Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Space

Pizza Hut's Space Program: First Launch 160

Posted by timothy from the the-vacuum-of-space-keeps-your-pizza-hot-hot-hot dept.
Legion303 writes: "This details the Pizza Hut-funded rocket that was sent up. Good first step in the privatization of spaceflight, although PH wouldn't have been my first choice of companies ..." The original plan was to be up last November, then last February, but better late than mis-delivered, I guess. Here's the original story hemos posted way back when. 500 million viewers is a lot of delivery business ...
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Pizza Hut's Space Program: First Launch More

Pizza Hut's Space Program: First Launch

Comments Filter:

  • Let's just hope one of the Pizza Hut drives doesn't pilot it. That baby will be totaled in minutes!!!

    On the other hand, if it doesn't get wrecked, it'll probably be breaking the speed limit. Faster than light travel, here we come!

  • Remember the story about the marketing execs that were hacked to death by the Moon worshippers for projecting commercials on the moon ?

    Looks as if someone at Pizza Hut was a fan !

    God knows I've thought about it......more than once

  • I remember reading an article, back in gradeschool, that actually discussed the technology and strategies that could be used to, say, visibly paint the Coca-Cola wave or the golden arches across the face of the moon. I still shit myself thinking about it.

    But I have to say I won't complain about the pizza hut logo anyway. Whatever it took to get that particular lego brick into the sky, I'm happy. Besides, you couldn't really see the pizza hut logo before launch anyway because it was behind the scaffolding.

  • Well, yeah, but she was pretty skanky, and I was really damn desperate. I doubt if I'll ever again use the line, "Hey, baby, wanna go up to my room and see my rocket?", though.

    As for phallic symbolism, why do ya think hammerhead payload fairings are so popular- or why the Boeing 747 with that suggestive shape was such a success?
  • In the movie it was, as I recall. I don't remember what it was in the book, but it wasn't Microsoft.

  • Re:Exhaust Trail (Score:3)

    by RocketPlumber ( 213363 ) on Thursday July 20, 2000 @09:28AM (#919299)
    The Proton uses hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, which inherently don't create any smoke, and very little light. The Shuttle's SRBs burn rubber and aluminum with ammonium perchlorate oxidizer, and emit incandescent molten aluminum oxide particles. This bright glow makes the mixing at the edge of the SRB plume easier to see- it's also there for the Proton, but isn't glowing.

    That really is how the Proton looks at liftoff- only aluminized solids and kerosene-fueled rockets have bright yellow or orange exhaust plumes, pretty much all the rest are transparent and pale yellow or blue. However, I have managed to make a nitrous oxide/ethane fueled engine produce a pale green plume by getting the mixture ratio just so, and a LOX/kerosene engine can run purple if the mixture is too lean (this eliminates the soot that makes the plume bright orange/yellow). LOX/alcohol is generally bluish for the same reason a gas flame on a stove is blue- it's an emission line of carbon monoxide.
    Working with rockets can be quite a lightshow :)
  • I think this is what it is going to end up being 5 to 10 years from now.... http://www.limitedprints.com/corp.jpg
  • Pizza Hut != Pepsi Actualy Pepsi no longer owns Pizza Hut,Taco Bell, and KFC. They were split off several years ago and are sub-units of Tricon Global Resturaunts. http://www.triconglobal.com/triconroot/default.htm
  • So... you're saying Pizza Hut used toxic chemicals in their pizzas AND their rockets?!

    \//

  • Man does not live on breadsticks alone.

    Err, sorry.

  • When it comes to delivery (which, when coupled with sitting in front of your machine playing today's game of the week, is the only REAL way to eat pizza), Papa John's kicks all ass it sees.

    However, if we're talking all-time greatest pizza, there is only one true winner: Old-School Little Ceasers. Circa late 80's, Little Ceaser's was the best pizza money could buy. Back when "Pizza-Pizza!" still meant something, you could get 2 square pizza's (on one cardboard holder so big it took 2 people to carry it) with 2-3 toppings for around $12.

    Honorable mention goes to Pyramid Pizza. Anyone who's spent time in Lawrence or Manhattan, KS, will back me up on this one :)

  • (think free cable TV with continuous scrolling banner ads along the bottom or top)

    At least thats one problem I could fix with some masking tape...

  • 500 Million people saw this launch? 1/12 of the worlds population watched this rocket take off? Am I missing something here: is this Pizza Hut rocket really big in Europe?

    Call me a skeptic, I guess, but 500 million sounds more like some marketing dweebs wet dream.


