SPACE: Lunar Billboard?

John Blanco-Losada (jbl@clark.net)
Thu, 26 Dec 96 15:47:39 -0500

As I was riding home from my parents' house last night after celebrating
another nice Christmas, I was struck by the bright, full moon shining in
the clear night. I guess my subconscious thoughts did some some strange
wanderings, and somewhere along the way the idea popped into my head of
using the Moon as a huge billboard. This way, some intrepid group of
entrepreneurs could sell advertising space and use the proceeds to fund
the cost of establishing a lunar base. I envision the billboard as a
huge digital screen, composed of huge banks of displays which form the
equivalent of pixels. This way the ad could be changed as often as
necessary to maximize the number of corporate sponsors.

Of course the thought has its aesthetic drawbacks; after all, who wants
to look up, as I did last night, and see a commercial that you can't get
rid of? On the other hand, with reports of the Japanese planning a lunar
expedition and Chinese astronauts training with Russians, how long would
it be until we look up and see a huge Sony logo or a picture of Chairman
Mao? I figure a bunch of capitalists may as well beat them to the punch.
After all, as anyone who's read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" knows,
whoever's sitting at the top of the gravity well can pretty much call the
shots.

I'd be interested in finding out if anyone else has already come up with
plans for this. Just for kicks, I'd also appreciate your evaluation of
the feasibility of this venture. For example, how big would the board
need to be to be visible, could we use solar power to power it, etc.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Blanco-Losada "You must be the change
jbl@clark.net you wish to see
http://www.clark.net/pub/jbl/jbl.html in the world." - M. Gandhi
------------------------------------------------------------------------