In 2009, David Kent Jones proposed “shadow shaping” / “shadow farming” technology, in which robots would alter the moon’s surface in such a way that shadows from sunlight on the moon would form company logo’s and advertising messages.<p>This method, however, was clearly banned by 2005 legislature on “obtrusive space advertising” (see: 49 U.S.C. 70109a) and potentially violates the “Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies” (that prohibits “disruption of the existing balance of its environment”).<p>The Moon Treaty of 1979 specifically bans “altering the environment of celestial bodies”<p>To advertise on the Moon, its environment would have to remain unharmed.
I for one would lobby my government to stop this from happening. When I look in to the infinite wonder of space I don't want to see a fucking coke logo slowly going by.<p>To quote from Sagan's The Dragons of Eden where he speculates on the Evolution of Human Intelligence:<p>"A typical example of the occasional resistance mustered by intuitive thinking against the clear conclusions of analytical thinking is D.H. Lawrence's opinion of the nature of the moon: "It's no use telling me it's a dead rock in the sky! I know it's not." Indeed the moon is more than a dead rock in the sky. It is beautiful, it has romantic associations..."
Hmph. Ten years after it occurred to me, someone else has this idea in their head. At the time, Microsoft was dominant and branching into everything. I figured they'd deploy microrobots on the Moon that people could drive around for a fee. I called it Microsoft Moon.
<a href="http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/so-no-microsoft-moon-after-all/" rel="nofollow">http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/so-no-microsoft-moo...</a>
The comments on HN have made me wiser. I have decided to abandon this idea altogether. Sorry for wasting ur time. Let me explore some more constructive ideas...
Yeah, uh, sounds a lot like like "hay, dudez, let's use the moon as a restroom wall. lol!"<p>I mean, I know we're moving towards cyberpunk dystopia, but, come <i>on</i>, can we not have this kind of poop being floated?
There's a Robert Heinlein book where having a logo on the moon is postulated. Anyone remember what that was called? Anyway, this is no way a new idea, and it's a terrible idea too.
<i>From the Lunar X prize teams we know that it nearly fits within a 30 million budget.</i><p>how so? from the lunar x teams I know, it is <i>exactly</i> the opposite.