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Visibility Of The ISS Grows
ackthpt writes: "NASA has a feature on the growing visibility of the International Space Station, along with naked-eye Visibility Data when and where to look to see it streaking throught the night sky for US and Non-US cities. Will there be a point where corporate sponsorship hangs an ad in space? Already appearing "as the third brightest star in the nighttime sky", it will eventually be second only to Venus. Will we look up and see a Nike swoosh some day?"
I wonder how much detail you can get with a pair of binoculars. How big across is the ISS anyway?
IIRC in 1998, The US passed a law making them illegal if they are visable with the naked eye from earth. That at least takes care of some of the major companies...
--Josh
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
Hopefully, there won't be any Nike. Have they evolved from sweatshops to sweatships?
However, I think that NASA could definitly make some extra cash by signing up for a pay per surf program. Get a few extra dollars for the program with all the tax cuts. If they all use it, they might be able to buy like a new engine or something.
I just can't get terribly excited about the ISS. I think we would get much more bang for the buck with unmanned missions and research on new lift vehicles and propulsion systems.
Anybody recall when Pizza Hut inquired about putting their logo on the moon via earth-bound lasers? Of course they realized they couldn't, but they wanted to.
Absolutely amazing.
hi,
i am new to this spacewatching thing.
It says
Moutain View
Aug 23 9:23pm NNW/NNE 3 18
what do the numbers mean ?
Well, maybe. We already saw the Pizza Hut advertising on the boosters, but there probably won't be much advertising on the station itself. Why? 'Cause even when it gets really big & bright, it will still be too small to read the ads with the naked eye. The corps can spend their advertising money much more effectively on TV, where everybody's watching anyway, than on ISS, where most people aren't looking.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
I didn't actually look at the author of this story until i was too late. I only assumed corporate conspiracies = jonkatz. Anyways. Why is it even mentioned that tghe international space staion is brighter than lots of stars. Of course it is. It's only 1000 million light years closer!
/.????
Intel conspiracies are sometimes funny.
Microsoft conspiracies are definetly amusing.
But when you start saying that the cosmos has dimmed just so that we may see nike logo's in the sky, I mean, that's just a little far, don't you think? Even for
What next, are you going to say that god (if he or she exists) hates Linux? Heavan runs Windows 2000 and there are no crashes? What are you getting at here?>??
In the future the ISS will be so huge it will BLOCK OUT THE SUN.
Trolls, it must be cool to be that bored.
If the Nike Swoosh floating in space helps fund additional space exploration and research, who cares? Television and internet ads, as painful as they may be, are a small price to pay for the free programming and information available.
Then again, if it were so bright as to cause light pollution for that same research, f*@k it.
I'm admitted not a space buff, but I can't help but wonder:
Wouldn't increased visibility indicate a lesser proximity to viewer? Read: The damn thing's crashing into Earth. I'm nearly positive this is the case.
Love, Stu
And if you really care about light pollution, visit the International Dark-Sky Association and you'll find that light pollution starts at home.
(Perth, Australia: sorry, not visible -- D'oh!)
If you have never read any Heinlein, you should start now. One of his short novels/longer short stories is called "The Man Who Sold the Moon." This amusing tale covers, among other things, what happens when corporate America gets involved with the space program. One example was a plan to have the light side of the moon scorched on a large scale to produce a company's logo that would be visible in earth's night sky. What's really interesting is that the story was written well before there was a space program. Heinlein is often amazing for his uncanny ability to describe our modern US (and sometimes global) society in shockingly accurate terms, especially considering how long it's been since he wrote the bulk of his work.
Windows is going the way of phlogiston...
The sad thing about space ads are if history repeats itself the fist space ads will be for p0rn. Sex in it's various forms have always been the first to move into new forms of media.
Leknor
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This reminds me of a 'work of art' that the ESA (European Space Agency) was said to want to put in space some time a go.
A set of really thin mirrors, and equally thin interconnecting wires was to be created which would unfold as this huge structure in space. It was going to look like the thirteen star ring of the Europeanc community, like the one that can be seen on some bumper stickers. It was going to be large enough so that it could clearly be recognized from anywhere on earth in the nighttime with the naked eye.
The project ended being cancelled because it was too controversial. Problems ranging from the setting a possible bad precedent (do we want the sky cluttered with 'art' and advertisements?), to what it would mean to the followers of certain religions led to the demise of the project.
Although it was cancelled, this project proved that putting 'art' or advertisements in space would be not only economically feasible, but as a matter of fact, relatively cheap, as the 'art' would take only a fraction of the payload of a modern rocket.
IMO with a cost of a few million, some crazy millionaire or corporation is bound to try something similar sooner or later. But, I think they will be quite unpopular; the last thing I personally want to see when I look up at the sky is something man made. Much less something that is close to being omnipresent.
