Human-made shooting stars to inspire interest in space and collect vital climate data in the mesosphere
Press release 3月 30, 2023
SKY CANVAS is the world’s first human-made shooting star project and aims to bring people all over the world together to witness an unprecedented collective experience that will inspire scientific curiosity and advance our understanding of climate change.
MARCH 30TH, 2023 – LONDON: ALE Co., Ltd. today announces the global launch of its spectacular project SKY CANVAS, set to transform the night sky into a celestial showcase for human-made shooting stars that can collect important atmospheric data in the mesosphere. Previously, it has been difficult to gather meaningful data from this layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, as weather balloons or aircraft cannot fly high enough, and it is too low to be observed by satellites.
To support its mission, ALE has launched the SKY CANVAS Community Club to engage current and future space fanatics to discuss and learn about space and space sciences, with a focus on the development of sustainable space exploration. Those who want to be a part of space science history can buy a SKY CANVAS VIP PASS NFT to get the chance to be one of the first people to ever witness a human-made shooting star, to help to crowdfund and kickstart a new wave of climate science and space edutainment and to make a vital contribution to charity.
“Our aim is to contribute to the sustainable development of humankind and to bring space closer to all of us, by expanding the area of human activity beyond Earth to discover, collect and apply essential data from space,” explained Dr. Lena Okajima, founder and CEO of ALE. “As a first step, I founded ALE to create the world’s first human-made shooting star, to inspire wonder and to spark scientific curiosity.
“In the future, by combining critical climate research with a new form of space entertainment we believe we can further our scientific understanding of climate change while also inspiring curiosity and interest in people all over the world about space and the universe.”
ALE will continue to own and develop the core technology behind SKY CANVAS’s human-made shooting stars, to realize its threefold vision:
- to establish strategic partnerships across industry and academia to leverage its technology and enable scientific climate research into atmospheric data.
- to establish and grow a new “space entertainment” market category.
- to create innovative new digital content to achieve sustainable growth in this market.
For further information on SKY CANVAS go to www.skycanvasglobal.com.
You can also join the SKY CANVAS conversation on Discord at https://discord.com/invite/T763uufZ9J.
PR contact:
SKY CANVAS PR team
T: 44 (0)207 388 9988
How does SKY CANVAS work?
ALE’s proprietary technology recreates natural shooting stars. Natural shooting stars, or meteors, emit light due to the aerodynamic heating of small dust particles when they travel through Earth’s atmosphere at very high speed. ALE recreate this phenomenon by accurately releasing particles that become shooting stars from its satellites when they enter Earth’s atmosphere.
First, meteor-replicating particles are installed into one of its satellites. Then, by controlling the position, speed, and timing of the meteor particles, the human-made shooting stars emit light in the sky at a designated location anywhere in the world. Allowing people all over the earth to enjoy this rare, beautiful, celestial experience.
How does SKY CANVAS enable sustainable climate and environment science?
Climate change action is the most urgent issue facing humanity today. Climate-related disasters have doubled in 20 years, with various other environmental problems emerging such as the impact of climate change on ecosystems. Currently, there are limitations on the area of atmospheric data that can be acquired. The basis of climate research is global environmental data, but the ‘mesosphere’ has not been adequately observed, to date, in atmospheric data. This is because the mesosphere is too high for airplanes and balloons, yet too low for satellites.
Studying the path and light emission of SKY CANVAS’s human-made shooting stars will enable ALE to collect new atmospheric data (including wind speed, atmospheric composition and more), with a view to addressing climate change and contributing to weather models. Atmospheric data in the mesosphere from shooting star orbits and emissions have the potential to provide valuable insights into the unknowns of climate and weather. Although it is difficult to acquire data with existing observation methods, with human-made shooting stars, the location and timing of their flow can be determined in advance, and SKY CANVAS will acquire and provide data through observation.
About Dr. Lena Okajima
Dr. Lena Okajima is the founder and CEO of ALE, which she founded in 2011. Prior to ALE, Lena worked at Goldman Sachs Japan. Before Goldman Sachs Japan, she established a science and entertainment company while attending the University of Tokyo and served as its CEO. Lena holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Tokyo.
About ALE Co, Ltd.
ALE’s mission is to “Make space closer. For all of us. Together.”
ALE is a space startup company started by Dr. Lena Okajima in 2011 to create the world’s first human-made shooting star. One of the driving forces of ALE is the passion to contribute towards the development of science.
Address: 2-11-8 Shibadaimon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0012, Japan
CEO: Dr. Lena Okajima
Established: 1st September 2011
Nature of Business: Space Entertainment (SKY CANVAS), Atmospheric Data
For further information www.skycanvasglobal.com.