re vandalizing the sky in article c t k db research canon oz au enzo research canon oz au enzo liguori writes now space marketing is working with university of colorado and livermore engineers on a plan to place a mile long inflatable billboard in low earth orbit nasa would provide contractual launch services however since nasa bases its charge on seriously flawed cost estimates wn mar the taxpayers would bear most of the expense this may look like environmental vandalism but mike lawson ceo of space marketing told us yesterday that the real purpose of the project is to help the environment the platform will carry ozone monitors he explained advertising is just to help defray costs how could this possibly be environmental vandalism when there is no environment to vandalize up there since the advertising is just to help defray costs it s certainly no surprise that the taxpayers would bear most of the expense sounds like a good idea to me since the taxpayers would bear all of the expense if they didn t do the advertising what do you think of this revolting and hideous attempt to vandalize the night sky great idea they should have done it long ago what about light pollution in observations i read somewhere else that it might even be visible during the day leave alone at night i can t believe that a mile long billboard would have any significant effect on the overall sky brightness venus is visible during the day but nobody complains about that besides it s in leo so it would only be visible during twilight when the sky is already bright and even if it would have some miniscule impact it would be only for a short time as it goes zipping across the sky are protesting groups being organized in the states no doubt people are always looking for something to protest about so it would be no surprise really really depressed well look on the er bright side imagine the looks on the faces of people in primitive tribes out in the middle of nowhere as they look up and see a can of budweiser flying across the sky d jeff cook jeff cook ftcollinsco ncr com