If any of you have ever read Red Dwarf, you may remember how coke paid to have approximately 4000 stars sent supernova, just to spell out "Coke gives life". I laughed then, but now i'm wondering just how long it's going to be. Truth really is stranger than fiction, and the two are merging.
I went to their website only to find :(
"sorry, not visible" under the row for my country
It may take a LOT of energy, but more than enough can be right at the doors of a nuclear powerplant.
It was invented on 60's (or 50's?) but the main problem would be ppl suing the gov for it. And also there could be tampering, ie. drawing a joint in the mouth of the president on campaign... Well, maybe that could get him some extra points, who knows ;)
My $.02
Nike is already effective at saturating all earth-bound views with logos. What's the sense in putting an orbital swoosh up when anyone who views the night sky is already wearing a logo somewhere on his clothing?
If they *do* put adverts in space how long will it be before someone comes out with 'Sky junkbuster' which filters them all out again?
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
You also mischaracterize the particular experiment. It isn't about "fuel efficiency", it's about getting more gasoline from a barrel of oil by improving the efficiency of cracking (the "hydrogen storage" angle in the article is even more of a long shot). That doesn't improve energy efficiency or greenhouse gas emissions. There are much simpler ways of achieving better fuel efficiency, foremost by taxing gas guzzlers like SUVs.
As for light pollution, you can escape from city lights by putting your telescopes in remote places, but you can't escape from shiny objects orbiting the earth. At best, you can try to avoid having them pass through your field of view.
I have seen the ISS with my naked eye an several occasions. I recommend you visit http://www.heavens-above.com and select your location from their database of over two million. They give daily predictions of where to see any naked eye visible satelites, complete with skymaps, and times to the second, so even a completely ignorant astromomer can tell where to look. The ISS is not currently as bright as Mir, is much brighter since the Zveda module went up. Happy sighting, Alex.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gal lery/images/station/
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
A fist at arms' length is approxmently five degrees in the sky. this makes it easy to figure out elvations in the sky
makes me wonder, what is that?
I can see it's just an ad,
for a space-born Laundr-o-mat.
Ok, so my poem sucks. Give me a break, it's 2 AM and English's not even my first language.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
You know how big an ad would have to be for it to be visible from space? The station will appear only as a star-like object, like a point. There is no way something on the ISS could be visible.
"Will there be a point where corporate sponsorship hangs an ad in space? Already appearing "as the third brightest star in the nighttime sky", it will eventually be second only to Venus. Will we look up and see a Nike swoosh some day?"
Give me a break. What's with Slashdot's obsession with advertising? I'd understand predictions of commercialization of the sky in a story about the Pizza Hut ad on a rocket, but what does the brightness of the space station have to do with ads in space (besides the obvious, which any dummy could figure out)?
Next Slashdot story: "Scientists discover anti-gravity. What next, hovering ads that follow you around???"
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
How the hell is it possible to put something in an orbit where it isn't visible from the southern hemisphere? Or is it like everything else in Australia - we get it 6 months after the rest of the world.
Oh well, at least we've still got the Magellenic Clouds.
:wq
This isn't a fucking Troll! Fine mark it down if you must, but don't mislabel it.
Moderators == Idiots
And why the fuck can't I browse at 0 AND BELOW??? I don't want to be distracted by all pro-Linux and OpenSource crap that gets posted here when I'm reading the Trolls.
And why the fuck are all Trolls marked as -1.
ALL TROLLS ARE NOT EQUAL!!!
Lameass Slashdot mod system should have -1 all the way up to -5 Troll for the best. Stop the fucking discrimination!!!
By the time NASA figures out the technology to put ads in space, sending personal rockets into space will be available to every upper middle income citizen in the US. Mine will just happen to have a very explosive material attached to the newly developed "Swoosh-seeking missile". Not like its really going to hurt anything in space, unless they are stupid enough to put it next to something important.
>Of course it is. It's only 1000 million light years closer!
Sure, but the ISS is not a huge glowing ball that has fusion reaction going inside.
but see the nike swoosh, something has gone very very wrong.
Bob.
I want Coke and Pepsi to vie for the rights to blow up bombs of red dye (for coke) or red and blue dye (for pepsi) all over the moon (in the shape of their respective trademarks) so that instead of that boring ol' grey blob we can see the conveniently round logo of whichever soft-drink company paid more for the most eyeballs anyone has ever gotton...
When something becomes more visible, it can mean one of a few things: (1) it is getting closer, (2) it is getting brighter (or rather, more in contrast with its background, which could also mean darker in some contexts), or (3) it is getting bigger.