  • Anyone with some gimp skills could easily have placed a pizza hut logo on a russian rocket.

    Now, HOW MUCH did they pay again? :)
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Since the launch was late, does Pizza Hut get it free?

    Pfingst

  • I find it ironic in cosmic proportions that the birthplace and former bastion of communism [sinistra.net] is prostituting itself with wanton abandon for the gratification of pathologically capitalist [capitalism.org] companines like PepsiCo [pepsico.com] and their spinoff Pizza Hut [pizzahut.com].

    This is great! This is at LEAST a hundred points for us Americans [gpo.gov]!
  • A few years ago, I heard of plans that would make putting Pizza Hut on the side of a Proton rocket look like a hand-written flyer as compared to a billboard.

    For the record, I believe Coke [coca-cola.com] was the one thinking of this, but I can't be sure.

    Two methods of space-based advertising were being considered:

    1) Send up huge coloured sheets, akin to the light sails [nasa.gov] that we've heard about, except this would simply be a huge, orbiting billboard. Just think about it - looking up one night and noticing a rectangular shape crossing the sky that catches the sun, lighting up "Enjoy Coke!" clear as day against the night sky. Shudder.

    2) This idea was even worse; Instead of making a floating, orbiting billboard, they were simply going to paint a billboard on the moon for all to see.

    As much as I like it and rely on it on a daily basis, THIS is why a market economy sucks.

  • I think Pizza Hut is the *perfect* company to take the initiative on this. I mean, if we're going to have all those orbital and lunar colonies, which of course geeks will be called upon to maintain, we're gonna need pizza! I think Mountain Dew should follow their lead.

    I liked this part: "The 200-foot tall proton rocket was launched at 12:56 a.m./EDT from Kazakhstan and is headed for the International Space Station carrying a critical component, the Service Module...." Sure: and how many pizzas?

    On a serious note, I've seen a number of people here moaning about "billboards in space". The key point to keep in mind here is that somebody took the initiative to get this module into space. If it's Pizza Hut that made it possible, why shouldn't they get some benefit in return?


    --
  • Japanese companies used this ten years ago. They would send out nice looking people to stand around subway stations, shout and hand out tissue paper. The cardboard stiffener was printed with some advert, but the rest of the tissues were white. It was nice to have a pack of that where every sneaze is going to be on someone and where ordinary TP ran out so fast.

    Marketing is always evil.

  • Hi. Read this: http://www.kuro5h in.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2000/7/18/122257/231 [kuro5hin.org]. Please don't b-slap me; this is important!

    --

  • Re:Man, it sorta sucks though. (Score:3)

    by Detritus ( 11846 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:20PM (#919315) Homepage
    The Proton [fas.org] uses nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4, oxidizer) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH, fuel). See this page [friends-partners.org]. Both of these chemicals are highly toxic. They were popular for liquid fueled ICBMs because they were non-cryogenic and storable.
  • Surely the cool factor is there (for how long?), but is this a good thing? I mean, we already have billboards everywhere on roadsides, banner ads on websites, etc. I, for one, am Sick-And-Tired(tm) of having (usually misrepresentative and misleading) marketing shoved in my face every fscking second.

    My girlfriend even signed up with an online corp. that pays you to drive around with their sticker (!) on your car for a year... Not enough to fix a screwed paint job though...

    What's next?
    • Advertising via disposable home products (paper plates, plastic spoons, dryer sheets, napkins, tampons, toilet paper [the last one might be quite rewarding IMHO]).
    • Haircuts come with an obligatory temporary neck tattoo sporting the salon (the women will kill this one off :)
    • The Moon (probably in negotiation as we type)
    • Free services with obligatory, permanent ad displays (think free cable TV with continuous scrolling banner ads along the bottom or top)
    Remember when all marketing WASN'T evil?
  • Pizza Hut announced the innovative space sponsorship in September 1999 as part of its new logo launch and to symbolize the company's dramatic turnaround and re-imaging campaign, which includes a $500 million investment to contemporize and upgrade Pizza Hut restaurants around the globe.

    I wonder how much of the 500 million was given to Russia. because if say one logo on a rocket is worth say 10 million why not slap like two dozen logo's on there. Throw in the X prize and suddenly you have a profitable business sending people into space. Not to mention how much some .com gazillionaire geek would be willing to pay for a ticket.

    "allright listners if you can name the first 10 people that went into space you have a chance of winning a 20 minute space flight worth $250,000 dollars. CALL IN NOW!!!!!!"

