In 2014, Japanese beverage company Otsuka Pharmaceutical announced an ambitious plan – to send a time capsule containing their popular sports drink Pocari Sweat to the lunar surface. This “Lunar Dream” project aimed to inspire young people to reach for the stars while making history as the first commercial product delivered to another world.
The Pocari Sweat Lunar Dream Capsule was designed as a specially shaped can resembling the iconic bright blue bottles of Pocari Sweat. Inside the titanium capsule, Otsuka placed a powdered form of the drink along with a series of small titanium plates engraved with messages and dreams gathered from over 180,000 children across Asia.
Otsuka hoped future space travelers would happen upon the time capsule, use lunar water sources to reconstitute the powdered drink, and read the inspirational dreams of children who gazed up at the same moon decades before. The project was envisioned as a symbol of the dawn of a new era of private space exploration now accessible to people across the world.
Launching Dreams to the Moon
To pull off the feat of landing their time capsule on the moon, Otsuka partnered with Pittsburgh-based space robotics company Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic planned to deliver the Pocari Sweat payload aboard their Griffin lunar lander, which was set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in October 2015 as a secondary payload.
The mission would allow Astrobotic to compete for the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, which challenged private companies to successfully land a rover on the moon. Winning the prize required rovers to travel 500 meters on the lunar surface and transmit high definition video back to Earth. The Pocari Sweat capsule would help fund Astrobotic’s mission to complete these objectives.
Delayed Dreams
Unfortunately, Astrobotic’s 2015 launch was postponed due to delays with the Falcon 9 rocket. The Google Lunar XPRIZE deadline passed without a winner, and Astrobotic’s dreams of claiming the prize faded. But the company pressed on with the goal of being the first private firm to accomplish a lunar landing.
Over the next few years, Astrobotic made changes to the design of their lunar lander to reduce costs while still carrying the payload of dreams from Pocari Sweat and other companies. The launch date was pushed back repeatedly as the small startup company worked on securing funding and finalizing agreements with partners.
Dreams Taking Flight
In 2023, the Pocari Sweat payload finally found a ride to space. Astrobotic signed an agreement with United Launch Alliance to launch their lunar lander on the debut flight of the new Vulcan Centaur rocket. The mission was manifested as a rideshare with NASA, who contracted Astrobotic to carry useful science payloads to the moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The launch was set for early 2024, nearly a full decade after the capsule was first promised to land on the moon. After years of delays and changes, Otsuka’s dreams were finally headed for the stars.
On January 9th, 2024, the Vulcan Centaur rocket lit up the night sky as it carried the dreams of Pocari Sweat and children across Asia into space. The Peregrine lander successfully separated from the rocket to begin its long cruise to the moon.
Dreams Unfulfilled
Unfortunately, the Peregrine lander experienced a mission-ending anomaly that prevented it from being able to land on the moon.
While Otsuka’s Lunar Dream Capsule lies silent somewhere in interplanetary space instead of imprinted on lunar regolith, its aspirational vision remains.