Posted by
michael
on from the burial-not-exactly-the-right-word dept.
roman_mir writes "Celestis is the name of a company that is offering space burials for some $11K USD. Isn't this nice, like there is not enough garbage in space already... So, how many of you want to be buried in space? I want to burn in the Sun (or at least the egomaniacal part of me.)"
Re:Only so much carbon...
by
beeplet
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Considering the earth accumulates 30 million kg of space dust each year, I don't think this will be a problem. (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news19.html)
Re:Only so much carbon...
by
kfg
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The earth's mass increases by tons a day, from the influx of space stuff. It doesn't really matter, as a percentage of the earth's mass the stuff that comes in and what we ship out is waaaaaay below the level of significant digits.
I could sit here half the night listing reasons why launching dead granny dust into space is a pretty daft idea, but worries about unbalancing the earth's orbit or running out of carbon wouldn't be among them.
If you took all the people in the world and packed them into a box, like sardines, without cremating, that box would have to be about 3/4 mile per side.
That's it. All of humanity. All of humanity's mass. Poof it out into space and the earth wouldn't so much as bobble, or care.
KFG
Re:Only so much carbon...
by
evilmrhenry
·
· Score: 5, Informative
(Note: all numbers pulled from Internet in the space of a few minutes. May be inaccurate.)
mass of Earth: 5.9742 x 10^24 kilograms. That's 5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
mass of average person: about 100 kilograms
number of bodies needed to change the Earth's weight by 1%: 597,420,000,000,000,000,000
Population of Earth: about 6,000,000,000
Weight of Apollo 11: about 30,000 kg
Number of Apollo 11's needed to change Earth's weight by 1% 1,991,400,000,000,000,000
In conclusion, the Earth is really big.
Burn on the Sun?
by
FuzzyFurB
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Technically if you wait long enough your body will burn on the sun. It is common knowledge that the sun is slowly increasing in size and will eventually (all be it in a LONG time from now) envelope the Earth. If you cryogenically freeze yourself your body won't be destroyed until that day comes. Why pay the extra $ to make it happen now?:)
-- Will Stokes
Album Shaper
http://albumshaper.sf.net
Re:Take down a space station
by
doj8
·
· Score: 5, Informative
According to this article (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html):
"A 1999 study estimated there are some 4 million pounds of space junk in low-Earth orbit, just one part of a celestial sea of roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter -- each big enough to damage a satellite or space-based telescope."
Of them, "8,927 are man-made objects which are officially tracked."
Actually, flying straight the sun is very difficult.
Yes, it is: to go into an orbit that will intersect the sun you have to kill nearly all your current velocity with respect to the sun. IIRC for the Earth that's about 25 miles per second (plus a bit extra to get you out of Earth's gravity well), which is more than three times as fast this "put your ashes in orbit" mission.
This is the part you just made up:
If you are pushed a hair off course, your remains will go into orbit around the sun, or be blown outward by the solar winds.
There is a reason why light-sail designs call for square miles of material thinner than paper: because unless you've got that much surface area to weight, neither sunlight nor solar wind will change your course very much.
Even if you aim precisely at the sun, the ever increasing pressure of the solar discharge will tend to push you off course and away.
That pressure will increase with the inverse square of your distance from the sun, as does the force of gravity pulling you towards the sun. If you were on course to begin with, you won't be blown off it, certainly not enough to miss a million mile wide target.
Re:Take down a space station
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Informative
But then they'll shoot you down with lasers.
http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/spacevi ew s/text/20000821.txt
NASA to Test Laser "Broom" to Clean Space Junk
NASA plans to test a laser system in 2003 that may help clear low-Earth orbit of debris that could pose a risk to the shuttle and space station.
New Scientist magazine reported in its current issue that a shuttle flight in 2003 will test Project Orion, a groundbased laser system that would act as a "broom", sweeping out small debris from orbit.
During the mission the shuttle will release small instrumented objects designed to simulate space debris. The objects will be equipped with GPS receivers so that their positions can be tracked as they are illuminated by a groundbased megawatt-power laser. The laser will vaporize part of the object's surface, creating a small amount of thrust that slows the object down and eventually causes it to reenter the Earth's atmosphere.
If successful, the system could be used to clear out low-Earth orbit of small pieces of orbital debris that, because of their high velocities, can cause significant damage if they strike a spacecraft. "With a laser system we could clear from orbit all the debris between 1 and 10 centimeters [0.4 to 4 inches] in size within two years," said Jonathan Campbell, head of the Project Orion effort at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
That size range is significant because debris of that size poses the greatest risk. Shielding on spacecraft can protect them from objects smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in.), while those larger than 10 cm (4 in.) across can be tracked from the ground and spacecraft moved to avoid them. Between 1 and 10 cm, though, are objects too small to be tracked from the ground and too large to be effectively shielded against.
Campbell and others involved with Project Orion (first described in SpaceViews in 1997) are optimistic that lasers can clear low-Earth orbits effectively and at a relatively modest cost. "We now know we can decelerate and de-orbit the debris with the types of laser that are available to us," based on a series of recent tests on the ground, he said.
