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Billboards in Space?
John Lund/Blend Images/Getty Images (Night Sky); Nataliya Arzamasova/Shutterstock.com (Pizza)
New satellites could display ads in the night sky.
You’re outside, watching for shooting stars—when suddenly, you notice a Pepsi logo in the sky. It sounds bizarre, but it could happen in 2021. A Russian company called StartRocket recently announced that it’s building satellites that can project ads into space at night. Each ad would be roughly the size of a half-moon and would be visible for six minutes at a time, mainly above densely populated cities. So far, PepsiCo has conducted an exploratory test, and StartRocket says the technology could also potentially be used to broadcast emergency messages or promote big events, such as the Olympics. But some astronomers worry that the ads may increase space pollution and interfere with research. “It poses a question for everyone: Is this what we want to do with space?” says Christopher Newman, a professor of space law at Northumbria University in Britain. “It’s going to affect everyone, so everyone should have a say in it.”