SACRAMENTO – Tech billionaire Elon Musk who aimed to evolutionize transportation in space recently announced to put a huge advertising satellite in the sky to display promoted content.
In the latest joint venture with a Canadian startup named Geometric Energy Corporation that provides technology services, it mulled making space advertising possible with the help of SpaceX, Business Insider reported.
Chief of Canadian startup, announced that the company is working on a square-shaped satellite, which they named ‘CubeSat’ that will have a pixelated display screen where the advertisements, logos, and art will appear.
Sources quoting officials said the company plans to load the satellite via SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the year 2022 and companies would be able to buy tokens to locate and design a pixel on the screen.
Musk, who was once criticized for using his fame as one of the world’s richest people to back cryptocurrencies, mulled to sell tokens via cryptocurrencies.
According to Business Insider, “Five tokens affecting the pixels are purchasable: Beta and Rho for the advert’s placement on the screen, Gamma and Kappa for the color and brightness, and XI for its duration”. However, the company didn’t reveal how much each token would cost.
Meanwhile, the Canadian startup head while commenting on the development said he tried to achieve something that can democratize access to space and allow for decentralized participation saying that he hoped people “don’t waste money on something inappropriate, insulting or offensive”.
Addressing bias on space advertising, he said that ‘anyone can advertise on a CubeSat’. Adding that, “There might be companies which want to depict their logo or it might end up being a bit more personal and artistic, maybe Coca-Cola and Pepsi will fight over their logo and reclaim over each other”.
The report further added that the ‘man behind the master plan’ reached out to SpaceX back in 2018 to initiate the advertising project but he failed to engage any person. It took SpaceX a while to take my aspiration seriously before he eventually had a meeting at the company headquarters.
It was also reported that Reid taught Musk’s children at the Ad Astra school at SpaceX’s offices in California. However, the man behind the plan said ‘he never got the chance to meet Elon Musk but assumes he’ll talk to him directly at some point during the project’.
Soon after the report of Insider, critiques started lambasting business magnate to use his wealth for something more useful, like fighting climate change or ending poverty.
The idea also faced backlash as people expressed concerns that Musk’s plans to add tens of thousands more satellites into orbit could forever damage the view of the cosmos from the earth.
