Space technology company ALE has announced the firm’s plans to launch the next SKY CANVAS satellite into orbit, a major step forward in the world’s first, human-made, shooting star project.
This is the first step toward ALE realizing the company’s ambition to usher in a new era of sustainable space entertainment over the next decade, boosting the global space business as well as advancing essential climate science research and education.
The new ALE-3 satellite — scheduled to launch in 2024 — will gather climate information in the mesosphere, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere directly above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. Atmospheric data gathered in the mesosphere has the potential to provide valuable new insights into Earth’s climate and weather.
The latest news about ALE-3 follows the launch of ALE’s SKY CANVAS Community Club, a dynamic platform dedicated to fostering the exchange of knowledge and actively sharing ideas around space, astronomy, and science. The SKY CANVAS Community Club will provide a place for members to be kept informed about exciting developments at ALE, including the human-made shooting star experience, with lots more exciting benefits to be announced, in due course.
ALE has already completed two successful SKY CANVAS satellite launches (ALE-1 and ALE-2), putting two satellites into orbit in January and December of 2019. The next SKY CANVAS satellite launch (ALE-3) will take place in 2024, and the first commercial service of SKY CANVAS is scheduled to take place in 2025, when ALE hopes to inspire a new generation of space and science enthusiasts across the world by giving them the opportunity to view the world’s first live human-made meteor shower.
The SKY CANVAS Community Club is an edutainment project where space enthusiasts can:
- Meet like-minded space fanatics in ALE’s online Discord community
- Get access to interesting educational content in the form of interviews, presentations, and AMAs with space industry experts and thought leaders
- Follow the journey of SKY CANVAS as ALE prepares to deliver the first ever human-made shooting star experience
- Find out about other exciting space related news and events
- Obtain lots of member-only benefits as VIP Pass holders
“The mesosphere represents a critical part of Earth’s climate system. Indeed, the mesosphere is where the ozone protecting us from harmful ultraviolet radiations is produced and where atmospheric tides occur shaping the large scale atmospheric movement. Investigating the mesosphere is of utter importance to combat climate change and SKY CANVAS is uniquely capable to bring very valuable large multi-point measurements with its human-made meteor shower. SKY CANVAS represents an amazing outreach opportunity to inspire the next generation of STEM students and bring a novel and mesmerising experience for people on Earth, allowing ’space entertainment’ to be fully intwined with high level space and Earth’s climate science.” — Dr. Gilles Bailet, Research Associate in Emerging Space Technologies at University of Glasgow.
“Our purpose and our strategic goal at ALE is to create a space entertainment market by the 2030s that supports fundamental science, and to become a pioneer in this market. Fundamental science is a source of innovation and contributes to social and economic development through the accumulation and sustained creation of new knowledge, findings, inventions, and other research results. ALE’s values are the fundamental sciences themselves, and we believe that their promotion is extremely important. ALE embodies the power of fundamental science in our three core values: curiosity, pathfinder and evolution.” — Dr. Lena Okajima, founder and CEO of ALE