  • Now we know why The Onion (http://www.theonion.com) takes several weeks off every so often -- they spend that time writing press releases...
  • You ever look at the Eastern Seaboard of the United States? Virginia, named after Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen; the Carolinas, named after King Charles; Georgia, named after King George; Pennsylvania, named after William Penn; Maryland, named after Mary by the Calverts, a Catholic family. Naming things after sponsors has been going on for a long time. The only difference is that they did a better job of it then--which sounds better: Georgia or King George's Land(tm)(r)(c)(spqr)?
  • Live off of it. You can have your car paid for, your PC financed, ventures to the moon funded... all by being an ad-slut. Some stickers, slogans et al and suddenly you're rolling in bucks. I find it amazing how low companies will bend over in order to advertize. And it's not like people READ these ads either... I guess all that money wants to be free.

    It's an interesting contrast to getting screwed out of every last penny by those same companies, in order to fund their latest eTarded billboarding spree or defacement of the moon.
  • Can NASA hold patents? I don't know, but I would think if they could, they could be pulling in alot more money from licensing technologies, giving them a bit of return on investment.

    Actually, NASA does hold a lot of patents. These include things like goretex and I believe that they own the patent to velcro. They make quite a bit of money from those patents, which is good because it seems that the US Government is more interested in funding other programs like missle defence [ucsusa.org].
  • Rocket science? Does anyone realize that online ordering has been in "testing" with Pizza Hut since 1995? How hard is it to write and deploy a simple web app?
  • ..."requires constant innovation, futuristic thinking and a dedicated team effort to develop the world's greatest variety of pizza."

    "...on developing new ways to satisfy customers with innovative crust types, abundantly topped pizzas and diverse pizza styles. "
    Hey doesn't M$ innovate too?

  • Re:fp (Score:1)

    by shogun ( 657 )
    Let me guess, you were in so much of a hurry you forgot to click post anonymously? Or are you just a karma masochist?
  • the specs for the proton can be found here: http://www.russianspace.com/proton.html Yey, from what I understand it uses external boosters for the first stage, which I guess accounts for the lack of oxidation you observed. The Russians should get more credit for their launch technology; the Proton is larger and more reliable than anything Americans have. I agree, it makes me queasy too; what if Microsoft or Nike decide to fund a trip to Mars? Imagine the press...and the scary part is the technology is there. We're lucky companies have lousy imaginations.
  • My understanding is that Pizza Hut was using this an a promotional event to gain recognition of their new corporate logo (not terribly different from the old one, if you ask me). But with all of those delays in launch, was their logo even new anymore when they launched?
  • they can make it to the International
    Space Station in 30 minutes or less.
    (or there's going to be alot of astronauts
    getting free pizza)
  • 1 - Paranoia, the RPG, had a delivery service called Fed-R-ALL Express. Basically, a seat and handlebar strapped to a Saturn 5 rocket. Instant delivery! I smoked a few clones with that one.

    Who ordered pizza? Whoosh!! Screech!! Kerblam!!

    2 - I believe it was one of the Hitchhikers Guide books. A ship was travelling the cosmos setting suns to supernova, just so that when the light from the nova suns reached a certain planet, it spelled out an advertisement in the sky!

  • Not to mention the HoJo and Hilton in the 2001 space station...

    Clarke was way ahead.
  • if the space shuttle astronauts will get thier pizza for free if they don't get delivery in less than 30 minutes.
  • I won't argue with Robert Heinlein being first with advertising on the moon, but I also remember Arthur C. Clarke's description of an unnamed corporation bribing a trademark on the moon. Clarke said the C's and L's looked good, but the A's and O's were a little off. Judge Dredd looked good, even in the failed movie, but his tale about moon advertising is not a first.

  • This explains it. (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @08:59PM (#919333)
    Pizza Hut believes making great pizza is "rocket science"

    ... so that's why they haven't figured it out yet!
  • Nope, Tricom was spun off in to an independant company back in 1997.
  • That's all I had to say really...

    How long till rockets look like race cars?
  • You know we're gonna be the laughing stock of the galaxy! All the guys over at Tau Ceti are gonna have a field day once they get a look at our new billboards! I don't even wanna think about what the gang on Alpha Centauri will say when THEY see the eyesore floating around our planet! I mean, THEY don't have a pizza maker advertising in space around THEIR planets, right? NO, they're happy just using the ole' telepathy gimmick to transmit advertisments....:-)

    (This WAS intended as humour, for those of you who aren't sure....)

