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.)"
Broadcasting dead...
by
LostCluster
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· Score: 5, Interesting
As a lower cost option, these people allow you to broadcast a digital message which can contain any audio or picture format you want into space.
They call the service Ad Astra. I like the dobule meaning of the word "ad" in that name...
Re:Broadcasting dead...
by
unitron
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· Score: 4, Interesting
"The civilisation that blurts out its existence on interstellar beacons at the first opportunity may be like some early hominid descending from the trees and calling "Here Kitty" to a sabre toothed tiger."--Robert Rood
Only in this case it's more like "Klingon want some Viagra?".
--
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Re:Broadcasting dead...
by
Camel+Pilot
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Too bad getting getting your DNA sequenced still costs too much.
Would be kinda cool to send the instructions to build youself out into the cosmos. I am sure one could calculate the probability of a significantly advanced live form to intercept your message and build a clone of you just for the heck of it.
Hmmm i think i smell a great plot for sci fi story.
Re:Broadcasting dead...
by
aardvarkjoe
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Hmmm i think i smell a great plot for sci fi story.
Interestingly, I just read Second Genesis by Donald Moffitt, which is based on a not too dissimilar idea. (Pretty decent afternoon read, if you're into that kind of book.)
--
How can we continue to believe in a
just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Only so much carbon...
by
cgranade
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Call me crazy, mod me -1, Wrong, whatever. I just wonder about launching stuff into space for no good reason. There's only so much mass on Earth, and what happens if the mass we throw off doesn't come back? I understand what we gain by launching satellites and all, but what does this gain us? I suppose it does have some advantages over the problem of finite room to bury people, but still...
--
#define DRM chmod 000
Re:Only so much carbon...
by
kfg
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I used foot and a half wide. You'll find that's about right for the average American adult male, so for humanity the figure is actually generous.
Do the math, it might surprise you.
Just before WWII we only would have needed a box half a mile to the side to pack away humanity, but we've grown a bit since then.
KFG
Old news - they handled my brother
by
wowbagger
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· Score: 5, Interesting
This is old news - Celestis handled my brother back in 2000.
This seems awfully affordable for launching anything in to space. Even if it is cremated remains, I would have expectede that it would be more expensive. Their webpage claims they have two of these in orbit already though. So all I need to do is find $11k and then cremate myself...
Only $11,000? Thats pretty cheap, considering the cost of taking a pound of gear into orbit. How do they get human remains that light? Even when you cremate a body, significant bones and dust remain. What do they do, throw away most of it and just send up a little bit of each person on their sattelite? Cremated remains can weigh upwards of two to five pounds. I'm wondering if this is all a scam, considering the high cost of burial space in certain geographical areas. In some places, a burial plot can cost even more than $11,000.
-- Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Re:a bit cheap
by
Nihynjahs
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· Score: 2, Interesting
they sends lots of lead up in with sattelites to use as a ballast i know that, so maybe they are just using bodies now.. at a 11,000 dollars its cheaper for them and at 150 lbs for an avereage person...
its and idea at least
Moon Miner's Manifesto has a piece on how the Celestis capsule will only be in orbit for a year before the ashes meet a fiery end and proposes other and similar methods of putting remains in space.
-- Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
There were already remains in orbit
by
TotallyUseless
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· Score: 4, Interesting
LSD Guru Tim Leary, Gene Roddenberry, and 22 others had their remains shot up into orbit in a capsule in 1997. The capsule was supposed to remain in orbit for around 18 months, then burn up on reentry into the atmosphere, for a double cremation!
Immortality
by
digitalhermit
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· Score: 3, Interesting
In a few billion years this little wet dustball of ours is going to disappear in a poof of smoke when good old Sol gets middle-aged (insert old fat guy joke here). I want my DNA sent in the other direction. I want my genes to land on some planet (or planets) throughout the galaxy and start new lifecycles. Damn right.
on a serious note...
by
databeast
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· Score: 5, Interesting
..I've always thought that space burials are one of the best ways we have a shot at 'meeting' alien races.
Yes, many of these coffin launches are going to get sucked up into solar gravity wells and burn up, but some are going to get caught in orbits around low-atmosphere bodies or other survivable situations.
