The astronauts on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will have a snack waiting for them when they finish the first civilian spacewalk in history.
Doritos has teamed with SpaceX to send a specially formulated version of its Cool Ranch chips to outer space. And while it doesn’t (currently) plan on selling those in stores, the company is giving customers the chance to snag some—and they’ll be contained in a glow-in-the-dark canister.
The chips, says the PepsiCo holding, are designed so the Cool Ranch flavoring doesn’t float away in zero gravity. The chips are minis, served in a container that’s the same dimensions as a can of Pringles.
While it’s obviously a promotional partnership, there are some beneficial parts to this product announcement. Frito-Lay is also partnering with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for this product, making a $500,000 donation to the health care facility and only giving fans who are curious what space chips taste like the chance to get some if they, too, make a donation to St. Jude’s. Donations can be made at StJude.org/DoritosInSpace. Larger donations also will earn rewards ranging from patches to tickets to MTV’s Video Music Awards.
So how do you ensure the flavor dust doesn’t mix with space dust? The company says “instead of the classic Doritos dust, an innovative oil-based coating keeps the zesty flavor you know and love on the chips.”
SpaceX is targeting an Aug. 26 launch date for the mission, which is scheduled to last five days. This is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program, all of which will be commanded and at least partially funded by payment services company Shift4 founder Jared Isaacman. The spacewalk is the highlight of this journey.
“Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions,” SpaceX said on the mission’s website.