  • I believe it was actually the Microsoft Galaxy. =)
  • NEW YORK -- A mysterious explosion rocked the headquarters of Dominoes Pizza in New York today, amidst allegations that their number one rival, Pizza Hut, was using a newly-launched Russian Proton rocket to carry aloft space-based weapons.

    Witnesses of the explosion said they saw "laser beams" come down from the sky and torch the building. "It was just like Star Wars," said one passer-by. "It made this noise like, `keeerOOOOWWWW!', and then boom! The whole building just blew up. "

    Nearly the entire executive of Dominoes was in a quarterly meeting with shareholders at the building. None have been emerged alive, and authorities fear the worst.

    PizzaHut officials vehemently denied that the allegations. "We vehemently deny those allegations," said a press officer. "We launched nothing more than a crucial componenet of the space station. The idea that we launched some sort of orbiting sixteen gigawatt intra-flux-capacitative neutron beam ultra-laser is completely ludicrous. After all, our laboratories are at least six months away from having a working prototype."

    "Of course," continued the press officer, "there's always a chance we could try to help Dominoes out before, say, their restaurants were destroyed one by one, every day, until they were nothing but smoking heaps of de-molecularized ashes. That would be a shame, and we really do want to help out. All they have to do is ask."

    Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman could not be reached for comment. Said an FSF spokeswoman, "RMS doesn't like the way Dominoes licenses their recipes. And anyway, he usually orders Chinese."

  • but do they still deliver in 30 minutes?
  • 20 minutes of glory followed by burning plunge through the uppermost layers of the stratosphere.

    I vote we strap that old navy wench to the next russian rocket headed for the ISS. And after that, the taco bell dog.

    Good thing for pizza hut it went off without a hitch. If the rocket whent kablowie, they could have ended up with pie on their face.

    tcd004 Janet Renomargolis [lostbrain.com] , nuff said.

  • LOL...damn,that's funny.
  • See this BBC Article [bbc.co.uk]
  • Errr... am I the only person seeing this post about OS X in the story about Pizza Hut?

    Either slash is going slightly mad, or this is the most surreal troll I have seen yet :-P

    Something weird is going on, or you are just _so_ offtopic.
  • Not only was the rocket late, but those poor dudes up there don't actually get any pizza. Pizza Hut probably got a good deal on the cost of the paint (the added wind resistance was probably worth a few grand right there), but it doesn't seem they were even willing to fork out the 1/2 million more a pizza would have cost. How do I know this? Do you think pizza hut would have passed that hype opportunity up? All and all, this is the first ad on a rocket, and no big deal. Make a fresh pizza in space (a loaded pizza in 0-g... hahah) and I'll be impressed.
  • there has GOT to be a Pizza The Hut joke in here somewhere....
  • Wouldn't this have been a lot more appropriate for Viagra than Pizza Hut?
  • "Planet Starbucks..."
    "The Microsoft Galaxy..."
  • .. of boosters taking off plastered with more ads than a NASCAR stock car at Charlotte. At least it's one way to make money, and if it gets more launches televised, maybe people will get fired up about space flight again.

    Then again, it gives 'space race' a whole new meaning ..

  • Everyday is rhe the forth o'
    July at Pizza Hut. The idea however
    isn't to just send up another rocket
    like the chinese used 3000 years ago
    but to develope new propulsion systems
    that will not be commercially unpheasablr.

    To the Guy who got confiscated
    by the federal arm of free masonry;
    [i am not a lawyer
    head down to the 'federal District
    Court' in your town & fill out an 'order
    to show cause' in the 'pro se' clerk's
    office. Talk to everybody you meet in
    the building, particularly the clerks
    who have a better understanding of local
    regs & practices than the attorneys do.
    [Lawyers love to talk,
    particularly a case like this where
    you didn't solicit the materials in
    question or have any agreement with anyone.
    You talk to one guy then you talk to
    someone else using the first guys ideas,
    then....]
    Since you 'got no money, *proceed
    in forma pauperis* by filling out the
    forms & avering that this is hardship,
    [the intrinsic equiptment has no value
    as evidence & the pertinant data coulld
    probably be copied in a day therefore
    it is an extortive violation of your
    civil rights under color of federal
    authority].

    Have fun with it because with no
    money you' got to put in the time.

