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posted by martyb on Monday December 18 2017, @02:11AM   Printer-friendly

This Japanese space startup raised $90.2 million to put the first billboard on the moon

iSpace[sic], a Tokyo-based startup company has raised $90 million Series A funding to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2019, and then land a year later after orbiting the Moon. The funding was led by Japan Airlines Co. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Inc. Other investors in the Series A funding included Development Bank of Japan, Konica Minolta, Shimizu, Real Tech Fund, KDDI, Suzuki Motor, SPARX, Dentsu and and Toppan Printing. The investors will also be providing technology and other support to ispace, said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive of ispace. According to Bloomberg, Ispace plans on offering a "projection mapping service" which will serve as a small billboard on the moon. The company hopes to complete this mission by the year 2020.

It doesn't sound like the billboard is projected from an orbiter, but that it will involve a small display landed on the surface, photographed by the spacecraft:

Ispace[sic] says the initial business opportunity is mostly in marketing, including slapping corporate logos on its spacecrafts and rovers, and delivering images to be used in advertising. A successful landing will also let the company offer what it calls a "projection mapping service" -- a small billboard on the moon's surface. The startup says there will be demand from corporations looking to show off their logos with Earth in the background.

Hack that.

ispace, inc.'s website and its mission plans.

[Ed note: The proper capitalization of the company's name noted on their web site is "ispace, inc."]

Also at Space News and The Space Reporter.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Japanese Company ispace Plans Two Missions to the Moon 5 comments

Japanese company ispace says it will launch two missions to the Moon in 2020 and 2021

A Japanese company with hopes of exploring the Moon says it has purchased room on two upcoming flights of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in order to transport spacecraft to the lunar surface. These missions, slated for 2020 and 2021, are meant to serve as crucial technology demonstrations for the company, called ispace, which has grander ambitions of becoming a lunar delivery service one day.

The first of ispace's two missions entails putting a spacecraft into orbit around the Moon. If that is successful, then the company will launch its second mission — one that includes a lunar lander and rovers to explore the Moon's surface. All of ispace's hardware will ride as secondary payloads on the Falcon 9 flights; that means they will hitch rides on the larger vehicles that are launching to space and deploy separately. The rockets will drop off the spacecraft in a high orbit above Earth, and the vehicles will cruise the rest of the way to the Moon.

Also at Reuters and Popular Mechanics.

Previously: Japanese Company Could Put "Billboard" on the Moon


Original Submission

Glowing Space Billboards Could Show Ads in the Night Sky 48 comments

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/glowing-space-billboards-could-light-up-the-night-sky-in-2020/

Look up at the night sky in 2020 and you might see an ad for McDonald's floating among the stars. A startup is planning to use a constellation of tiny satellites to create glowing ads. The satellites would light up different messages for up to six minutes at a time at about 250 miles above Earth.

Also at Futurism.

Related: Company Will Create an "Artificial Meteor Shower" Over Hiroshima, Japan in 2019
Japanese Company Could Put "Billboard" on the Moon
Japanese Company ispace Plans Two Missions to the Moon
Another Highly Reflective Art Object Will be Launched Into Orbit in November
First Artificial Meteor Shower Might Outshine Nature


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @02:30AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @02:30AM (#611229)

    Hey ispace, take your billboard and shove it into Uranus.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:13PM (#611509)

      Maybe the NK madman is not so mad trying to rocket Japan. It would at least stop this nonsense. To contribute, send your food parcel to: ...

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Monday December 18 2017, @02:34AM (2 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 18 2017, @02:34AM (#611232) Journal

    the company [would] offer what it calls a "projection mapping service" -- a small billboard on the moon's surface. The startup says there will be demand from corporations looking to show off their logos with Earth in the background.

    Hack that.

    I can only hope that hackers have a silly message up on it on day 0.

    The proper capitalization of the company's name noted on their web site is "ispace, inc."

    They may identify as lowercase, but such capitalization is anything but "proper."

