Astronomical shipping charges! Japanese sports drink eyes moon landing

19-May-2014 - Last updated on 21-May-2014 at 09:34 GMT

Most beverage brands are probably content to work on their distribution on plain old planet Earth but a Japanese sports drinks brand is set to become the first commercial delivery to the moon.

Astrobotic – a US-based space robotics and ‘planetary missions’ firm vying for a $20m prize from Google in return for touching down with the first commercial lunar lander – will deliver the drink on behalf of Japanese beverage maker Otsuka.

The Pittsburgh robotics company's prospects are boosted by the fact that it has bagged the first commercial launch date slot in October 2015, and is advertising shipping fees starting at $2m/kg on its website.

You can learn more about the Otsuka/Astrobotic project in this dedicated video.

Otsuka says it plans to send a specially designed 1kg titanium can – filled with a powdered sports drink and messages from Asian children – to the moon to achieve the first commercial product delivered to another world for marketing purposes.

The beverage company says it hopes to inspire young people to become astronauts, so they can make the short hop (236,121 miles) to the moon and make use of the powdered drink.