    Talk the language, play a cautious
    hand, go to the library get a couple of simple
    law Dictionaries, If you' got a friend who's
    in a law office borrow her law library card
    look up F B I confiscation in
    *Corpus Juris* & the 'reporters', trade
    computer help for legal help, & try to get
    representation.
    If you say something in Court your adversaries will say 100000 words in rebuttal.
    The less you say the less there is to ponder.
    Now, your representation runs off at the
    mouth or lies or spits at the judge, thats
    HIS problem. He is not a party to the
    action. He was not there! He is your cat's
    paw, to touch indirectly.

    You can[ought] to try Civil Liberties
    or Amnesty International or some
    other sorority, if only for the
    experience. They' got time for the KKK,
    the communists, etc... but no time for
    the fundamental rights of the basic
    American who doesn't realize how little
    freedom he has left.

    Get like a public defender, ask the pro
    se clerk for a reccommendation.
    When the clandar Court Justice asks
    why you why your in Fed. Courtsay you were attacked by Federal AGENTS.[You can't
    sue a Federal agent, but you can sue
    an agent who is making it up as he goes
    along. He gets paid for enforcing the law,
    not writting it. The dude has steped from
    behind the veil.]

    | X |

    Since Geo. Washington, the officers of
    the Armed Forces have all been
    Free Masons, which may be why
    their Russian Brothers had our
    troop movements before our men did
    in Korea.

    VA doctors have found neither
    chemical or biological
    justification for the Desert Storm
    Syndrome. Perhaps our officers
    are punishing our men for what
    they did under orders.

    Our men suffering symptoms
    created by traitors with a
    MICROWAVE LASER.

  • Well my experience only goses back to about mid 92, what the rules where before then i couldn't comment on. And if you want to tell jokes, a) make it clear, and b) if you pick on a false stereotype then expect those stereotyped to take some offence, or at least try to clear up the stereotype.
  • Didn't you hear? They got so caught up in the "Eat the pizza backwards" campaign that they installed the boosters on the wrong side. Oh well, one more free water well for Russia...

    www.niftyness.com
  • styopa's off the mark: NASA does NOT "make quite a bit of money" from licensing their patents. NASA receives less than $1mil annually from the liscensing of patents, which has a negligible effect on the funding status of the agency, which receives more than $14bil in federal funds annually (GAO/RCED-99-173). NASA's subsidation of private industry is particularly aggregious, as NASA has simply released (licensed without royalty) thousands of technologies developed at enormous cost. What's more, massive federal R&D projects are grossly inefficient ways of developing technolgies that fulfill public needs. NASA, for example, has routinely been criticized by the US General Accounting Office for serious waste and mismanagement. Likewise, the US DOD has failed all 16 of the last 16 annual audits by the U.S. General Accounting Office, with more than 20% of the Department's inventory unaccounted for (lost or stolen).

    And let's not forget that a full one-half of NASA's efforts go into military research, namely ballistic missle aeronautics, propulsion and guidance. Additionally, NASA has produced what can only be called an environmental disaster, as it is responsible for 913 contaminated sites at 22 of its field facilities in 10 states, with an estimated total public cleanup cost of $2 billion (GAO/NSIAD-97-98).

    Finally, NASA has suffered from significant corruption. For example, in it's Internal Affairs investigative arm, NASA's Inspector General, William Colvin, resigned in 1994 after he and his office were found to be 'prenotifying' officials who were under investigation for conflict-of-interest and fraud, essentially allowing them to cover their tracks (GAO/OSI-95-9).

    This is not an institution to idealize, nor to rely on to bring new and advanced toothbrushes to market.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Does this mean that there is now a 'Pizza the Hut' in space? creeepppyy....
  • ... we'll soon have rockets going up that look like NASCARs, with stickers of 50+ advertisers slapped on the side of every one. Albeit, with the government always cutting funding to space missions, this may be the only alternative to goals such as inhabiting the moon, a really-functional space station, mission to Mars, etc.

    Of course, the problem with this type of advertising is, someone has to see it in the first place. As someone pointed out earlier, the main reason this is getting so much attention is because it has never been done before, and the media loves to jump on stuff like this. But, after the excitement of being the "First Post" in space goes down, so too will the interest in advertising this way, because people just aren't interested in space anymore.

    Despite launches costing millions of dollars and countless man-hours, people just see launces as too mundane to bother watching. There's a countdown. Smoke goes out of the rocket. Rocket goes up. Yay. -- Personally, I love space launches, and I think commercialization of missions may be the only way to go for future funding (although I will lose faith in humanity if marketeers actually implement images on the moon and such), but this idea won't work in the long run simply because there is not a sustained audience for regular every day launches.