The ISS is (3) getting bigger. The participating nations are co-operating to put more modules into orbit and hook them together into space station parts. It's not going to be crashing anytime soon.
-- Guges --
Not in my browser...
)O(
Never underestimate the power of stupidity
Never underestimate the power of stupidity
To err is human, to moo bovine
I heartily recommend pocketsat for all the palm people out there...
That and a compass keyring, and you can find it dead easily. (Roughly once every 1.5 hrs post-sunset...)
I wonder how long it'll take me to get a GPS for my palm so I can get rid of the keyring...
And no, I didn't write it, I just think it's cool.
But then again, I'm sad (Apparently) (Or has that all changed in the era of Geek-Chic?)
Gav
"There's no such thing as data that can't be manipulated"
If somebody starts "tagging" the sky, it's sure we might soon see advertisings, religious or political propaganda, an maybe even tags.
Whatever one finds in a mail-bin, could appear in the sky.
But, if the pollution rises, nobody will be able to see it through the smog.
My bet is that it will be considered as pollution and thus forbidden, like the noise.
And if it's ever accepted and performed, then I bet that if Nike sells caps, it will be to people willing not to see their ads in the sky.
Until then, a solution would be to declare the Sky as part of the UNESCO's Patrimony so that it will virtually become impossible to soil it.
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
If only. My Karma has been stuck at 58 for ages, regardless of the moderations I've been receiving...
>Of course it is. It's only 1000 million light years closer!
Sure, but the ISS is not a huge glowing ball that has fusion reaction going inside.
Not yet anyway...
"... That probably would have sounded more commanding if I wasn't wearing my yummy sushi pajamas..."
My bet is that it will be considered as pollution and thus forbidden, like the noise.
sorry Mirko, but my bet is that if the money is there, they will do it. There will be a lot of righteous noise and heartrending, but then somebody will come along and offer to donate x billion to a worthy cause (that is, a cause considered worthy by those people that could block the space advert, like the US government), and up it will go.
It's the free market economy for goodness sake, try to block it in the name of keeping space clean / scientific progress / human values and some corporate will claim that you're blocking their right under the first amendment to free speech or something like it. Maybe they 'll even sue and make the environmental groups pay for it...
I give it 20 years.
Of course, as many of those non-beilvers that this dispels, how many more UFO sightings will be reported after seeing the ISS's streak in the sky?
But what about a temporary display? I think a man-made meteor shower (in lieu of your typical fireworks show) would absolutely rock!
Think about it - a space-based launch facility full of BB-sized or marble-sized projectiles (or whatever, I'm not a scientist...), chemically treated to flare up in colors that change over the duration of the burn. Maybe they could even be synchronized so that they would literally paint the night sky with whatever image or message was wanted..
...and so what if it would end up being a giant Coke logo or whatever, it would still be pretty freakin cool to look at!
Sean
Solution: Paint it black, or put black solar panels on it.
This is a problem, as it will be more difficult in the future to block out these objects from telescopes. So why not do it for them? Same problem with the irridium satelites... is there any good reason for their color now? Sure, it will still pass in front of stars from time to time, but it will be better than the way it is now.
I don't see a good excuse NOT to black it out.
-Ben
Can anyone explain why it would be visible twice tonight (the 24th) in boston, within 2 hrs, once heading eastish, the other time heading westish?
I could understand if it were in a really low orbit that it came overhead once ever two hours, but then shouldn't it tend in the same direction? and then another 20 hours till we see it again?
confused.
Heaven runs Windows 2000 and there are no crashes? What are you getting at here?
While I don't believe in heaven, I do believe in magic smoke. Permit me to elaborate:
Everything runs on magic smoke. There is a simple demonstration of this: take off one of your boots and whack your monitor a few times with it. You should hear a hiss--that's the magic smoke escaping. When the hiss stops no more magic smoke will remain inside, and your monitor will cease to function. Similarly, if you overclock your chip without sufficient cooling the chip will start to release its magic smoke. Same principle. Why do overheated cars stop running? Acute loss of magic smoke. "Houston, we have a problem. We seem to be jetisoning something into space." Again, magic smoke.
Computer software runs on magic smoke too, as we all know. This is why it is so exhausting to write code--magic smoke goes from our brains to being wrapped around the symbols in our emacsen; we replenish the magic smoke in our bodies by drinking cola (that's what's in those little bubbles). Compilers merely concentrate the magic smoke so that it can do something useful, like propagate an Outlook virus or somesuch. Open Source projects like the Linux operating system let magic smoke escape every time people poke and prod at the code, particularly people who work in unsealed environments like apartment buildings or university computer labs. This is inevitable, rather like how the magic smoke excapes whenever you open the door to your microwave oven. Win2k, on the other hand, is created in a hermetically sealed, corporate environment so the magic smoke has nowhere to go. Its magic smoke stays put, and this is why W2K and the Closed Source design model wins out over Linux and its Open Source development--that is, until we start writing Linux while wrapped in celophane.
