If any one is planning on going to the Lone Star state in August of 2008 be sure to look up. Montreal installation artist Cesar Saez is planning to send a 1,000 foot helium blimp into low Earth orbit above Texas. Not just any blimp but a BANANA blimp. This astrofruit is supposed to represent the absurdity of American, specifically Texan, politics. Saez's banana won't quite be geostationary (despite its official title) but will instead orbit in near space close to the stratosphere at a cool 100,000 to 160,000 feet above the Earths surface. The estimated cost of this extravagant project is $1 million but so far the artist has only managed to collect about an eight of this. So send money for the banana. So how will this piece of floating fruit stay stationary? Thanks to the amazing feats of engineering the 7 millian cubic feet of helium will be kept in place through a series of wind activated gyroscopes. As these gyroscopes move, they'll sling the banana in a bomer rang like motion over the land of Bush and cowboys. Folks on the ground will be able to spot the phallic shape with the naked eye and is estimated to appear about 10-20% the size of the moon. after about a month of flight, radiation from the sun will desinagrate the banana's outer shell causing the helium to leak out and the object to plumment to the ground. friction from the descent will incinerate the rest of the material so no harm will be done upon landing. Cool, huh?
for more information check out http://www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com/

--Claire Buchanan