    I also see, at the bottom, ISPACE, INC, so they're at least consistently wrong if nothing else.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:12AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:12AM (#611263)

      I can only hope that hackers have a silly message up on it on day 0.

      Flat Earth Society related? ;)

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:41AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:41AM (#611683) Homepage

      "There's a great Darsh face hanging over the garden wall."

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @02:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @02:35AM (#611234)

    in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" did something similar, on a larger scale.

  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Monday December 18 2017, @02:37AM (2 children)

    by tftp (806) on Monday December 18 2017, @02:37AM (#611236) Homepage
    I don't understand how any recorded visual can cost more than an hour of photoshopping. The viewers of ads don't care and certainly aren't going to demand the certificate of authenticity. The picture will be dull and boring, compared to nearly any movie.
  • (Score: 5, Funny) by srobert on Monday December 18 2017, @02:39AM (1 child)

    by srobert (4803) on Monday December 18 2017, @02:39AM (#611237)

    ... blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind. Do this. Don't do that. Can't you read the sign.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @11:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @11:45AM (#611342)

      The sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply,"
      So, I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why.
      He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man. I think you'll do."
      So, I took off my hat and said "Imagine that. Heh, me working for you."

      (My long-haired buddy's favorite song many years ago.)

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Monday December 18 2017, @02:45AM (9 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday December 18 2017, @02:45AM (#611241) Journal

    Put a satellite in orbit around the moon, and have it project giant advertising onto the moon's surface during the new moon phase. Piss off the world.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday December 18 2017, @03:11AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 18 2017, @03:11AM (#611253) Journal

      Piss off the world.

      The old joke: Soviets painting the Moon red, Americans to write Coca-Cola on it.

      Relevant what-if-xkcd [xkcd.com] - even when compensating for a shorter distance, you'd be some order of magnitude short to produce a noticeable results.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Monday December 18 2017, @05:53AM (7 children)

      by edIII (791) on Monday December 18 2017, @05:53AM (#611285)

      Kill them. I'm serious too. What right do they have to deface the moon for all seven billion people on Earth? I wouldn't look at the moon anymore if it were full of advertising. No moonlit walks without being forcibly subjected to some fucking marketer's bullshit?

      Nope. I'd hack that fucking satellite and crash it into the moon. Man, fuck advertising and it's need to creep into everything. This is why we will need augmented reality glasses. Just to remove all the advertising crap in the world.

      It reminds me of Hancock with Will Smith putting branding on the moon. Cute idea for a movie, but in real life it's profoundly disrespectful and selfish.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @07:20AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @07:20AM (#611303)

        don't worry they are just making noise to get a bit of free attention

        anyone that seriously thinks this will even get off the masturbation powerpoint presentation, let alone actually onto any kind of "drawing board" is a fool

        eventually it may happen though, and you know what.... nobody will give a fuck

        why worry about a company defacing the moon if you don't care that its pumping industrial waste into your drinking water?

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Monday December 18 2017, @09:36AM (1 child)

          by lentilla (1770) on Monday December 18 2017, @09:36AM (#611325)

          You are probably correct; nothing will happen (at least this decade); and this is just attention-grabbing behaviour.

          It's also quite immoral to make the suggestion. Joking about plastering the moon with advertising is fine. You can tell when people are joking because there's a bunch of friends sitting around a table with a bottle of wine. On the other hand, a bunch of sober business people being paid to do studies and making press releases is most definitely not joking. And it's beyond not funny, it's downright immoral.

          Then there's the multiplier effect - how many people does your action affect? Carve your lover's initials into a tree out bush - whatever. Kick over my letterbox - a week's community service. But graffiti the moon? So yes, dropping a turd on the moon is actually worse that polluting the local water supply because it affects more people.

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday December 18 2017, @05:40PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Monday December 18 2017, @05:40PM (#611489)

            So yes, dropping a turd on the moon is actually worse that polluting the local water supply because it affects more people.

