Inside the push to ban ads from space

While the Moon may never be made of barbecue spare ribs (sorry Harry Caray), a Chili’s logo could at some point appear alongside it – unless astronomers have their way.

At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) earlier this month, the organization published a statement calling for a global ban on “obtrusive space advertising” due to the interference it would cause for ground-based astronomy.

A deeper dive: While a federal ban on obtrusive space advertising has been in place for decades, astronomers say there’s a growing concern that companies in other nations could launch such payloads.

• In particular, the AAS statement cited a Russian company called Avant Space, which launched a small satellite last April designed to test technologies for a future constellation capable of shining lasers to form logos or other images for advertisers.

📅 This isn’t a new advertising strategy. In 2019, a Russian subsidiary of PepsiCo signed a contract with local space company StartRocket to explore using satellites equipped with Mylar sails to reflect sunlight in the form of an energy drink logo. But after conducting an “exploratory test” using a high-altitude balloon, Pepsi declined to pursue these plans any further.