No Billboards in Space

An anonymous reader writes "CNN is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration proposed Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits 'obtrusive' advertising in zero gravity." From the article: "For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers."

Might?!

[GreyOrange]

I'm a member of the astronomy club here in Orlando and Disney World about 35 miles away impedes our observations. Any astronomer will tell you that a full moon can ruin observations for the night and any billboard that's as bright as the moon and is in full brightness all the time is going to tick every astronomer off within the viewable region. I feel sorry for any country's astronomers where one of these things get put up.

Re:In other news..

[ColaMan]

Don't forget the French have got the bomb. And the Brits.

I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of *any* nuclear payload, even if it is just a french one.

Re:No such thing as "geostationary orbit over the

[Guspaz]

Likewise, a lot of satellites never pass directly over US soil, but could still appear as large as the Moon to Americans.
That's virtually impossible. If my math is right, an advertisement in geosynchronous orbit would have to be about 325km accross in order to be the same size as the moon. Since it'd have to be at least semi-ridged (and assuming it was square), the cost of building a sign with a surface area of 105625 square kilometers would be enormous.

Re:Huh?

[jmichaelg]

The U.S. owns the space the space above the U.S..

If that were true, the Soviet Union would not have been able to fly over U.S. territory and vice-versa. It was a deliberate choice Eisenhower made in 1955 when he proposed his "Open Skies" initiative. When Sputnik flew a few years later, he didn't complain about its flying over US territory because he wanted the right to do the same thing. In 1960 when Corona flew, it made a hash of the fear that the Soviets had an advantage over us and enabled Eisenhower to focus on domestic issues instead of meeting a non-existant military threat.

Outer space is open to whomever can get there.

Re:Launch sites.

[grnwmn]

This reminds me of the "freedom rights of the air," an the agreement made in 1919 about sovereignty rights in the air space above each nation.

1. The right to overfly one country en-route to another.

2. The right to land in an other country for a technical stop.

3. The right to carry traffic to a foreign state.

4. The right to carry traffic from a foreign state to the home state.

5. The right to carry traffic to/from third countries en route.

6. The right to carry traffic between two foreign states via the state in which the airline is registered.

7. The right to carry traffic between two foreign states entirely outside the territory of its home state.

8. The right to carry traffic between two points within the territory of a foreign state on a route with origin/destination in its home country.

9. The right to carry traffic within a country by an airline of another country.

It's good that the US is thinking about this issue. I only hope that the regulations will go far enough. A beautiful "ad lit sky" just doesn't sound right and somehow removes the appeal of an evening walk. Not only astronomers will be bothered by ads in space. Talk about light pollution!

Because...

[Presence1]

Sodium Vapor lights do indeed have a very narrow spectrum. They are also more economical than mercury and halogen lights. Yet mercury and halogen lights are indeed replacing sodium lights becuse the narrow spectrum is actually a hazard.

Low Pressure Sodium lights are almost completely monochromatic at 589nm, that characteristic yellow-orange color. High Pressure Spdium lights include some other elements (thus colors), but still have a very limited spectrum. The result is that it is almost impossible to see colors under these lights, for example the color of a car leaving a crime scene.

Oversimplifying, the retinas in our eyes have Cone Cells, and Rod Cells. The Cone Cells see color and are concentrated in the center of our vision, and so also give us high resolution. The Rod Cells see gray scale, are distributed, and have the ability to dark adapt to see in low light.

The spectrum of Sodium Vapor is insufficient to activate our Cone Cells. Yet the intensity of the light kills the ability of our Rod Cells to dark-adapt. So we are stuck with the low resolution of our Rods, with only their daytime photon-gathering ability, and orders of magnitude fewer photons than in daytime.

It is almost the worst possible combination, in some cases worse than a decent night sky. Sodium lighting has actually been shown to increase industrial accidents. So, though cheap to buy and run, sodium lights are frequently being replaced, unfortunatey for the astronomers.

I suggest that they abandon area lighting and just issue every citizen some good night vision gear (or tax credits for it). It would be much more fun that way.