Are there J-pop lovers on the moon? Astroscale is going to find out

Less than two months ago, ambitious Singapore-based startup Astroscale announced plans to send a sports drink-sponsored “Lunar Dream Capsule” to the moon. In addition to carrying powdered Pocari Sweat drink mix and messages from Earth’s children, the capsule will now also be bringing J-pop to the moon’s cratered surface. The Lunar Dream executive committee today announced that chart-topping J-pop group GreeeeN has agreed to produce two official “theme songs” for the project – one of which will be included in the can-shaped capsule.

Though details are unclear, it appears that GReeeeN will produce an “Earth” version themselves, then invite children to re-record it as a “Lunar” version to be transported to the moon. The four members of GReeeeN, one of the most famous J-pop groups out there, said they were drawn to the project due to their own interest in “science and the universe.” Unlike other pop stars, who often appear on TV and advertisements, Fukushima-based GReeeeN is completely anonymous. No one knows their true identities, and rare live performances rely on motion capture technology to project digital silhouettes of the members onto screens (see video below).

The reason for the group’s shyness? Wanting to separate their careers as dentists from their side project as professional musicians. In 2009, GReeeen smash hit Kiseki (which means ‘miracle’) was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most-downloaded single in Japan. The same song, which is similar in frequency to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ at Japanese karaoke, also achieved number one on Japan’s Billboard Hot 100 yearly chart.

See: Astroscale’s debris sweeping satellite takes a page out of science fiction

Astroscale hopes to become the world leader for cleaning up space junk, using “sweeper” satellites that will incinerate orbiting debris after pulling them into the Earth’s atmosphere, but has been working on side projects to gain publicity. The startup’s Japanese founder, Nobu Okada, was a fan favorite at Startup Asia Singapore’s Arena pitch battle.

There is no word yet on what format the song will be sent as, but given space constraints, it will likely be sent as a digital file on a tiny memory card. Let’s hope any visiting aliens have an appropriate playback device (or not, depending on how you feel about a kid-infused J-pop tune accurately representing the human race as a whole).