A RUSSIAN company has revealed a plot to turn the sky into the world's biggest advertisement space.
Avant Space, which says it has deployed the “first media ” into orbit, wants stargazers to be met with laser-light billboards when they look up at night.
The satellite is a prototype, but Avant is planning to launch an entire fleet of these small, into orbit.
Together, the satellites will beam advertisements across the sky – from logos, to QR codes.
In 2020, the -based company secured a patent for laser-based technology to project messages and images for advertisers onto the sky.
The start-up, which was founded in 2016, hopes to soon offer customers limited control of their satellites via an app.
The vision is “to prove that space is not just for , not just for the military—it is entertainment, too. And people like entertainment,” Vlad Sitnikov of StartRocket, a Russia-based firm partnering with Avant Space, told Scientific American.
He added: “Where there is humanity, there will be advertisements – we want to be the first.”
A video from Avant shows adverts from and being cast above cities like , as well as car manufacturers like Mercedes having their icons emblazoned above racing tracks.
It's a sure-fire way to get even more eyes on advertisements.
Space adverts will reportedly only be switched on during dawn and dusk over major cities to avoid interfering with remote astronomical telescopes.
Avant's plan is also a good way to avoid any light pollution concerns, with cities already missing out on the darkest skies.
The US banned space from becoming a place for advertising in 2000.
However, this federal ban only applies to launches from US soil – and not from other countries.
The current law doesn't stop space billboards from drifting across the sky into countries that have banned them.
The American Astronomical Society has previously spoken out against Avant Space, saying its plans present an “unknown, but potentially serious, threat to the pursuit of astronomical discovery”.
Astronomers fear that as space becomes commercialised, more companies will follow Avant Space and StarRocket.
There are also concerns that yet another constellation of satellites would complicate efforts to manage traffic in low-orbit.
Low-Earth orbit is the part of space where the majority of out communications satellites sit, including ‘s 7,000
But they're not alone, these satellites swing round Earth accompanied by roughly 39,000 pieces of – chunks and flecks of disused rockets and retired satellites.
The fear is a pile-up in the sky, whereby hundreds or even thousands of satellites create a huge debris cloud.
