Tokyo-based Startup, Star-ALE creates the unimaginable man-made meteor shower. 

Star-ALE is a Tokyo-based startup that is currently designing an artificial meteor shower for the 2020 Olympics. A microsatellite armed with 1-5k combustible pellets that will be ignited above 56-80 km of Earth, it would be visible from an area of over 190 kms. The combustible pellets are made from different metals and elements so that they bring out a variety of colors, when burned. Potassium, for instance, burns purple, cesium burns blue and copper lets off a green glow. Moreover, the gases are designed to simulate the friction between the pellets that would be subjected to as they fell to Earth from space.

The meteor shower will act as a replacement of fireworks. With this, the Olympics opening ceremony in Japan will be outstanding. Star-Ale aims to recreate the natural process of star shooting. Currently, the startup is testing the pellets in a vacuum chamber that exposes them to supersonic hot gases. If everything is in place, the show could been seen all over Tokyo and have a huge audience of 30,000,000 people. The area occupied by the meteor shower will be 400 times wider than the fireworks bursting at an altitude of 500 metres.

Most importantly, the cost of manufacturing each pellet is over $8,000. The company is aiming to launch its first satellite in the latter half of 2017 and commercialise the project in 2018.

Takeaways:

• A microsatellite armed with 1-5k combustible pellets that will be ignited above 56-80 km of Earth, it would be visible from an area of over 190 kms.
• The combustible pellets are made from different metals and elements so that they bring out a variety of colors, when burned.