The Perseid meteor shower, one of the three largest meteor showers in the northern hemisphere, appears every year from July 20 to August 20. For many people, this is one of the most anticipated astronomical phenomena in summer.
The climax of this year's Perseid meteor shower appeared in the early morning of August 13th, which coincided with the approach of Qixi Festival, and many people gave it a romantic atmosphere.
However, due to time, geographic location, weather, light pollution and other objective factors, it is inevitable that some people will miss this visual feast.
On the evening of August 13th, Yang Feng, the founder and CEO of Tianyi Research Institute, "skinned" in the circle of friends: "The rich man who didn't see the meteor shower tonight, you can ask me to place an order."
Artificial meteor showers have early adopters
Yang Feng's words brought out the idea of using aerospace technology to create meteor showers.
Simply put, the process is to launch a satellite from the ground to release special objects to the earth in space. These objects will rub against the air at high speed after entering the atmosphere, burn and glow, which can present the effect of a meteor shower.
This idea is not original by Yang Feng. In fact, Japan has already tried it 2 years ago.
On January 18, 2019, Japan used Epsron rockets to launch a seven-star launch at the Uchiura Space Center in Kagoshima, including the satellite "ALE-1", which is said to be capable of producing meteor showers.
"ALE-1" is named after Astro Live Experiences, a Japanese space entertainment company, and weighs 68 kilograms.
According to the plan, the satellite will be deployed in an orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometers. At a specified time and within a specific orbit, it will rhythmically spray 300-400 meteor particles with a diameter of 1 cm and a weight of only a few grams. These particles can be at an altitude of 40 to 60 kilometers. The atmosphere continues to burn, forming a wonderful and magnificent man-made meteor shower.
It is worth mentioning that artificial meteors can use different materials to show different colors, and the burning time is longer than natural meteors, which can reach 3 to 10 seconds, which is undoubtedly a great advantage for onlookers and wishers.
The company also proposed at the time that it hoped that this spectacle could be displayed at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
According to reports, this test failed due to a malfunction of the release device, but it has to be said that the idea is indeed quite creative.
So, can the artificial meteor shower be realized, and is it possible to become a new business in the commercial aerospace field in the future?
The cost is too high or restricts its commercial development
Yang Feng said that only from a technical point of view, the related technology is not complicated and not difficult to implement.
In the process of producing artificial meteor showers, satellite manufacturing and rocket launching are not difficult problems. The first technical hurdle is the release of meteor particles. The Japanese experiment mentioned above failed at this link.
Pang Zhihao, the chief science communication expert of national space exploration technology, said that spacecraft release loads in space are very common. For example, multiple satellites are released through the allocator during the multi-satellite launch mission. The International Space Station has also released small satellites into space through special devices. .
For man-made meteor showers, a launching device is actually mounted on a satellite to release meteor particles by launching multiple or a single continuous launch.
The difference is that in the past, the release of a satellite in space was to make it orbit, but to create a meteor shower is to shoot particles toward the earth and let it enter the atmosphere and burn.
In order to ensure the visual effects of meteors, such as duration, flight trajectory, etc., factors such as launch angle and speed should also be considered when launching meteor particles.
Pang Zhihao said that satellites should be allowed to launch meteor particles as close to the atmosphere as possible to reduce the difficulty of control.
If you want an artificial meteor shower, the light emission is not enough. It also needs to appear over the designated area at the designated time, which also puts forward requirements for the orbital design.
But this is not a problem.
Pang Zhihao said that in the past, when the Shenzhou spacecraft returned or the returnable satellite was recovered, it was necessary to control the spacecraft to fly in a predetermined orbit and finally land on a designated location.
In order to let the meteor shower "refer to where to go", in fact, we can learn from related technologies.
Although there are no technical problems, Yang Feng is not optimistic about the market prospects of artificial meteor showers. The biggest obstacle is cost.
Yang Feng said that according to the current commercial launch market price, the cost of launching a payload is about several hundred thousand yuan per kilogram. A satellite plus hundreds of meteor particles can weigh up to tens of kilograms.
In addition, the satellite to perform this task needs to have an energy system, a control system, etc., and its cost will not be too low.
Comprehensive estimates, if you want to customize an artificial meteor shower, the price is at least 10 million yuan.
As soon as this number comes out, the enthusiastic friends can calm down.
That's right, it's not that the man-made meteor shower can't be adjusted, but we can't.
To spend tens of millions to watch a meteor shower, would it take a lot of wishes to make money back?
But imagine that this business may not have no market at all.
For example, on major occasions such as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the state should pay for a meteor shower over the venue. The scene should be quite shocking.
For powerful companies, naming a meteor shower is also a kind of eye-catching propaganda.
Even individual users are not impossible. Since there are local tyrants who are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to go around in space, chances are that there are also big money who have a soft spot for meteor showers.
Besides, if one person can't afford it, friends can still crowdfund it.
The above may be just random thinking.
Pang Zhihao believes that conducting research and experiments on artificial meteor showers may help promote the development of space technology.
He said that at a designated time and at a designated place, allowing many substances to re-enter the atmosphere at the same time, something humans had never done before.
In addition to making meteor showers, this technology may also be applied to other fields in the future.
Our reporter Fu Yifei, intern Xie Yukun