Space ads could be coming to a sky near you

A sky full of ads? A Russian company has already taken the first step toward making this wild idea a reality. Space is the next frontier of free real estate for commercial purposes, though many are strongly against putting advertising infrastructure in the sky. However, without international regulation, giant floating billboards may just be the next profit-making scheme.

Written in the stars

The Russian company Avant Space deployed what it called the "first space media satellite" into Earth's orbit. This satellite is a prototype for a "planned fleet of small, low-cost, laser-equipped satellites designed to emblazon Earth's sky with corporate logos, QR codes and other consumer-culture ephemera," said Scientific American.

While the sky being emblazoned with ads feels like something straight out of a dystopian science fiction movie, some swear its implementation will "prove that space is not just for scientists, not just for the military — it is entertainment, too," Vlad Sitnikov of StartRocket, a Russia-based firm partnering with Avant Space, said to Scientific American. "And people like entertainment." A study published in the journal Aerospace found that a billboard-like constellation consisting of 50 satellites would cost approximately $65 million and still turn a profit.

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The advertisements would reportedly "only be switched on during dawn and dusk and only over major cities, thereby avoiding remote areas where telescopes are typically hosted and the dark hours when most astronomical observations are carried out," said Scientific American. As a result, proponents claim that light pollution would not be an issue. "The cities typically have permanent light pollution and are not considered as locations for observatories, for which the image demonstration can be harmful," said the Aerospace study. "Where there is humanity, there will be advertisements — we want to be the first," said Sitnikov.

The writing's on the wall

It is safe to say that there are plenty of people vehemently opposed to using the sky for ads. "There is absolutely no reason why you should use space in such a useless way to advertise commercials," Piero Benvenuti, a former general secretary of the International Astronomical Union, said to Scientific American. The U.S. has been of the same opinion. In 2000, Congress passed a federal ban on licenses for the "launch of a payload containing any material to be used for the purposes of obtrusive space advertising." However, this ban only applies to launches from the U.S. and not from other countries.

Scientists have long been calling for an international ban. Despite the claim that the billboards would only be turned on in certain situations, once in orbit, "these satellites would reflect sunlight particularly strongly during twilight hours, which would still degrade observations of current and forthcoming ground-based telescopes, leading to a loss of discoveries and increased bogus alerts," said Scientific American. As a result, the American Astronomical Society released a statement calling for the prohibition of space advertising through an international law or treaty.

Without international regulation on space ads, "the lure of it is so great that I can't imagine that no one will try," John Barentine, the principal consultant of Dark Sky Consulting, which focuses on outdoor lighting management, said to Space News. While seeing ads in the cosmos is unlikely to happen too soon, "anything profitable tends to occur sooner or later in this mad, mad world of ours," said TechCrunch. "Don't be surprised if you hear about attempts being made."