Artificial meteor shower for entertainment

[RainDreamer]

http://fortune.com/2016/05/21/meteor-showers-tokyo-olympics/

 

Quote

Japan’s ALE, which describes itself as “a pioneer of space-age entertainment,” has a flashy plan. The company wants to launch a series of microsatellites into orbit, which will in turn release hundreds of small particles towards earth. Those particles, ALE says, will ignite on impact with the atmosphere, generating a controlled meteor shower.

Tech Times reports that the company is aiming to ready the concept for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and it would probably be the most ambitious fireworks display in Olympic history.

Has we got to the time when we can throw stuff down on orbit for fun now...

What kind of things will we need to take into consideration when planning something like this? I wonder if they have to get permits from all the countries on the satellites orbital path in case it hit something by accident. Also the chance of fragments that doesn't get in the atmosphere but went off to be more space junk...

Edited May 22, 2016 by RainDreamer

[Frybert]

13 minutes ago, RainDreamer said:

What kind of things that will we need to take into consideration when planning something like this? I wonder if they have to get permits from all the countries on the satellites orbital path in case it hit something by accident. Also the chance of fragments that doesn't get in the atmosphere but went off to be more space junk...

According to the site, they only need a third of an orbit before they reenter so I would imagine they are launching from a satellite in low enough orbit that the particles wouldn't stay long if something went wrong. 

I am however concerned with this part:

Quote

There are some dystopian potentials here, though. ALE suggests that in addition to controlling particles’ color, it will eventually be able to draw pictures and display words on the surface of the atmosphere. And that can only lead to one thing—inescapable outer-space advertising.

 

[StrandedonEarth]

As long as it's not overcast 

[Snark]

Also, if they were planning on the thing deorbiting pretty soon after orbit, I assume they'd put it in a really low orbit (e.g. significantly lower than the ISS, for example).  That way, if some mishap should happen to strand a bunch of fragments up there, their orbits would decay fairly rapidly and the problem would take care of itself.

In other words, engineer it so that the failure mode is that you get your fireworks show in the wrong place and time, rather than going all Kessler on everybody.

[LordFerret]

3 hours ago, Frybert said:

I am however concerned with this part:

Quote

There are some dystopian potentials here, though. ALE suggests that in addition to controlling particles’ color, it will eventually be able to draw pictures and display words on the surface of the atmosphere. And that can only lead to one thing—inescapable outer-space advertising.

 

to be followed shortly by...

[pincushionman]

I would suggest that the proper way to avoid Kesslerizing is to launch everything on a suborbital trajectory, and thus there is no orbit to "not decay properly." Surely there are launch tracks that can reenter over Tokyo from somewhere and splash down in the Pacific.

[YNM]

I have a bigger question for them, actually : are they sure the idea is sound ? I mean, even re-entering capsules doesn't quite cause a show. Unless I'm wrong that is.

[Panel]

Most meteors seen are only the size of a grain of sand. They are coming in much faster, but an increase in size ought to make up for that. I'm not sure about capsules, though. I'm sure you can see them from the ground, but I don't really know. 

[Shpaget]

1 hour ago, Panel said:

Most meteors seen are only the size of a grain of sand.

I concur that the vast majority of objects hitting earth are sand grain sized, but wouldn't go so far as to say they are the visible ones.

[ChrisSpace]

This sounds like the most expensive yet most awesome asthetic decoration ever.

[LordFerret]

8 hours ago, Panel said:

Most meteors seen are only the size of a grain of sand. They are coming in much faster, but an increase in size ought to make up for that. I'm not sure about capsules, though. I'm sure you can see them from the ground, but I don't really know. 

Capsules are quite visible, both daytime and nighttime. You just need to know where and when to look. A search on YouTube will show you plenty of ground-observed capsule re-entries.

[kerbiloid]

Planetes: The Beginning.

[Panel]

9 hours ago, Shpaget said:

I concur that the vast majority of objects hitting earth are sand grain sized, but wouldn't go so far as to say they are the visible ones.

According to this, visible meteor are about sand-grain size, but are going fast enough to glow about as bright as brightest stars. I'm sure that a more massive object coming in from a medium earth orbit, say marble sized, could create the same effect. 

[insert_name]

This might have some good use, we could have launchable evacuation area indicators. Just don't let certain groups that would use it for advertising launch them

[SinBad]

46 minutes ago, insert_name said:

 Just don't let certain groups that would use it for advertising launch them

Like...   NASA?

