A miracle … of technology. On Saturday night, more than 3,000 drones illuminated the Vatican’s sky to recreate the best known works of Miguel Ángel or Pope Francis’s affable face. But the real surprise was under the swarm of drones. The head of the show was Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother, who had the idea during a festival in the Nevada desert.
A little context. As a culmination to the world encounter on human fraternity, the Vatican organized the Grace for the World eventwhich had a poster of stars such as Pharrell Williams, John Legend and Andrea Bocelli, who sang Duo with Karol G.
The most commented of the night, in addition to that unexpected duet, was the synchronized flight of the 3,000 drones about the Basilica of San Pedro before 80,000 spectators. While the music sounded, the drones recreated with points of light “the creation of Adam”, which Miguel Ángel painted in the Sistine Chapel, or the “Piedad del Vaticano”, which Miguel Ángel Buonarroti carved in Marble 500 years ago.
Nova Sky Stories. The company responsible for the show has as CEO and founder a man of unmistakable surname: Kimbal Musk. How is the brother’s brother who wants to take us to Mars ended, who says he felt the voice of God After trying the ayahuascaorganizing a light show for the Holy See? That is the best part of the story.
Kimbal Musk with a Nova Sky Stories drone
Kimbal founded Nova Sky Stories In 2022 when buying Intel Drone Light Shows, the Intel division for this type of shows. But he had the idea a year earlier during the “Free Burn” festival, which replaced Burning Man during the pandemic. It was there that an artist named Ralph Nauta used drones to recreate in the sky the effigy of the man who traditionally burns in Burning Man. What Kimbal witnessed, in your own words“He changed his life.”
A year and a half of negotiations. Convinced of the potential of drones not as a simple substitute for fireworks, but as a new means to create large -scale art, Kimbal Musk approached the Vatican In early 2024, when Pope Francis still lived. After his death, the new Pope Leo XIV gave his blessing to continue with the event.
A fleet of 9,000 drones. Like Elon Musk, Nova Sky Stories presumes a completely vertical ecosystem: they design and manufacture their own drones, and develop all software and firmware internally. This allows them an agility and problem solving capacity that, according to themselves, is unique in the sector.
Although in the Vatican only 3,000 drones flew simultaneously, the company has an arsenal of more than 9,000. Each weighs 340 grams and can illuminate with a 24 -bit color depth. To orient, drones use satellite positioning technology “Real-Time Kinematics” that corrects real-time GPS data with centimeters accuracy.
In a long -term show such as the Vatican, the drones are scheduled to return to their load bases, recharge and be replaced by others in the air, all without the public perceiving it. If a drone deviates from his route, he first tries to return to his position, then return to the base and, as a last resort, turn off your engine to fall to the ground.
Substitutes of fireworks? The Vatican event confirms an upward trend: drones are replacing or complementing fireworks in mass events worldwide. From the Mega -spectacles in China to the most modest versions of the Malaga Fair or the Mercè festivities in Barcelona. They are safe, silent and reusable.
But for Kimbal Musk the objective goes beyond simple substitution: “I do not idolize the technology. Idolate the result.” His mission is to consolidate drones as a legitimate artistic medium, capable of telling stories and, above all, of generating an emotional response: “If we can make the grandmother cry …”.
Images | Elisabetta Piqué, x
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