The Real Event At Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics? A Man-Made Meteor Shower!

In 2020, Japan is going to host the Olympics, an international event that will see the best athletes from all over the world reunited. But this time around, the actual highlight of the Games could be extraterrestrial: a man-made meteor shower #todaymagic

Startup ALE Co. intends to fill the first night sky of the event with hundreds of meteors, instead of the usual firework show. How could this be done? The start-up intends to create a satellite and a series of special pellets that will be lifted to space. Then, all of them – between 500 and 1000 – will ignite and glow visibly as they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Built from different metals and elements, each one of them would have a different color, offering a spectacular  pyrotechnic show, visible from an area of at least 120 miles across, and over the city of Tokyo and other areas.

As amazing as this sounds, it seems to be a bit too much for an Olympics ceremony. The cost of making the sports edition memorable is of $8,000/single pallet, not to mention the money needed to make the whole thing work. It’s not clear what’s the stand of authorities on this, but ALE Co. says they will try to launch their first prototype in 2018.