The spectacle of shooting stars on the night of San Lorenzo has always captured my heart: a beautiful rain of lights that cuts through the dark of the night. Make a wish: ALE, a Tokyo-based startup has to help the climate by studying the mesosphere.
to fulfill it, has in mind precisely the creation of "artificial shooting stars" to collect data in that area too high to be reached by sounding balloons and too low to be observed well by satellites.
The science show
ALE's plan is ambitious, but it doesn't stop there. CEO and founder Dr. Lena Okajima wants to combine climate research with a new type of space entertainment, to stimulate the curiosity and interest of people around the world towards space and the universe.
The Japanese startup had already tried to launch its project in 2020, but technical problems prevented the operation from being successful. The next phase calls for a “shower of shooting stars” by 2023, and he appears to be keeping his word.
Possible uses
What could be the uses of man-made shooting stars? Excluding scientific purposes, ALE proposes using them for large events, creating celestial objects by launching balls composed of "harmless substances" from a satellite and letting them burn 60-80 km from the earth's surface.
The future of the project depends on the through crowdfunding, and there is still no precise date for the appearance of these artificial "stars", since this will depend on the launch of a new satellite.
Shooting stars or meteors?
The company states in its press release that it wants to establish strategic partnerships with industries and academia, leveraging its technology to advance climate research and create a new market category called “space entertainment”.
In short, while we look at the night sky we could soon admire shooting stars which, in addition to making our wishes come true, help us to better understand our planet.
It almost seems like the stars have finally aligned for a project that combines science and wonder, hoping they aren't meteors that vanish like a dream.