            Depends on what the pollution does. I'm sure you don't buy into the Eliezer Yudkowski crap that a mote of dust in all 7 billion humans' eyes is worse than murdering someone?

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 18 2017, @02:06PM (1 child)

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday December 18 2017, @02:06PM (#611388) Journal

        This is why we will need augmented reality glasses. Just to remove all the advertising crap in the world.

        Dont worry. Your amazioogle glasses will have all the adverts built in.

        • (Score: 2) by edIII on Monday December 18 2017, @10:13PM

          by edIII (791) on Monday December 18 2017, @10:13PM (#611600)

          Sorry, the blob/binary free was strongly implied. I'm waiting for the LibrePhone from Purism, and any augmented reality tech I have will also be free in such a fashion.

          We've seen a very rapid progression in the last 10 years in systems having the ability to map textures (faces in porn article), and Google has the ability to determine objects. I strongly believe it will only be a matter of time till we have both the miniaturized hardware and software to pull real time augmented reality with objectionable parts of reality removed. The objectionable parts would be advertising, and I would remove them from everywhere. The moon, the billboards, your shirt, and whatever audio is around as well.

          --
          Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:45PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:45PM (#611448)

        Man, fuck advertising and it's need to creep into everything. This is why we will need augmented reality glasses. Just to remove all the advertising crap in the world.

        I wouldn't be at all surprised if the augmented reality glasses projected their own advertising. It's time to kill all marketing droids, for the good of humanity.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday December 18 2017, @03:44AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday December 18 2017, @03:44AM (#611259) Homepage Journal

    That's what photoshop is for.

    I read one of Abby Hoffman's books back in the day. He was hiding from the police at his publisher's office while writing the book by hand. I don't clearly recall but possibly its title was Steal This Book.

    He explained how to project the words "BULL SHIT" on movie theater screens with a flashlight and a piece of aluminum foil.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 0, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday December 18 2017, @06:10AM (7 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday December 18 2017, @06:10AM (#611288) Homepage Journal

    In some of their gardens, they have sand. At my clubs, we have sand traps. Which are always, always neat & tidy. But the Japanese, they take sand to another level. A whole other level where it's totally amazing. They have little rakes, they put rocks in the sand and rake all around. And you're looking at little islands in the ocean. It's rocks and sand, but it's beautiful. Sounds really crazy, you have to see it. Or see a picture. Trust me, it's a beautiful thing. And they could really do a number on the Moon. I'm telling you, they could send up a guy with one of those little rakes. Or send a robot, they are very big on robots. And there would be no more Man in the Moon. You know the Man in the Moon? He'd be gone, it would be Mister Donut on the Moon. Or Mitsubishi.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by captain normal on Monday December 18 2017, @06:21AM (6 children)

      by captain normal (2205) on Monday December 18 2017, @06:21AM (#611292)

      Maybe you are the real Donald Trump. If so, I'd love to slap a cream pie in your face. Or maybe just bust my knuckles on your nose.

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @07:24AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @07:24AM (#611306)

        why do you care so much about donald trump fucking the country up when other politicians have been doing it for over a century?

        maybe lay off the media hysteria or you might just choke on it

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday December 18 2017, @08:26AM (2 children)

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday December 18 2017, @08:26AM (#611316) Homepage Journal

          No one ever asks, why was there the American Revolution. People don't ask that. One reason was very high and unfair taxes. We had a revolution to get away from those taxes. But under my predecessors, taxes got very high again. And very unfair. But now our politicians are working together beautifully. And I don't mean collusion. We're working to repeal a lot of the taxes, we call it the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. Even Little Marco Rubio and Liddle Bob Corker are on board. And I have my pen. I'm sitting with pen in hand. It's happening, folks. Maybe, probably, this week. Very big week ahead!

          • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday December 18 2017, @06:22PM (1 child)

            by captain normal (2205) on Monday December 18 2017, @06:22PM (#611515)

            Actually the American Revolution was more about fighting the trade conditions imposed by the huge monopoly, East India Company. Taxation without representation was a subtext and the actual imposition of a tariff on goods imported by the EIC was the real problem with the people of Boston and the Colonies.
            https://www.britannica.com/event/Boston-Tea-Party [britannica.com]
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company [wikipedia.org]

            If you do not learn from History, you are destined to repeat it.

            --
            When life isn't going right, go left.
            • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:17AM

              by dry (223) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:17AM (#611701) Journal

              Don't forget about land. With the King declaring that all his subjects were equal and had equal rights to the land, big land developers were pissed off as they had plans to develop all that land to the east.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:08PM (#611347)

          The chief executive of the country gets to appoint people to positions of authority who then can rewrite guidelines as to how agencies enforce or don't enforce the law.

          The president also gets to appoint judges who can stay in those positions until they die or they do something so heinous that they are impeached and tossed out.

          You may have noticed that the people Trump is appointing are Reactionaries who are opposed to civil liberties and worker rights.

          Yes, previous politicians have been bad.
          This one was a quantum leap.

          Want to see how bad HyperCapitalism/Fascism can get?
          Inform yourself about how things are in Indonesia.
          Indonesia doesn't even have proper sidewalks. They haven't built any new public infrastructure there since 1966. [dissidentvoice.org]

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday December 18 2017, @08:04AM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday December 18 2017, @08:04AM (#611312) Homepage Journal

        When I decided to run for President, many foolish people said, "Oh, he's not really running. Oh, it's just a publicity stunt, not a real campaign. Oh, he has no real experience. Oh, he can't really win!" And other foolish things. Believe me, I'm real. I'm very serious. And the people who thought I wasn't, a lot of them were badly disappointed. Because I proved they were wrong. And a lot of them got violent. We have a terrific trial going on, one of our biggest trials, something like 60 very dangerous people from our alt-left. Who rioted during my inauguration. They call it a protest, it wasn't a protest. It was a riot, folks. The likes of which Washington had never seen. And they were all arrested. But we have a lot of bad, or sick, ones still on the loose. Who deny the will of the people. The people who voted OVERWHELMINGLY for Donald J. Trump. Believe me, I get threats all the time. I would be getting threats all the time. If I listened to the phone calls to the White House, I'm sure there would be a lot of threats. Let me tell you, Obama did one thing right. When he shut down that phone line. I have been very active in overturning a number of executive actions by my predecessor. But I'm not about to turn that phone back on!

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday December 18 2017, @06:16AM (1 child)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday December 18 2017, @06:16AM (#611290)

    Invasive ads everywhere, nobody looks at thems.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:48PM (#611426)

      .... except all the people who do.

      To folks like you and I, NoScript and an adblocker are as easy as the next breath (here's hoping you're not in need of an iron lung).

      To the unwashed masses of humanity, such things are the blackest of voodoo magics - assuming that they've even heard of the things at all.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday December 18 2017, @08:56AM (2 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday December 18 2017, @08:56AM (#611322) Journal

    From the couldn't-decipher-the-dept.-line-from-this-distance dept.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:14PM (#611413)

      That's exactly the thing, you'd have to have an ad that was literally so large that the entire moon was covered just to give you a very small ad that's visible to most people.

      My guess is that this is just some sort of publicity stunt as it would cost trillions or more to actually do at this point.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:19PM (#611511)

      So maybe an optometrist group will be the first advertisers?
      Squiggle line dash - huh? Oh, it's in JAPANESE!

  • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday December 18 2017, @05:30PM

    by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 18 2017, @05:30PM (#611482)

    Great, now there will be a giant "CHA" on the moon...

    --
    The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 18 2017, @06:04PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday December 18 2017, @06:04PM (#611503) Journal

    Will the advertising company executives or the executives who pay them for ad space on the Moon still live on Earth, or will they go live on the Moon too to escape the enraged billions who will want to chop them up into little pieces?

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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