    Special launches, like a new hubble, Mars mission,
    moon landing, etc., it might work. But not with routine maintenance, satellite orbital launches, and such.

  • Um...what about Unix in general? Last I checked AT&T was a US company. Don't forget the weirdos at Berkeley either
  • There's also this neat 7-Up ad. [adcritic.com] (Quicktime required, sorry.)

    "OK! Who has been messing with my laser?!?!"


    ...phil

  • Could someone explain to me why the exhaust trail in the images looks so different from the shuttle launches at Canaveral?

    I'm curious as to why the plume is almost perfectly vertical along its edges and the rolling smoke appears to be merely kicked up dust. Is this the way that exhaust from a proton rocket actually looks or is this what PH believes it would look like rendered through something like Photoshop?

    -Vel
  • ...a whole new meaning to space junk.

  • Robert A. Heinlein had it first with "The man who sold the moon." 1950

    Andrew
  • Um, Pizza Hut didn't shell out for the whole thing. Probably not much at all. It's just that the Russians have been promising that launch for years, and there so strapped they would let some pizza company on board. I'd have held out for something with a little more class.
  • Isn't it supposed to be 5-7-5? This is 6-7-5... maybe "Special: Twenty bucks"? I dunno, I could be wrong.

  • True. Too much late night Haikuing can be detrimental...

  • "We deliver anywhere"

    Umm, this is Planet X, turn right after Pluto, follow the wobble in Neptune's orbit, and we're halfway to the Oort cloud.

    "Way Fast delivery, dude"

    "It's the pizza that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!"

    "Our pizza's out of this world"

    A large, double cheese, with tribble sausage. Also a six-pack of Romulan ale and two Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters.

  • Sorry, Mister. Let's Be Exact. I know about Pizza Hut's driving policy. Guess what before becoming a geek, yeah that's right I was a manager there.

    I don't believe you can't have any points, you can't have reckless driving tickets and there are rules about that sort of thing. However, they aren't as strict as you gave them.

    However, can't take a joke, huh?


    Kate

  • I remember back when I was in elementry school and ever time you read a book you got a stamp. After you got so many stamps you'd get a free personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. A much better incentive to get kids to read would be something like... "Read 10,000 books and you can go to space!" WOO HOO! :)
  • The logos on the side are going to make rockets look like Nascar.

  • So this is where we're headed? (Score:3)

    by afniv ( 10789 ) on Thursday July 20, 2000 @05:27AM (#919369) Homepage
    Here's a picture of where space exploration (funding) is headed:

    Shuttle Ads [naglenet.org]

    ~afniv
    "Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
  • Three months ago I have paid a shitload of taxes -- I should make a press release about my active participation in everything that US government does.
  • Well, I guess they won't be dusting off their old jingle now....

    'Putt putt, to the Pizza Hut'

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Would be very interesting to know the details of exactly what Pizza Hut ended up funding...

    Perhaps they signed a contract to provide Russian scientists with free beer and pizza during those late night "How do we get the farty smell out of the Mir?" sessions, or something?

    I really find it hard to believe that there weren't other offers to fund this program by other space entrepreneurs, at least somehow? Are American millionaires that uptight about helping the Russians out? Surely there are thousands of private candidates out there that would've leaped at the chance to give a $20million check (not really a lot of money these days) to the Russians, and added their bit to the program?

    Fuck. What a shallow world we live in.

  • Re:Man, it sorta sucks though. (Score:4)

    by orbital3 ( 153855 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:58PM (#919392)
    First of all, what has Pizza Hut REALLY done here that the government hasn't? The US has scraped up whole lot more than 2.5 million over the years.

    But I see what you were trying to say, and in response to that I say, the only reason the government has "failed" is because its citizens don't care about space exploration anymore. Noone's really cared much about the space program since we landed on the moon. It's been over 30 years and we haven't attempted anything even close to that since. True, the trip to the moon served very little real purpose, but one would think we'd have done _something_ bigger than we've done by now. Alot of people today just think the space program is a waste of money. "We should be spending all of that money to fix problems here on Earth" they say. They just don't realize that ALOT of modern technology has come from NASA. Space-based experiments have saved lives and improved the quality of a whole lot of others, people just don't realize that at all. It's our responsibility to tell Uncle Sam where we want our money to go, and if NASA isn't getting the funding we all want it to, it's our own fault.

