Elon Musk Plans to Put Billboards in Space and People Want to Shoot Them at the Sun

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Elon Musk Plans to Put Billboards in Space and People Want to Shoot Them at the Sun

It turns out Elon Musk doesn’t just want to send billionaires to space, he also wants to send advertising. And that idea isn’t sitting well with earthbound critics.

Business Insider reports the plan is for Musk’s SpaceX to work with Geometric Energy Corp., a Canadian-based company, to send square-shaped CubeSat satellite, with one side used as a display screen, into space by 2022. The satellite would allow people or companies to blow what’s likely a pretty hefty fee in order to project advertising on the the satellite as it orbits the earth.

Some people asked the question of who will even see these ads — since they’ll be thousands of miles from the average human’s eyesight. GEC CEO Samuel Reid explained to Business Insider that the satellite will be equipped with a selfie stick attached to the outside of the satellite so it can film the display screen and then live-stream the ads to platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

Reid didn’t say how hefty of a price advertisers will have to pay, but he did say that SpaceX will accept cryptocurrencies as payment. It seems that anyone could be an advertiser on the satellite if they have the cash — Reid told Insider he wants to “democratize access” to it.

“I’m trying to achieve something that can democratize access to space and allow for decentralized participation,” Reid told Business Insider. “Hopefully, people don’t waste money on something inappropriate, insulting or offensive.”

Whatever reaction they expected, it probably wasn’t the torrent of mockery and scorn the announcement generated.

“So how long until we’re projecting adverts onto the surface of the moon?” writer Mark Newbold asked on Twitter Monday.

“F–k this guy and f–k his raping of our night skies. Fire him into the f—ing sun. Billionaires are a planetary cancer,” horror author Alan Baxter said, not mincing words.

More than a few people wondered why Musk isn’t using much of his $185 billion net worth to do something more useful, like fight climate change. “Can you just ask him to do something abt climate change @Grimezsz,” indie pop artist Nat Puff asked, tagging Musk’s partner Grimes in the tweet.

Musk’s sent over 12,000 satellites into space as part of his company’s mission of providing satellite internet to the world through Starlink. That endeavor has faced backlash from astronomers and everyday people alike — they are concerned that Musk’s plans to add tens of thousands more satellites into orbit could forever damage our view of the cosmos from earth.

The most common take seemed to be people lamenting the idea that the infinite inky blackness of our night sky could be further tainted by another one of Musk’s technologies. “Elon musk sucks so bad man if I am out there camping looking for constellations and I see a f—ing billboard instead I will lose what is left of my mind,” writer Danielle Weisberg tweeted Monday.

Check out more reactions to Musk’s space billboard plans below.

can you just ask him to do something abt climate change @Grimezsz https://t.co/jv8ViEeYXw

— nat “cops break laws to terrorize/intimidate” puff (@LeftAtLondon) August 9, 2021

Fuck this guy and fuck his raping of our night skies. Fire him into the fucking sun. Billionaires are a planetary cancer. https://t.co/FX5McyJp9y

— Alan Baxter (@AlanBaxter) August 9, 2021

On the day the @IPCC_CH has issued it’s starkest warning yet on climate change Elon Musk is reportedly planning to launch a billboard into space

Heaven help us https://t.co/djD25qQPG5

— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) August 9, 2021

I swear to god I will refuse to buy anything that advertises in space for the rest of my life and disown my children if they do. Stop @elonmusk from destroying the night sky too. $TSLA.https://t.co/E5Ny2z0Z6m

— Drunk Ross Gerber (@DrunkGerber) August 9, 2021

pic.twitter.com/BRV6s2dJeW

— Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan) August 9, 2021

Elon musk sucks so bad man if I am out there camping looking for constellations and I see a fucking billboard instead I will lose what is left of my mind

— danielle weisberg (@danielleweisber) August 9, 2021

can we pretend that billboards in the night sky are like shootin' stars
i could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now https://t.co/GiybbKbgDc

— don't hug me i'm porksweats (@porksweats1) August 9, 2021

Listen to me. If the beautiful infinite void of space, the one thing I have at the end of the day, is obscured by fucking Disney+ and McDonald's ads I will become the joker. https://t.co/6xXBlOqY2j

— Zane Schacht, Voice Goblin (@VoicesByZane) August 9, 2021

Billionaires shouldn't exist. https://t.co/b2aQk0UAdH

— Ógra Shinn Féin (@Ogra_SF) August 9, 2021

I will 100% figure out how to go to space in order to fuck up space billboards. https://t.co/IxSkS7uj43

— Isaac Fitzgerald🤞🏻🖤 (@IsaacFitzgerald) August 9, 2021

elon if you send a fucking ad for a tesla over my house with your stupid fucking satellite we're going to have a problem you can't fix with cryptocurrency https://t.co/glVVhBIVue pic.twitter.com/oEEx7xkrfg

— Gehrig Schreiber (@skurletonVA) August 9, 2021

turns out he was preserving ad space pic.twitter.com/n1OW47q184

— Davis Kimoto (@dkimot) August 9, 2021

Please don’t the sky is all I have left

— Mankrik’s Wife (@Marty_Shannon) August 9, 2021

pic.twitter.com/AlCY82Lhbb

— DOPEBOYEVSKY (@fabioyolo) August 9, 2021

So these niggas are spending BILLIONS on futile space ventures…but not on technologies (without Trojan horses), that could literally help save us from extinction. Bro they don’t even need to do much. “We’ll you X amount of money per pound of garbage you bring in or recycle”.

— OAK TREE JR (@TyloSol) August 9, 2021

Read original story Elon Musk Plans to Put Billboards in Space and People Want to Shoot Them at the Sun At TheWrap