Artificial Meteor Showers

by Dave Caulkins

Here is an idea for a REALLY large-scale fireworks display, one which fits in with current politics: use to-be-destroyed ballistic missiles to produce firework-type displays in the form of artificial meteor (AM) showers.

How would it work?

Russian ICBMs like the SS-18 have throw weights (amount of payload they can deliver on target) of about 7,000 Kg. US ICBMs have smaller throw weights of approximately 3,500 Kg.

The average 'shooting star' type meteor with the same brightness as the brightest stars weighs about 1 gram when it starts to enter the atmosphere.

So as a first cut let's make our artificial meteors (AMs) have masses of 0.1 Kg, which would produce very spectacular fireballs as they burn up in the atmosphere. 3,500/0.1 = 35,000 individual AMs, each one MUCH brighter than the average shooting star, and all appearing in a period of tens of seconds over a place whose location can be selected to within better than 1 kilometer.

Even with the smaller throw weights of shorter-range, less capable ballistic missiles the number of AMs could be impressively large.

We probably don't want them in a cluster the size of an ICBM reentry vehicle, so we would want the missile payload to be something like a 'shell' with a bursting charge set off after the missile left the atmosphere, and calculated to separate the AMs into a cloud 1 or 2 kilometers in diameter on reentry.

Like color? Make the individual AMs out of the usual color-generating elements: copper (blue), strontium (red), barium (green), iron (yellow), etc. Note that these AMs are not your usual pyrotechnic stars; any mass entering the atmosphere at a velocity of about 10 kilometers/second has potential energy of about 6 x 10^4 joules/gram; the decomposition of TNT releases energy of about 4 x 10^3 joules/gram. No chemical reactions needed; atmospheric friction will provide all necessary energy.

The AMs would need to have special shapes. Spheres are not a good idea, especially if high melting point materials like iron are used; there have been cases of meteors in the few-gram range making it all the way to the ground. The ideal shape would be one which stayed incandescent for as long as possible, but was guaranteed to be down to a fraction of a gram at a safe altitude of 15 kilometers or so.

AM shape and construction may need to be special to maintain the ablation temperature in a good range for color production.

Some kind of lattice sounds good. It might also be interesting to make the AMs with aerodynamically active shapes that would perform various maneuvers as they fell.

Like noise? Let larger mass AMs descend below 40 kilometers and you get a sonic boom. I'm not sure this is a good idea; hard to make sure that these large AMs don't make it to the ground, and the neighbors might complain.

This scheme fits the current international political climate rather well. Both we and the Russians have agreed to destroy lots of ballistic missiles of various types. What better way to verify destruction than this, putting on beautiful displays for the citizens who paid for the missiles.

Feeling paranoid? Let us make and install the AM payloads in the Russian missiles, and let them do the same for ours.

AMs could even be a money-making proposition. I would imagine that the producers of films, music videos, rock concerts, and national holiday displays would pay a lot for special effects on this large a scale.

There are many thousands of missiles good for AM use in the world; we should be able to provide lots of events with AM displays for many years.