    Secondly, I would like to point out that there is virtually nothing that ISN'T commercialized. There's only so much money the government can put up by itself. Can NASA hold patents? I don't know, but I would think if they could, they could be pulling in alot more money from licensing technologies, giving them a bit of return on investment. Maybe they already are, but I honestly have no idea. But anyways, look at railroads, cars, airplanes. All forms of transportation that may have been government subsidized, but still commercially driven. Space travel will join them. Bio-engineering, chemical engineering, etc. all areas of research that may be government subsidized, but again, are mainly commercially driven.

    So, in the end, things will be fine. This isn't that dissimilar from what's happened many times before. In fact, I say it's about damn time. Commercialization=more rapid growth, and I'm all for rapid growth of the space program.
  • The proof comes when the Pizza Hut Marketing Battlestation rains lukewarm cheesy death across the globe and world leaders grovel before Pizza Hut's marketing department for mercy...
    Except for Russia that is. Is it just a coincidence that Pizza Hut fed Boris Yeltsin [pizzahut.com] during the 1991 coup? They've been planning this for decades!

    YELTSIN WILL RETAKE THE PRESIDENCY AND RULE THE WORLD WITH PIZZA HUT!
  • Perhaps if big corporations though to put as much money into the space program as they do into computers then we would probably live on Mars. Or at least be close. Why is it that space isn't thought of as a sound investment. Probably because the investment is much longer term.

    Can you imagine if MicroSoft had participated in space technology? Yes, you would only be able to use on kind of software to pilot your space ship, but maybe you would be able to take it to mars.

    Of course the way Windows is it probably would crash a couple times along the way.
    Kate

  • yes. chmod 575 haiku.

  • Winternationals of Rocketry (Score:3)

    by Baldrson ( 78598 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @11:33PM (#919401) Homepage Journal
    What is really needed to get space commercialization going is a Winternationals of rocketry. Just as you have 1/8th mile and 1/4 mile class drag races that maximize fireworks for short distance accellerations attracting all sorts of corporate sponsors for wild-ass engineering feats in ground transportation, you need to have 200kg and 400kg dry weight manned rockets that are basically dragsters that go straight up to get wild-ass engineering feats accomplished in the direction of space transportation. The key, of course, is having a bunch of damn fools so desperate to get laid they are willing to risk their lives atop chemical tanks with explosive yields on the order of suitcase nukes. This gets the buxom babes in the tight t-shirts hot and, as everyone with fully functioning neocortices knows, that's what makes engineers solve the really hard problems! Have you seen some of those 1/8th mile dragster engines made out of silicon nitride? NASA turbopump engineers are a bunch of quiche-eaters compared to those dragster wrench-apes. All they need is a little redirection -- 90 degrees from horizontal to straight up. What buxom babe in a tight t-shirt could resist such subliminal imagery!

    "Why hasn't this happened already?", you might ask. We've become too soft. People have forgotten about the sex appeal of the early manned program and war. We get all teary eyed with 7 bureaucrats posing as astronauts get blown up in a gold plated mockery of Yankee Ingenuity. What a crock!

    Maximum altitude and/or minimum time to a particular height wins. Breath oxygenated saline to absorb high g loads? I don't know -- I don't care because I'm not climbing on top of one of those vertical dragsters anytime soon so it's none of my business, but I know plenty of young guys with hormonal overload who would jump at the chance to fill their lungs with oxygenated saline if it would get them a buxom babe, so who are you or I to stand in their way?

    To hell with government programs, let's be reasonable about this space stuff.

    Of course, since the mortality rates will be rather high in such a competition so you would need to hold the Winternational Rocket Races in someplace like Belize or Nigeria rather than el wimporoonie countries with sensitive quiche-eaters like the United States or any of the rest of the industrialized world.

    If sacrifices must be made to get technological civilization out of the biosphere, then so be it!

    Extreme sports -- HA!

  • Top signs the Marketing dept. is out of control (Score:4)

    by legLess ( 127550 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:03PM (#919402) Journal
    Large amounts of cash missing, grainy "photos" offered as proof that they ... um ... painted a miniscule logo on a rocket. Riiiiighiiit.

  • One small step for man... (Score:4)

    by theNAM666 ( 179776 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:03PM (#919403)
    One large Super Supreme for all Mankind. Hold the Onions.

  • Fight Club was right... (Score:3)

    by ElJefe ( 41718 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:05PM (#919406)
    "When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything. The IBM Stellar Sphere. The Philip Morris Galaxy. Planet Starbucks."