My thinking behind this? the universe isnt *that* old compared to its predicted total lifespan; humankind may indeed be one of the 'first races'. By the time enough life-bearing planets produce that cycle, humanity may already be several hundred million years extinct. But putting our 'relics' (ie our corpses) out into the void, where they may survive fairly intact for far longer (assuming they have the sense to vacuum-pack our corpsicles) we stand a fair chance that something out in the distant future is going to find one of these human relics, and if they havent watched enough sci-fi, probably resurrect the human race from our DNA:-)
[seriously, blasting your corpse into space probably has more value to it than any current cyrogenics program, as far as the odds of you being resurrected go, the cost of maintenance,[hopefuly none] and value to the human race (lets face it, most of the people going into alcor drums we probably dont want back!)
Certainly, I'd like to do this, on the condition that the launch params were sufficient to give me a good shot at escaping the sol system limits and not returning to ground as space-trash on one of our neighboring planets.
Re:Take down a space station
by
LostCluster
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· Score: 2, Interesting
This service won't help you with that. The small sample of you that they send will end up vaporized on reentry.
The decay bateria are hungry!
by
orthogonal
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Science seems convinced that in the early universe, only the elements with the lowest atomic weight -- hydrogen, helium, perhaps a few others -- existed.
Denser elements come into being for millions of years, until the very oldest stars first burnt out, then re-ignited by burning heavy elements, until finally bursting in novas and flinging heavier elements out into the universe.
After many many such novas, eventually enough of these heavier elements were produced to coalesce and form our sun and its planets. One of the heavier elements -- carbon, some 12 times heavier than fundamental element hydrogen -- conveniently arranges itself into the benzene rings of six atoms that are the scaffold for all Earthly life. It is because of this that Carl Sagan said that we were all made of star-stuff.
And after all that work of billions of years to collect heavy elements here on Earth, you want to just throw away all that
Re: story
by
earthforce_1
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Actually, flying straight the sun is very difficult.
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.
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.
-- My rights don't need management.
Whats wrong with good ol underground?
by
mnmn
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· Score: 2, Interesting
So everyone will want to send the whole of themselves (not just the egocentric parts), yet cut costs so embalming, clothing will be out of question.
Maybe the geosync orbit will be a belt of zombies visible from the ground, from which dead bodies will occasionally whack the windows of the next space station.
I'd much rather be thrown into the atmosphere, on the night side so people would see a shooting star and make a wish. Hopefully the shooting star will not reach the ground, now that would be messy.
-- "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you."
-Nim Chimpsky
Urban Legend?
by
Fubar411
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Wasn't there an urban legend about an engineer that took some of his buddy's ashes, epoxied them onto a Mars sattelite, and wrote the whole thing anonymously (luckly for me Anonymously is spelled for you in the posting form)?
Read the small print, they send a "symbolic portion" of the cremated body, that could be one speck of the ash, that way you can send up an unlimited number of bodies in one go, sounds like a license to print money to me!
Another rip off is the name a star after you, listed at the bottom as part of the cheaper option, I have researched this name a star after you after hearing it on the radio and thinking about naming one after my girlfriend (she is into cosmology) but after researching it I discovered that all the people do is write the name down in a book that the company has, but the company has no right to name the star (only the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has the right to officially name celestial objects), so all you get is an expensive piece of paper ($50 and up) and here they are charging $300 bucks for that a digital broadcast!!
Tom: No, actually, Helping Children Through Research And Development is the acronym, Mike. It stands for: Hi, Everyone, Let's Pitch In 'N' Get Cracking Here In Louisiana Doing Right, Eh? Now Then, Hateful, Rich, Overbearing Ugly Guys Hurt Royally Every Time Someone Eats A Radish, Carrot, Hors d'oeuvre, And Never Does Dishes. Eventually, Victor Eats Lunch Over Peoria Mit Ein Neuesberger Tod.
.
-- A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
How do you decompose in space?
by
read-only
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Anybody know how the human body decays in space?
Sorry for the gruesome question, but I'm curious.
Re:How do you decompose in space?
by
El_Ge_Ex
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Anybody know how the human body decays in space?
Actually, the decompression would get you before you had the change to find out. You bones would hold up and maybe some of your muscles. Your other organs wouldn't be so lucky though.
But hey, at least that part of you that somehow stays together will stay intact for the long haul. The cold of space would freeze it pretty quickly.
-B
Reminds me of a twilight zone episode...
by
Phil+John
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· Score: 2, Interesting
...it's Season 1, ep 20, Elegy.
Astronauts land on a planet with lots of scenes from various periods of history but everyone there seem to be frozen in time, it's actually a great big cemetery planet where the rich have their bodies sent to live out eternity.
-- I am NaN
Not ambitious enough
by
Eric+Smith
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I want to burn in the Sun
I want to outlive the sun. Maybe in not exactly the same manner as the protagonist of Charles Sheffield's novel "Tomorrow and Tomorrow", though.
Or maybe burning in the sun wouldn't be so bad. There was another novel whose author and title I can't recall at the moment, in which one of the characters was a human transformed into an entity that could in fact survive in the sun. She discovered that there were intelligent creatures living there that were taking actions apparently designed to shorten the sun's life.
Gene Roddenberry was already 'buried' in space
by
jebiester
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· Score: 5, Interesting
This was already done for Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek founder) in 1997. Just a shame the ashes weren't brought up in the Enterprise.
Re:Take down a space station
by
diersing
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Seriously, as a person that doesn't follow such things as closly as others....
How much *space garbage* is there? How much of it will burn up on re-entry (given time)? How much is too large or in too high an orbit?
I would think, considering the size of space we've contributing very little garbage with the most being in some sort of earth orbit. With all the NASA/USSR satellites plus all the now commerical (communications, GPS, etc) we have to have.... what?, a hundred or so devices up there?
Just Drop Into the Sun from Sail Ship
by
Mad+Man
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Actually, flying straight the sun is very difficult.
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.
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.
So don't push the body into the sun from orbit.
Do it from a solar sail craft that is hovering over the sun (from a point where light pressure is balanced between gravitational pull), and just drop the body in.
As far as I know, the idea belongs to Bob L. Forward. That's how one of the characters is "buried" at the end of his novel Flight of the Dragonfly (which was later re-published in bloated form as Rocheworld; get the original).
Since the light sail craft was not in orbit, there was no forward component of motion. Thus, when released from the craft, the body was not in orbit either. The only force acting on the body was the gravitational pull of the star.
I prefer this Sweedish method
by
WormholeFiend
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· Score: 5, Interesting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3473103.stm
Swedes offer freeze-dry burials The environmentally-conscientious could soon ensure they don't end up polluting the earth after they die, thanks to a company in Sweden. Concerns about the environmental impact of embalming fluids or cremation have led Promessa Organic to come up with a chilling alternative.
Their method involves freeze-drying the corpse in liquid nitrogen.
Sound vibrations then shatter the brittle remains into a powder that can be "returned to the ecological cycle".
Biologist and head of Promessa Organic Susanne Wiigh-Maesak said she hoped to promote environmental and existential awareness.
"Our ecological burial reduces environmental impact on some of our most important resources; our water, air and soil," she explains on her company website.
"At the same time it provides us with deeper insights regarding the ecological cycle, and greater understanding of and respect for life on earth."
Compost
After the freezing process, the odourless powdery remains are laid in a coffin made of corn starch and buried in a shallow grave.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak says the soil "turns the coffin and its contents into compost in about six months" which means relatives can then plant a bush or tree on the spot.
The method is based upon preserving the body in a biological form after death, while avoiding harmful embalming fluid Susanne Wiigh-Maesak, Promessa Organic
"The compost formed can then be taken up by the plant... The plant stands as a symbol of the person, and we understand where the body went," she said. Ms Wiigh-Maesak says she would very much like to become a white rhododendron.
The company has applied for a patent on her method in 35 countries.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak said the authorities in Joenkoeping, 328 km (204 miles) south-west of Stockholm, were ready to start operating its first freeze-drying facility in the next couple of years.
The head of cemetery administration in Joenkoeping said younger people were keen on the idea as "green burials" are becoming popular in Sweden.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills
by
swordsaintzero
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· Score: 2, Interesting
So alcholics are garbage and by inference are on par with wife beating scum, because they have a genetic predisposition towards a drinking problem? I have to say of all the stupid things typed in haste and posted on slashdot you sir have entered into the hall of fame of fuckups.
