NASA has figured out how to go to Mars and orbit around it with some precision. Take that same technology and put a lot of blue (e.g.) powder into a Moon orbiter. Orbit around the moon and "cropdust" a logo onto the moon.

A simple logo (like an exclamation mark) would be easy. A Cingular logo isn't much harder. The ATT logo would be a natural.
-- just4kinks, Jun 11 2002

Moon Theater http://www.halfbake...idea/Moon_20Theater
Projecting images onto the moon. [st3f, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Lunar Embassy http://www.lunarembassy.com
You better ask these people first. [waugsqueke, Jun 14 2002]

We had this one not too long ago, and it's still a bad idea. We have enough spam already, and I like the moon as it is.
-- StarChaser, Jun 12 2002


" "
-- thumbwax, Jun 12 2002


How easy would it *really* be? I guess the absence of weather on the moon means only a very light coating of dust would be required, but still, to cover the whole surface would take an awful lot of powder.
-- pottedstu, Jun 12 2002


[admin] MFD removed (I was a little trigger happy). The idea I've linked is about projecting onto the moon, not spraying powder onto the surface.

moved to business: advertising media
-- st3f, Jun 12 2002


Why not just draw your logo on a piece of paper and then look at that instead [justforkinks]. It would save a lot of hassle.
-- stupop, Jun 12 2002


Although I don't think this is a very good idea, I think it's sufficiently different from Moon Theater for it not to be redundant. Painting or drawing a design on the surface of the moon has its own technical problems and matters of interest, and is more original than the idea of projecting an image from the earth onto the moon.
-- pottedstu, Jun 12 2002


pottedstu: MFD already removed. I misremembered an idea an had one of these "I'm sure we've done this before" moments.
-- st3f, Jun 12 2002


As with many of the "innovative media ideas" I come across in my line of work, I find this thought extremely creepy and I must grant my fishbone.

Taking the idea seriously for a moment, any brand that attempted to do this would reap the PR whirlwind: "How dare you pollute our moon? Have you no shame?" Picket city.

The author Louis de Bernieres discusses this exact scenario in his novel, *The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts*, except in that case it's a Coke logo on the surface of the moon. In the novel, remote tribes set apart from the industrialized, commercial world evolve their myths and legends to explain the change in the moon's appearance. The logo eventually loses its sharpness and the moon is left looking as though it has been smeared with blood.
-- earl, Jun 12 2002


St3f, we DID have this same idea a while back, but apparently it's been removed.

This was threatened in Robert Heinlein's short story 'The Man who Sold the Moon', as well.
-- StarChaser, Jun 13 2002


What about starting a company and adopting the existing moon as your logo?

There, you've saved billions. You can make, say, industrial fasteners.
-- Monkfish, Jun 14 2002


Sorry, [UnaB], I've already done that.
-- angel, Jun 14 2002


Or a white cane manufacturer could do a lifesized logo of the sun, on the sun, and everyone who stares at the logo...
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 14 2002


StarChaser: Exactly!!!!! BTW, are most of you from the UK?
-- IdaKnow, Jun 14 2002


Um, i think this is actually going to happen.

Didnt i read somewhere you can buy plots of land on the moon already? And its not very expensive... if someone *owned* a significantly large (ie visible from earth) portion of the lit side of the moon, can we actually STOP them from painting it?
-- colinrocks, Jul 17 2003


I thought governments had agreed the moon was the property of the earth as a whole and no sole person/company can own any part.
-- silverstormer, Jul 17 2003


you can buy a piece of paper that says you own 'x' number of acres on the moon, but it doesn't mean anything,

Only the American gov't has any actual claim to the moon, under the 5 or so established ways to gain territory.
-- SystemAdmin, Jul 17 2003


How exactly do you crop dust the moon from orbit!? If you are in orbit, then the dust is also in the same orbit as well.
-- quantum_flux, Dec 30 2007


//to cover the whole surface would take an awful lot of powder// I wondered. So, let's suppose we use an optically very dense or highly reflective substance, say gold flakes. According to William Ickies Encyclopaedia, gold leaf is typically 100nm (0.1 microns) thick, and is pretty much opaque. So, let's hazard a guess that we could make it 50nm thick and still have pretty good opacity/reflectivity.

Next, assume that we will dust the moon with small pieces of this gold leaf. (We'll also assume that each leaf settles and lies on the surface.) You wouldn't need contiguous coverage - I would imagine that a 20% coverage would be very easily noticeable, especially given that we see the moon by reflected sunlight.

Next, assume we want our logo fairly big. The moon is about 3500km across, so suppose we want our logo to be at least 350km on a side. Suppose also that a typical logo is 30% "ink" and 70% "whitespace". Therefore, we need to "ink" about 37,000 square kilometres of the moon's surface. Remember we're working at 20% density, so this means about 7,400 square kilometers of gold leaf.

So, we have 7,400 square km of 50nm- thick gold leaf flakes. This amounts to a mere 370 cubic metres of gold. At a density of about 19 tons per cubic metre, this is about 7000 tonnes of gold.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 31 2007


So, if we put the entire US Federal Gold Reserve on the moon, we might project a message to the rest of the world?
-- david_scothern, Jan 01 2008


You could probably use aliumiunum instead. I'm guessing that would cut the weight requirements to about 1000 tons, and would also shave something off the materials bill.

I'm not sure how you make 50nm thick alumiumiuminum leaf, but it could probably be done by some sort of electroplating technique.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2008



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