Interstellar pizza

Arlington, VA-"I'll have a large cheese, with mushrooms, peppers, and onions. You deliver to the ISS, right?"

The International Space Station (ISS) and a mobile lunar rover could prove to be a small step for humankind, and a huge leap for advertisers.

RadioShack Corp. has high hopes for the multi-million dollar campaign they're negotiating with LunaCorp. Under the agreement, the space exploration start-up, which plans to land a mobile lunar probe in 2003, will plant RadioShack's logo where literally the entire world can see it-just to the left of the Sea of Tranquility. To draw customers into stores, the electronics retailer will broadcast the rover's adventures on its website and is also planning an interactive rover simulation with Microsoft so customers can take a test drive on the lunar surface.

"We're supporting this new round of moon exploration for brand differentiation that associates RadioShack with science, technology, and the pursuit of ultimate answers," says Jim McDonald, senior vice president of marketing for RadioShack. "Also, the last push to get to the moon led directly to the development of wireless phones, satellite dishes, and Internet businesses."

If all goes well, LunaCorp's robot, named Icebreaker, will search the moon's surface for ancient ice and collect data for potential human settlement. If Icebreaker finds what it's looking for, it will have the capability to scoop up a sample and add it to a seed-carrying terrarium to see if the water can sprout life in space. The rover is planning to circumnavigate the moon every 29.5 days (one lunar day) at a high latitude to stay in sync with the sun-avoiding temperatures above boiling at noon and below that of liquid nitrogen in the early morning.

Other planned money-raising stunts by the company include offering time capsules stuffed with digital messages and inflatable logos that would be unfurled upon landing.

As out of this world as it may seem, the Shack's batteries won't even be the first things advertised in space. Pizza Hut called that order in with the addition of their logo to Zvezda, the Russian living quarters for the ISS. It is not immediately known if the restaurant can keep to a 30-minute delivery time.