Pocari Sweat will be taking their advertising even farther into the final frontier, as they plan to place a can of the powdered sports drink on the surface of the moon.

Makers of Pocari Sweat, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., announced last week that they will be sending a one-kilo titanium can of the stuff on board a private moon-landing mission, currently scheduled for October 2015. The titanium construction of canister should allow the dehydrated electrolyte replacement beverage to withstand the drastic temperature changes of the Moon’s surface, swinging from 110 degrees during the day to –180 degrees at night.

The can of Japan’s favorite sports drink will travel on the Falcon 9 rocket, which has flown to the International Space Station (ISS) three times before. Next year’s flight to the moon—a 384,400-kilometer, four-and-a-half-day journey—will mark the reusable spacecraft’s first trip to the area around the moon, and the canister will be dropped on the lunar surface by Astrobiotic Technology’s Griffin Lander. Along with the drink powder, the canister will also house silver disks that have been engraved with the hopes and wishes of 38,000 children, who sent letters to Otsuka for the project.

This publicity stunt has the dubious honor of being the first time that a commercial product has been put on the moon for advertising purposes. It’s also not the first time that Pocari Sweat has taken their marketing efforts beyond the surface of the Earth: in 2011, the company shot a space commercial on the ISS.

Apparently, the idea first came to the company when they heard reports from US scientists that water sources might be found on the moon. Pocari Sweat is hoping to inspire a next generation of young would-be astronauts with the prospect of being able to reach the lunar surface and mix up a batch of the citrus-flavored stuff.

While an Otsuka Pharmaceutical official has gone on record as saying that “[w]e want our use of the moon to set an example [of responsible advertising on the moon],” this sets a strange precedent, and we shudder a bit when we think of what could be next in the future of extraterrestrial advertising…

You can see a good bit more of the tech behind the project in the clip below:

Pocari Sweat, Falcon 9, advertising in space

Main Image: Otsuka Pharmaceuticals