This isn't rocket science, people.
Painting satellites and space stations black would cause them to absorb FAR more heat than reflective surfaces. Heat is a huge problem in space, believe it or not.
I think a man-made meteor shower (in lieu of your typical fireworks show) would absolutely rock!
:)
Wait a while, Iridium's gonna go down soon.
-- Bucket
For what Nike (which was only an example) paid Mr. Tiger Woods, I think they could send up a few of their own rockets. What they do with them is left to what they think they could get away with.
I thought paying an athlete $70 million (or whatever its up to now) for endorsements was pretty blatant. People aren't stomping around outraged so, what's the threshold? Once we get over our ire, what's the next threshold? Etc.
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
He ended up blowing the moon to bits.
Who's been messing with my laser?
Don't know whatever came of that--
...but he sets things up so there's an argument that the guy who thinks problems should be solved violently wins, looking v. cool in the process, and then goes on to say "only people prepared to fight and die on the orders of the state should have a say in how the state is run". Just plain nuts if you ask me. All these ideas are repeated in other books of his, and characters who follow these principles always "win" (get the girl, save Earth, whatever).
nal 11
Enough with the corporate-bashing (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24, @01:36AM EDT (#8)
You ask disparagingly if there will ever be a time when corporate banners hang from the ISS for all to see. Let me ask, Mr. Sarcasm, why has Slashdot all of a sudden turned into a "bash the corporations" Web site? You would do well to remember that the vibrant economy we enjoy today is virtually 100% because of the wealth creation of visionary corporations. Sure, they do stupid and shitty things, but enough is enough. I've read enough crap from "Seattle-WTO-protester" type idiots on Slashdot, the last thing you need to do is incite more of it with inflammatory comments like this. (Need I remind you all that you work for a corporation called VA Linux? 'Nuff said.)
Maybe corporations need "bashing" (Score:0)
.. did you read today's big comment-generator, the story about Sony's plans to kill Napster? Regardless of whether you like Napster or not, any clueful Netizen has got to be concerned about the potential implications for all Internet users.
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24, @01:49AM EDT (#21)
I don't know where you've been, but from what I've seen of late, there's a lot of reasons to be worried about large corporations and the way things are going (in the United States, at least.) There is this ingrained mentality that says that "corporations are great and Godly, and they should be able to do whatever they want, so long as they turn a profit."
Look at some of the things that these corporations want to do. They've always wanted to get into your homes and do things such as monitor your Internet usage and television viewing habits so that they can more effectively target advertising at you. But now they are crossing the line into taking away basic privacy and communication rights
A lot of people say that "big government" should be our largest source of worry. Well, I hereby call bullshit. At least in a democracy, "big government" must still answer to the voters that put them there. Who do "big corporations" have to answer to? Let me rephrase that: Who do "big corporations" have to answer to, when you've got a group of politicans that are hell-bent on letting them do whatever the fuck they want?
If you're at all concerned about your right to privacy and free speech, you should be concerned about the plutocratic leanings of the current American political system. Large corporations worship at the alter of profits. The alter of human rights and decency is not even in the same time zone, as far as they're concerned.
So maybe some folks want to see opinions like this supressed. Tough shit, I say. Creeping plutocracy must be fought. It will be fought. It never ceases to amaze me that those who preach that we should never surrender our rights to government are so quick to surrender them to the corporations. When given too much power, both Big Business and Big Government have equally horrific track records.
Get a life, get a clue, and get a grip. Finaly sombody posts sompthing besides comenting on adds (read: is actualy talking about the story) and your paraniod (and inaccurat) ass gets all bent out of shape.
Tunnel in the Sky is my most remembered Heinlein book. Kind of like 'Survivor', but without the contrived stuff to bring out the worst in people.
Actually, this brings up an excellent idea. Maybe we can allow space billboards if they are kept in orbit for a short term only.
In other words, ads have to be placed in a deliberately decaying orbit where they will last, say, one month. If the company wants another one launched, it has to pay for another one.
Benefit: Rocket launches might become cheaper because of the increased demand for them. This would benefit other, more serious and valuable projects, who could then launch for cheaper.
Drawback: If launches became cheaper, then more space billboards could be launched, cluttering up the sky, and the view for earthbound astronomy. But then again, if launches are cheap, space-bound astronomy could become common.
Just a few thoughts. Make of them what you will.
-----
"You spilled my egg... I needed that egg."
Why? As a preemptive strike?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?