Next year Japan will send a can of its famous sports drink to the moon

Private moon-landing missions are becoming quite popular these days. We know that in the past astronauts have set their countries’ flags on the moon, but here’s one you may not have heard of: Japan is sending one of its famous powdered sports drinks to the moon (along with messages from children all over the world). 

The drink, called Pocari Sweat and made by beverage maker Otsuka, will arrive on the moon in a special canister to mark the first commercial product delivered to another planet for marketing purposes.

The drink will board the Falcon 9 rocket created by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX in the first planned private moon-landing mission scheduled for October 2015. The Falcon 9 has made three successful trips to the International Space Station but next year will finally head to the moon. Once it has completed its four-and-a-half hour journey to the moon, the sports drink will be dropped off on the moon’s surface by a private lander called the “Griffin” and made by Astrobotic Technology.

Astrobotic Technology is trying to win Google’s Lunar X $20 million prize for the first company that can land a device on the moon that can travel 500 meters and send high-definition photos back to Earth, so they teamed up with Otsuka. Otsuka is providing them with the money to reach their goal, and Astrobotic Technology will drop this can off in space for them.

The company won’t just be dropping a beverage off, though. It will also drop a titanium capsule of messages that were written by children across Asia and laser-etched onto silver disks.

If this mission succeeds, Pocari Sweat will be the first beverage to make it to the moon, but the U.S. may not choose to accept this. Word is that the makers of the powdered drink Tang will complain since NASA flew the beverage with its astronauts on multiple missions. The only problem is that nobody knows if the powder actually made contact with the moon’s surface during the Apollo missions. 

Anyone can send messages to the moon on the Lunar Dream Messenger website. There’s even an application that will allow you to send your message via smartphone by pointing at the moon and pressing send. 

According to Otsuka’s website, the company hopes that the mission will encourage children interested in space to one day land on the moon.