roles in our entertainment. The idea is very cool, something that I find exciting, I wish that this article gave more information on where the company is and future plans on events or venues these satellites will be used, I'd be interested in ways I could see this show in action. I wonder what situations they plan to use the shooting stars in. (concerts, festivals?) I would love to know more about how these “stars” are made, is the process to achieve something like this environmentally safe, I would like to know more about the safety in general. It was interesting how they designed around how natural shooting stars shape. After reading this article I plan to search into ALE and their project more, I hope to find a video.
This seems like it could be a really cool technology for outdoor concerts, festivals, and night shows and theme parks and similar. I’m not sure how cost effective or environmentally friendly it is, but I imagine it must be safer than fireworks, though I doubt it will replace them. I’m curious how precise the timing and location can get. Would they be able to trigger a meteor shower to appear at a particular point in music, or is it more of a give or take a few minutes type situation. I also wonder if this will eventually be cost effective enough that individuals can schedule drops for their own events. I could see them being popular at weddings, marriage proposals, or similar small events. Without knowing more about the environmental impacts of this, I can’t say if I think this becoming common would be a good thing or not, but I hope it is sustainable because it seems like they could be a good addition to outdoor shows and events.
The idea that we can now artificially create something as amazing as meteors is incredible. I’m always intrigued by how humans continue to strive to harness natural beauty. I think it would be really cool to see if they will actually be able to create a range of colorful shooting stars, and could be an spectacular addition to events, festivals, and concerts. They mentioned that the satellites can be programmed to eject the balls at a programmed speed, direction, and location, but what about the timing of it? It states that the shooting star particles would travel a third of the way around the Earth before burning up, so would making exactly timed meteors be plausible? It’s cool that they were able to find something similar to fireworks but pose supposedly no danger to anything on Earth, since there’s a lot of instances of fireworks being problematic and causing harm. I am curious though, if these false shooting stars could possibly wind up adding to the light pollution, or if it’s possible that anything dangerous could come of it should the microsatellite malfunction.
Umm. Woah. I really want to see this. It does raise some environmental concerns, but I can’t imagine it would be as bad for the environment as fireworks or even balloons, as long as they aren’t launching rockets solely to get the satellites into space. Another concern might be the prospect of something going wrong and the satellites releasing thousands of pieces of space junk into an already hazardous cloud of bits and pieces. Despite all those concerns….. I can’t help but really, really want to see these in action. A meteor shower on demand is just…. Cool. Not as cool as the real thing, but probably more visually spectacular. It’s one of those things that blows your mind a little bit. The communications protocols must be complex, in order to make sure things start burning right on cue. I guess we’ll see if this gets widely used and becomes profitable, and if so, what sort of technologies will be developed as copy cats. I’ve read articles about China’s effort to make an artificial moon to light cities at night; who knows? Maybe concerts in a few years will have reflective satellites delivering stunning images of the moon right on cue.
4 comments:
On demand meteor shower is something I wouldn’t have thought to be plosable. The description of the possibilities their star show satellites can produce, makes me think of firecrackers, they play similar roles in our entertainment. The idea is very cool, something that I find exciting, I wish that this article gave more information on where the company is and future plans on events or venues these satellites will be used, I'd be interested in ways I could see this show in action. I wonder what situations they plan to use the shooting stars in. (concerts, festivals?) I would love to know more about how these “stars” are made, is the process to achieve something like this environmentally safe, I would like to know more about the safety in general. It was interesting how they designed around how natural shooting stars shape. After reading this article I plan to search into ALE and their project more, I hope to find a video.
This seems like it could be a really cool technology for outdoor concerts, festivals, and night shows and theme parks and similar. I’m not sure how cost effective or environmentally friendly it is, but I imagine it must be safer than fireworks, though I doubt it will replace them. I’m curious how precise the timing and location can get. Would they be able to trigger a meteor shower to appear at a particular point in music, or is it more of a give or take a few minutes type situation. I also wonder if this will eventually be cost effective enough that individuals can schedule drops for their own events. I could see them being popular at weddings, marriage proposals, or similar small events. Without knowing more about the environmental impacts of this, I can’t say if I think this becoming common would be a good thing or not, but I hope it is sustainable because it seems like they could be a good addition to outdoor shows and events.
The idea that we can now artificially create something as amazing as meteors is incredible. I’m always intrigued by how humans continue to strive to harness natural beauty. I think it would be really cool to see if they will actually be able to create a range of colorful shooting stars, and could be an spectacular addition to events, festivals, and concerts. They mentioned that the satellites can be programmed to eject the balls at a programmed speed, direction, and location, but what about the timing of it? It states that the shooting star particles would travel a third of the way around the Earth before burning up, so would making exactly timed meteors be plausible? It’s cool that they were able to find something similar to fireworks but pose supposedly no danger to anything on Earth, since there’s a lot of instances of fireworks being problematic and causing harm. I am curious though, if these false shooting stars could possibly wind up adding to the light pollution, or if it’s possible that anything dangerous could come of it should the microsatellite malfunction.
Umm. Woah. I really want to see this. It does raise some environmental concerns, but I can’t imagine it would be as bad for the environment as fireworks or even balloons, as long as they aren’t launching rockets solely to get the satellites into space. Another concern might be the prospect of something going wrong and the satellites releasing thousands of pieces of space junk into an already hazardous cloud of bits and pieces. Despite all those concerns….. I can’t help but really, really want to see these in action. A meteor shower on demand is just…. Cool. Not as cool as the real thing, but probably more visually spectacular. It’s one of those things that blows your mind a little bit. The communications protocols must be complex, in order to make sure things start burning right on cue. I guess we’ll see if this gets widely used and becomes profitable, and if so, what sort of technologies will be developed as copy cats. I’ve read articles about China’s effort to make an artificial moon to light cities at night; who knows? Maybe concerts in a few years will have reflective satellites delivering stunning images of the moon right on cue.
Post a Comment