Watch The Martian and take a shot every time you see a nasa logo. You may need to open a second bottle after the first 10 minutes though. Product placement FTW!

[insert_name]

27 minutes ago, SinBad said:

Like...   NASA?

Watch The Martian and take a shot every time you see a nasa logo. You may need to open a second bottle after the first 10 minutes though. Product placement FTW!

A decal on a spaceship or spacesuit or NASA building is nowhere near as pervasive as a giant sky ad that can be seen for 100s of miles 

[SinBad]

5 hours ago, insert_name said:

A decal on a spaceship or spacesuit or NASA building is nowhere near as pervasive as a giant sky ad that can be seen for 100s of miles 

True, but i wouldnt be surprised if watney's TP was embossed with the nasa logo. They were everywhere, on everything. Makes you wonder how realistic that is, and how much it costs...

 

On topic: high tech space pretties!

[YNM]

I just realize, though : most of the meteor showers we see have the projectile moving in at higher to waay higher than escape velocity. And this company idea... Suborbital... Not to mention the concept of having multiple directions for the showers...

 

Ooh, someone, please tell me is it real or not ! (least tell me the equations !)

[Atlas2342]

1 hour ago, YNM said:

Ooh, someone, please tell me is it real or not ! (least tell me the equations !)

According to my calculations, it would be really cool if they can pull it off...

But seriously though, it sounds hard to do. Whether they will actually succeed, IDK...

Edited May 23, 2016 by Atlas2342

[kerbiloid]

According to a  book bout the meteor observations:

-2.5 lgE = m + 14.2;
I = Ed2 = 0.5 mv³ cos z_R;

Which gives us:

E = 10^{-0.4 (m + 14.2)};
Ed² = 0.5 mv³ cos z_R;

d² * 10^{-0.4 (m + 14.2)} = 0.5 mv³ cos z_R;

mv³ = d² * 10^{-0.4 (m + 14.2)} / (0.5 * cos z_R);

mv³ = d² * 10^{-0.4 (m + 14.2)} / 0.5 = 2 d² * 10^{-0.4 m - 5.68} = 2 d² / 10^{0.4 m + 5.68};

mv³ ~= 2 d² / 10^{0.4 m + 5.68};

where:
m — mass of the meteor, g;
v — velocity, km/s;
d — distance from it, m;
m — brightness.

So, to get, say, brightness = 0 (as a bright star), from d = 50000 m:

v = 40 km/s → m_required = 0.16 g
v = 7.9 km/s → m_required = 21 g

 

[RainDreamer]

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/160172/20160523/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-pellets-for-japans-man-made-meteor-shower.htm

More info about cost and composition of the things

[YNM]

23 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

According to a  book bout the meteor observations:

...

mv³ ~= 2 d² / 10^{0.4 m + 5.68};

where:
m — mass of the meteor, g;
v — velocity, km/s;
d — distance from it, m;
m — brightness.

Which m is m ? Also, surely in grams and km/s ? Not kilograms and m/s ? (can i... look at the book ?)

Edited May 24, 2016 by YNM

[kerbiloid]

44 minutes ago, YNM said:

Which m is m ? Also, surely in grams and km/s ? Not kilograms and m/s ? (can i... look at the book ?)

Indeed...
Left m (inside mv³) is mass.
Right m (inside the exponent) is brightness (astronomical visible magnitude).

Grams, km/s, etc — yes, sure. Was surprised myself.

Link to the book page
 

[YNM]

34 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Link to the book page

MASSIVE language problems ! Can't investigate on the units...

Thank you for the info anyway.

Edited May 24, 2016 by YNM

[magnemoe]

On 21.5.2016 at 0:24 AM, Snark said:

Also, if they were planning on the thing deorbiting pretty soon after orbit, I assume they'd put it in a really low orbit (e.g. significantly lower than the ISS, for example).  That way, if some mishap should happen to strand a bunch of fragments up there, their orbits would decay fairly rapidly and the problem would take care of itself.

In other words, engineer it so that the failure mode is that you get your fireworks show in the wrong place and time, rather than going all Kessler on everybody.

Time to deorbit is an function of drag and mass, if you know the orbit and then release the payload you would know how fast it will deorbit. 
Satelite will also deorbit faster as its lighter, some cubesat has an ribbon they release to deorbit faster, ribbon increase drag a lot and cause an fast deorbit.