First-ever space billboard to launch in 2016

Researchers in Belgium have joined hands with European space agency (ESA) to launch the first ever billboard to space in 2016.
The billboard being developed at KU Leuven University in Belgium will include personal messages and ads from well-known companies such as Microsoft.
The billboard will be outside of a CubeSat - a small satellite that's a cheaper and faster alternative to traditional satellites.
The CubeSat will be about the size of a milk carton. The billboard will be around 8x8 cm big and will have 400 squares available for purchase.
The billboard will be orbiting the Earth 15 times a day for 10 years.

Although the billboard will not be seen from Earth, anyone can go to the billboard website and see the messages or logos that are on the actual satellite, 'New York Daily News' reported.

Companies are not the only ones who can put a message on the billboard. Anyone can write a message which costs 1 euro a character.
Tjorven Delabie, lead researcher and PhD student in space engineering and his friends Maarten Decat and Jeroen Vandewalle - also PhD students - have partnered with ESA, which will oversee all of their work until launch in January 2016 from Alcantara, Brazil.

The CubeSat carrying the billboard will focus on global warming research once it is in space.
The money sponsors invested on the billboard will be used to expand research on small satellites at the KU Leuven University.