A two-year effort to clear debris from orbit would cost about $200 million, Campbell estimated. By comparison, the cost of a single space shuttle mission has been estimated to be as much as a half- billion dollars.
Slashdot Mirror
The amount of mass being launched is measured in the hundreds of kilograms per year.
The amount of mass falling onto the earth from space is measured in the hundreds of tons per day.
Do the math.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Cemetaries don't last forever. They can be reused every few hundred years.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Bonus Link: Lists the passengers on that Founder's Flight.
Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
Considering the earth accumulates 30 million kg of space dust each year, I don't think this will be a problem. (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news19.html)
The earth's mass increases by tons a day, from the influx of space stuff. It doesn't really matter, as a percentage of the earth's mass the stuff that comes in and what we ship out is waaaaaay below the level of significant digits.
I could sit here half the night listing reasons why launching dead granny dust into space is a pretty daft idea, but worries about unbalancing the earth's orbit or running out of carbon wouldn't be among them.
If you took all the people in the world and packed them into a box, like sardines, without cremating, that box would have to be about 3/4 mile per side.
That's it. All of humanity. All of humanity's mass. Poof it out into space and the earth wouldn't so much as bobble, or care.
KFG
(Note: all numbers pulled from Internet in the space of a few minutes. May be inaccurate.)
mass of Earth:
5.9742 x 10^24 kilograms. That's
5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
mass of average person:
about 100 kilograms
number of bodies needed to change the Earth's weight by 1%:
597,420,000,000,000,000,000
Population of Earth:
about 6,000,000,000
Weight of Apollo 11:
about 30,000 kg
Number of Apollo 11's needed to change Earth's weight by 1%
1,991,400,000,000,000,000
In conclusion, the Earth is really big.
Technically if you wait long enough your body will burn on the sun. It is common knowledge that the sun is slowly increasing in size and will eventually (all be it in a LONG time from now) envelope the Earth. If you cryogenically freeze yourself your body won't be destroyed until that day comes. Why pay the extra $ to make it happen now? :)
Will Stokes Album Shaper http://albumshaper.sf.net
According to this article (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html):
"A 1999 study estimated there are some 4 million pounds of space junk in low-Earth orbit, just one part of a celestial sea of roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter -- each big enough to damage a satellite or space-based telescope."
Of them, "8,927 are man-made objects which are officially tracked."
-- Dan Jenkins, Rastech Inc.
This is the part you got right:
Actually, flying straight the sun is very difficult.
Yes, it is: to go into an orbit that will intersect the sun you have to kill nearly all your current velocity with respect to the sun. IIRC for the Earth that's about 25 miles per second (plus a bit extra to get you out of Earth's gravity well), which is more than three times as fast this "put your ashes in orbit" mission.
This is the part you just made up:
If you are pushed a hair off course, your remains will go into orbit around the sun, or be blown outward by the solar winds.
There is a reason why light-sail designs call for square miles of material thinner than paper: because unless you've got that much surface area to weight, neither sunlight nor solar wind will change your course very much.
Even if you aim precisely at the sun, the ever increasing pressure of the solar discharge will tend to push you off course and away.
That pressure will increase with the inverse square of your distance from the sun, as does the force of gravity pulling you towards the sun. If you were on course to begin with, you won't be blown off it, certainly not enough to miss a million mile wide target.
http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/spacev
NASA to Test Laser "Broom" to Clean Space Junk
NASA plans to test a laser system in 2003 that may help clear
low-Earth orbit of debris that could pose a risk to the shuttle and
space station.
New Scientist magazine reported in its current issue that a
shuttle flight in 2003 will test Project Orion, a groundbased laser
system that would act as a "broom", sweeping out small debris from
orbit.
During the mission the shuttle will release small instrumented
objects designed to simulate space debris. The objects will be
equipped with GPS receivers so that their positions can be tracked as
they are illuminated by a groundbased megawatt-power laser. The laser
will vaporize part of the object's surface, creating a small amount of
thrust that slows the object down and eventually causes it to reenter
the Earth's atmosphere.
If successful, the system could be used to clear out low-Earth
orbit of small pieces of orbital debris that, because of their high
velocities, can cause significant damage if they strike a spacecraft.
"With a laser system we could clear from orbit all the debris between
1 and 10 centimeters [0.4 to 4 inches] in size within two years," said
Jonathan Campbell, head of the Project Orion effort at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center.
That size range is significant because debris of that size
poses the greatest risk. Shielding on spacecraft can protect them
from objects smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in.), while those larger than 10
cm (4 in.) across can be tracked from the ground and spacecraft moved
to avoid them. Between 1 and 10 cm, though, are objects too small to
be tracked from the ground and too large to be effectively shielded
against.
Campbell and others involved with Project Orion (first
described in SpaceViews in 1997) are optimistic that lasers can clear
low-Earth orbits effectively and at a relatively modest cost. "We now
know we can decelerate and de-orbit the debris with the types of laser
that are available to us," based on a series of recent tests on the
ground, he said.
A two-year effort to clear debris from orbit would cost about
$200 million, Campbell estimated. By comparison, the cost of a single
space shuttle mission has been estimated to be as much as a half-
billion dollars.