The opening ceremony at the 2020 Olympics may feature a man-made meteor shower

Shawn Knight

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Hosting the Olympic Games is a rare honor that’s bestowed upon the luckiest of nations. Athletes from around the globe travel to compete in the games every two years and with the entire world watching, it’s no surprise that host nations pull out all the stops in terms of showmanship.

Tokyo will serve as the host nation for the 2020 Olympic Games and they certainly want to impress. According to reports, a company by the name of Star-ALE is bidding for the right to create a man-made meteor shower that would rain down over the capital of Japan during the opening ceremony.

If you want to leave the rest of the world in awe, a man-made meteor shower would certainly do just that.

The plan would be to send up a series of microsatellites into orbit loaded with 500 to 1,000 specially-developed pellets. The pellets, each of which reportedly costs about $8,000 to manufacture, would be made from various metals and elements. As they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they ignite at an altitude of around 35 to 50 miles up and display various colors in the process.

The meteor shower would be visible from at least 120 miles away, allowing as many as 30 million locals to witness the spectacle in addition to the millions watching around the world at home. The only question is, would that kind of money be worth it? We’ll find out in a few years.

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Waste of money.. and what would be the impact on the environment?..

The end of the world.

Waste of money, sure of course. But not all of us want to live robotic, left brained lives. God, how awful would the world be without these creative ways to 1) Bring people together 2) Expand the cabilities of entertainment.
 
If anybody even remotely cares, "Natrium", is more commonly known as "Sodium".

Plus I think "Barium" is also used in enemas....:D
 
If anybody even remotely cares, "Natrium", is more commonly known as "Sodium".

Plus I think "Barium" is also used in enemas....:D
I find it odd they used Natrium for Sodium but used Potassium instead of Kalium, I mean why pick the German favored name for one and the English favored name for the other?
 
I find it odd they used Natrium for Sodium but used Potassium instead of Kalium, I mean why pick the German favored name for one and the English favored name for the other?
Right. Well, "Natrium" makes sense in that it tracks the element's symbol, "Na". In that convention, "potassium" makes no sense either...:confused:
 
Waste of money.. and what would be the impact on the environment?..
All elements list in this article are relatively harmless in the amounts they will be used, after they are literally broken down into lighter elements by re-entry. All of it is pretty much the same stuff that natural shooting stars are already made of, they're just deciding 'where and when' in advanced.
 
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