Pizza chain aims to build branch on moon

The Japanese branch of an international pizza chain is literally aiming for the moon – to be the first to open an outlet there. Anticipating that many people will soon be living on the moon, the Japanese branch of Domino’s Pizza is aiming to be “the first before anyone else" to open a branch there. “We in Domino’s Pizza Japan will be the first before anyone else to open a branch on the moon ... Needless to say, this project is an immense challenge for us. We have a dream and that dream is to deliver Domino’s Pizza on the moon," a spacesuit-wearing Domino’s Japan President and CEO Scott Oelkers said in a video on the pizza chain’s Japan branch website (http://moon.dominos.jp/). Oelkers delivered his spiel in English but the video featured Japanese subtitles. Publicity war It can be considered the latest salvo in a pizza publicity war of sorts, according to UK’s The Daily Telegraph, which reported that rival chain Pizza Hut delivered a pizza to astronauts orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station in 2001. The Daily Telegraph said that Domino’s fought back last year in a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of its arrival in Japan. According to The Daily Telegraph, Domino’s estimates the project will cost Y1.67 trillion (P714.2 billion), of which Y560 billion (P307.646 billion) will be needed to transport 70 tons of construction materials and pizza-making equipment to the moon aboard 15 rockets. But it quoted Domino’s as saying it will keep costs down by using mineral deposits on the moon to make the concrete, which is likely to cost around Y194 billion (P106.577 billion). An artist’s rendering indicates the restaurant will have a two-story dome with a diameter of around 26 meters; and a basement level made of steel plating and an area to prepare pizzas. Staff would be required to live on the premises. Tomohide Matsunaga, a spokesman for Domino’s said they started thinking about this project in 2010, “although we have not yet determined when the restaurant might open." “In the future, we anticipate there will be many people living on the moon, astronauts who are working there and, in the future, citizens of the moon," he said. Not 1st moon project bid On the other hand, tech site Mashable noted Domino’s is not the only marketer to consider a moon project, as beer brand Rolling Rock launched in 2008 an effort promising to put its logo on the moon. Pepsi also promised to send a consumer into space in 2002, it added. Mashable noted the marketer behind the Pepsi effort, Russell Weiner, is now the chief marketing officer of Domino’s in the United States. — TJD, GMA News