
No.  The idea was suggested around here during discussions of possible
near-term commercial space activities.  One of the folks involved in those
discussions, a
spacecraft engineer named Preston Carter, passed the suggestion on to 
some entreprenurial types, and Mike Lawson is apparently going ahead with
it.  Preston is now at LLNL, and is working with Space Marketing on 
the sensors that might be carried.

Actually, that sounds unlikely.  I don't know what the launch vehicle
would be, but I would expect it to go on a commercial launcher --
certainly not on the Shuttle -- and the fraction of the cost paid to NASA
for, e.g.,  launch support would probably 
cover NASA's incremental costs pretty well.


No, as noted, LLNL is involved in lightweight sensor design, per 
Clementine and related programs.  I'm sure folks around here would like to 
see a demonstration of a modern inflatable structure, but after all, 
the U.S. did the Echo satellites long ago, and an advertising structure
would not be much closer to an inflatable space station than Echo was
(or a parade balloon, for that matter).

While I happen to personally dislike the idea, mostly because I've got
a background in astronomy, it's hardly vandalism -- it would be a short-lived
intrusion on the night sky, doing no permanent damage and actually hurting
only a small subset of astronomers.  On the other hand, it would certainly
draw attention to space.   

Which, unfortunately, this is not likely to contribute much to.


As far as I know, it's a purely commercial venture.

I gather it is being very seriously discussed with possible advertisers.
Commercial projects, however, generally don't get "funding" -- they
get "customers" -- whether it will have customers remains to be seen.

Nahh.  He's too busy watching for mutant bacteria to notice anything in
the sky :-)


Jordin Kare	jtk@s1.gov	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory