New Advertising Space Where There’s Lots of It
In a space walk from the International Space Station (ISS) next Wednesday, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin will whack several golf balls off into space. It’s all part of a publicity stunt - not for NASA, the Russian space agency (Roskosmos), or even a space tourism company. This particular stunt will be done to promote a new line of golf clubs made by Element 21. Yes, golf clubs. I wonder how much this costs. Could anyone with enough cash pay an astronaut to perform in space? Could you, for example, could get an astronaut onboard the ISS to wear leather and lipsync to Bohemian Rhapsody while eating M&Ms out of mid-air? Clearly this is an issue of taste. Golf clubs seem far more refined than Queen. But it begs the question: How much is really for sale? In a world where even Paris Hilton can have dreams of buying her way into space, we should be careful where we draw the line between financing exploration and cheapening the scientific return. For now we should be safe if we stick to the old Anchorman standby and keep it classy… Or just go ahead and sell out human spaceflight to the elite to use the money for real science.
P.S. Please excuse the lack of posting over the last two weeks. I’ve been totally stressed with work stuff while also attempting a massive birthday celebration. You’ll be happy to know that I have cleansed myself of all stressors and the like by a new nano-therapy where nanobots are injected directly into your cerebrospinal fluid, after which they gradually work their way into your brainstem, where they use tiny lasers to beam positive energy into all of your chakras. So now I’m, like, totally mellow and ready to hit you up with more blog posts sometime soon.
Christian said,
November 17, 2006 @ 1:42 am
I thought there was some kind of discouragement of spreading space junk. Imagine in 20 years when one of those golf balls breaks a hole in a probe or shuttle or something and causes irreparable harm? Am I being a kill-joy here?
Christian said,
November 17, 2006 @ 1:43 am
BTW, glad you’re playing the nanobot card here. Imagine the day when nanobots really can cure hangovers. I’m almost misty-eyed just thinking of it.
monkey said,
November 17, 2006 @ 8:26 am
You’re right, spreading space junk is discouraged. These particular golf balls are specially designed to weight 1 ounce (about the weight of a dollar bill), and will be out on a trajectory where they will orbit Earth for a few days and then burn up in the atmosphere. So I guess that’s how they’re getting away with it…
And, yes, the nanobots may save us all. But it will come at a price… (Insert foreboding music here.)
Mac said,
November 23, 2006 @ 1:16 pm
Space… the final frontier for Advertisers.
Why can’t advertisers limit themselves to blimps and streamers from airplanes?
I’m going to boycott Element 21 golf clubs.