    (I don't think that's exactly what it was in the movie, but it's what's in the script that I found)

    -ElJefe

  • Just imagine that long rocket launching up to space with a Trojan logo on it.
    --
  • I really don't like the looks of that Pizza Hut logo on the side of that rocket. It gives me a queezy feeling to know that some megacorp can come up with cash to fund things like this (very important things, I might add) where governments have failed.

    Damnit. I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

    One the plus side, that is one damned efficient rocket engine. Man, it looked sweet on launch - did anyone else notice the lack of oxidation? Is this some difference between the fuel technologies the Russians use over American launches? I seem to remember its got something to do with their use of kerosene over American's use of some other thing, but I forget the details.

    Sure could roast some good pie with that rocket. Damnit.
  • Pizza is more aerodynamically shaped than chicken, colonel with a beard, bell and chihuahua (aka rat-dog), so it's more positively associated with something flying ;-)
  • I have never been a fan of the fast food industry. But having tasted Jordinian pizza just a few weeks ago, my views of Pizza Hut were greatly altered. According to the Lonely Planet Guide to Jordan, Pizza Hut offered one of the best Pizzas in all of Petra, which is a strong testiment to the Jordinian exposure to Italian/New York style pizzas. Anyways, the storal of my moray (Capitol Steps) is that Pizza Hut could do some good by sending a message from the heavens down unto Pizzaless third world countries. Sad, but true.

    ~Questioning
    "Is this stuff CHEESE?!"
  • I really don't like the looks of that Pizza Hut logo on the side of that rocket
    Really? I can hardly see it. I hope for PH's sake that there were some tighter shots of the logo than at the URL above, otherwise they were screwed.

  • Re:Snow Crash... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    music

    Yeah, cheers for Britney Spears...

    movies

    Yeeaahh...i'll grant you Fight Club. Sadly it's almost cancelled out by the God-Bless-America attitude of films such as U-571, The Patriot etc. etc. Maybe if America made less xenophobic, smart-arse, shallow films.

    microcode (software)

    Lets see: Microsoft is American. Linus is Norwegian. No, can't give you this one.

    high speed pizza delivery

    Ah yes, food. I knew the Americans had to be good at something! And, of course it has to be food. After all, over half the population is clinicly obesse.

    Yes, God Bless America! (Wipes tear of laughter from eye)
  • I think Pizza Hut were a great choice for the first sponsors of space flight.

    I mean, look at their logo: What other company do you know that could get away with painting a picture of a flying saucer on the side of a rocket??

    I guess this will mean that all those old "Pizza the Hutt" jokes will get re-born too?
  • Let's just hope one of the Pizza Hut drives doesn't pilot it. That baby will be totaled in minutes!!!
    Kate

  • Neal Stephenson was right, America does 4 things better than everyone else (page 2):

    music
    movies
    microcode (software)
    high speed pizza delivery

    Yeah baby!


    --
    Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
    * Education
    * Integration
    * Support

  • splitting hairs (Score:3)

    by Shoeboy ( 16224 ) on Wednesday July 19, 2000 @09:10PM (#919430) Homepage
    world's largest proton rocket emblazoned with a Pizza Hut logo on the fuselage.
    Not to be confused with equally sized rockets devoid of the pizza hut logo or any smaller pizza hut sponsored rockets.
    --Shoeboy

  • "Last Action Hero", not "Judge Dredd" (Score:3)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Thursday July 20, 2000 @08:33AM (#919445) Homepage Journal
    The movie that spent US$0.5M on space advertisements was "Last Action Hero" (Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1993), not "Judge Dredd" (Sylvester Stallone, 1995).

    See the NASA page [nasa.gov] that explores other avenues for space commercialization.

    • 3.10.3.3.3 Market Assessment
      Although it is extremely unlikely that advertisements could fund an entire mission, they may provide significant supplementary revenue. Advertisements may be purchased on their own, but they are generally integrated into overall promotional campaigns. As such, they have the potential to generate additional revenues on the order of $3 million to $5 million or more per mission. For example, Columbia Pictures was willing to pay $500,000 for space on the side of the first Comet launch to promote the release of "The Last Action Hero." This was split between Westinghouse (Conestoga) and Space Marketing, Inc.

    You gotta keep your action-oriented-box-office-bombs-starring-bulky-br utes straight. :)

  • ..is to send a rocket to the Moon to collect samples. They want to be the only pizza biz with authentic Green Cheese!

Slashdot Top Deals

This file will self-destruct in five minutes.

Close