project skycanvas set to fill the night sky with multicolored manmade meteorites

shooting stars, once a relative rarity, might soon become a nightly occurrence. thanks to a new initiative from japanese start up ALE, if you’ve ever spent hours staring at the night sky waiting for that signature streak of light to grant your wish, you probably won’t have to wait too much longer. called ‘project skycanvas’, the team’s goal is to fill the sky with man-made meteorites as soon as 2018, with a full presentation planned for the 2020 tokyo olympics. 

a full presentation is scheduled for the 2020 olympics
all images © ALE

the dream started with ALE founder lena okajima, who as a child growing up in japan’s tottori prefecture would frequently see shooting stars cross the night sky. upon moving to tokyo, the former investment banker founded ALE to bring the extraterrestrial light show to the city streets. okajima remembers studying the phenomenon with a friend while pursuing a PhD in astronomy. ‘it was 2001. I went to a mountain to watch the shooting stars with my classmate’, she says in an interview with BBC click. ‘it was very nice — wonderful — these shooting stars. at first I thought, ‘this is easy’, because I just put a small ball in the atmosphere. but step by step I found it is difficult. difficult, but it is challenging — not impossible.’

different compositions result in different colours and luminosities 

normal meteorites create their luminous tails of light when bits of dust and debris burn up upon entering the atmosphere. the faster the object is moving, the brighter the shooting star will be. ALE’s project skycanvas will operate in much the same way, but at a vastly slower pace, allowing audiences below to enjoy the spectacle for longer. according to a feature by CNN, the pellets ejected by ALE will travel at a mere 8km per second — a snail’s pace compared to the usual 72km of natural meteorites. 

one satellite will be sent into the atmosphere every year of the project’s duration

after five years of research, ALE are close to finalising the exact composition of the different pellets — the recipe is top secret — that will allow them to control the brightness, and even the colour, of the shooting stars. once prepared, a cube shaped satellite is loaded with 500 to 1,000 of these pellets (called ‘source particles’)  and launched 500km into the sky. once in the correct position, the unit will begin firing the 2cm diameter source particles at targeted points in the atmosphere, creating a light show in space visible within a 200km range. in the greater tokyo area, that means an audience of up to 30,000,000 people.

once prepared, a cube shaped satellite is loaded with 500 to 1,000 source particles and launched 500km into the sky

as each pellet begins burning up, its unique composition will result in a different colour or vibrancy that will define its journey across the sky. as with natural meteorites, the pellets will entirely disintegrate as a result of their combustion. with the satellite’s ability to remain in the atmosphere for up to four years, ALE see the project being used to celebrate occasions of national or global scale. but according to CNN, the project isn’t all just for show — it’s having real scientific impact. ‘ALE’s work will also advance the study of natural meteors, the re-entry of satellites and spacecrafts, and the behaviour of the atmosphere’, writes kate springer, ‘once launched, the shooting stars could be used as a vehicle from which to observe the upper atmosphere.’