With space tourism becoming increasingly popular amongst the one-percenters, Elon Musk is going somewhere no one’s ever gone before. Monday afternoon, Musk’s SpaceX revealed it intends to launch a satellite that will project ads to those in space while it orbits the planet. Partnering with Geometric Energy Corporation, SpaceX will launch the satellite — called a CubeSat — into space at some point in the beginning of next year.
Once in space, the satellite will deploy a “selfie stick” that will be able to capture the advertisements being projected into space. The satellite will then transmit a live video of that back to GEC’s Canadian headquarters where it will live in a livestream on YouTube.
According to GEC co-founder and chief executive Samuel Reid, anyone with an interest in the CubeSat can buy a pixel to help advertise their cause. All pixel “tokens” must be purchased with cryptocurrency, and there are five different tokens involved. Beta for the sign’s X coordinate, Rho for the sign’s Y coordinate, Gamma for the sign’s brightness, Kappa for the sign’s color, and Xi for the time the ad is displayed.
“I’m trying to achieve something that can democratize access to space and allow for decentralized participation,” Reid said (via Business Insider). “Hopefully, people don’t waste money on something inappropriate, insulting or offensive.”
There’s no way that will go wrong, right?
Reid didn’t announce how much each token would cost, but said the company will start off by accepting ethereum as a form of payment once the satellite launches. In the future, the company says, it plans to accept dogecoin.
“There might be companies which want to depict their logo … or it might end up being a bit more personal and artistic,” Reid said. “Maybe Coca-Cola and Pepsi will fight over their logo and reclaim over each other.”
The GEC boss compared to similar community-based projects in the past such as Reddit Place and Satoshi’s Place.
Cover photo by Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
