Orbital Today (29 January 2025)

Laser Billboards in the Sky? Space Advertising Is Here And Astronomers Want It Stopped Before It Starts

It sounds like something from the Blade Runner franchise, but space advertising could present a real challenge, and at the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society earlier this month, the organisation called for this to be nipped in the bud. This kind of advertising is banned in the United States but companies are using workarounds, and in other countries, there is still a big problem coming if space advertising is not controlled.

John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), warned about the potential issues of advertising payloads: “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try,” he said. “I think the commercial value will prompt somebody to do it.”

Read more: https://orbitaltoday.com/2025/01/29/laser-billboards-in-the-sky-space-advertising-is-here-and-astronomers-want-it-stopped-before-it-starts/​