-- Panel F, Relay #70
Re:You want to burn in the Sun?
by
LauraScudder
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The disappointing thing is that since the sun is ~8.5 light-minutes away, we won't even get to enjoy seeing it explode before we burn to a crisp.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills
by
SaV
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· Score: 3, Interesting
actually, being a student of anthropology/archaeology has made me want to be cremated even more. i don't want my body dug up in a couple hundred years to be studied!
The Loved One
by
SmoothTom
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Why was my first thought the 1965 movie (with "Something to Offend Everyone!") The Loved One?
Maybe it was the business with launching dead pets into space for burial, or maybe Aimee Thanatogenos taking that ride, eh?
Hmmmm. I'll have to find a copy of that movie somewhere. Haven't seen it for years.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills
by
Have+Blue
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Your house/apartment/whatever is taking up far more space than a single grave. I can think of a few ways to improve this situation.
Trash in space
by
Lord_Dweomer
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Trash in space is going to become a much more serious issue once spacetravel becomes commercialized.
If anybody is interested in an anime which deals with this issue, I HIGHLY recommend Planet ES. It deals with a salaryman in space who works as a space debris collector (futuristic garbageman). Apparently space trash is a HUGE problem in the series, and even a tiny screw floating out in space can kill if its moving fast enough. Very interesting. I wonder how closely our future will mirror this.
Re:Trash in space
by
TheLoneDanger
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The anime is okay, but the manga is MUCH better than the anime for realism. It's set in the near future and is much more plausible with more actual science and understanding of what really living in space entails. It has almost singlehandedly (along with the Firefly DVDs) got me longing again for true space travel.
The manga PLANETES is a love letter to space travel. If you love space give the manga a shot.
--
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
Re:Cemeteries are landfills
by
damiam
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· Score: 3, Interesting
To refer to buried human remains simply as 'garbage' is an unbelievably shallow comment. Yes when it comes down to the bare basics, buried people are dead. They aren't going to earn another pay cheque. They won't be at their desk helping the economy steam on. But that does not mean they are worthless or worthy of being equated to 'garbage'.
The people are not worthless. But their bodies are. You aren't (normally) attached to the bodies of your friends and families, you're attached to their minds and souls. No matter what you do with the body, whether you burn it or bury it, the soul is not around any more. The body is just a bit of decomposing matter. Ecologically speaking, it's garbage.
I would rather have my ashes scattered in a place that I loved, so that my family could remember me every time they were there, and so that my body would go back into the nature environment and nurture new life. I'd rather go out in a burst of flame than slowly be eaten away by worms over the decades.
Many cultures manage to do quite well without cemetaries - Japan has a 97% cremation rate. While I respect the right of people to dispose of their bodies as they see fit, I believe that the US would be better off if we did the same.
-- It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Mars landing
by
dialsoft
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I think that it would be great to be buried in space with a trajectory towards a planet that one day you will be either discovered there or your dna or whatever part of your decomposed body could contribute to the evolution of life on that planet in 22342342 million years.
rock on
You've missed the point.
by
abiggerhammer
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Which is: is it worse to kill 250,000 in an instant to prevent the possibility of millions more being slaughtered over the course of months, or to save those 250,000 at the cost of a long, slow, brutal war?
I don't have a good answer for that, myself. I don't have any answer.
-- Dance like nobody's watching. Sing like you're in the shower. Fuck like you're being filmed.
what if one of these bodys manage to get to the surface of a non-habiteted planet? wouldn't that "contaminate" the planet?
and what if this body reaches a planet with simple life forms, probably the bordy will have some bacteria or virii, that could be a big hazard to native life
Collisions?
by
TonyMeatballs
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Not that it seems like a huge problem, sending a few bodies into earth orbit, but does this company actually monitor, or know exactly where in earth orbit these bodies are going? I can imagine the headlines one day when a spaceshuttle has a hit-and-run with a body in orbit nobody expected to be there
Slashdot Mirror
As a lower cost option, these people allow you to broadcast a digital message which can contain any audio or picture format you want into space.
They call the service Ad Astra. I like the dobule meaning of the word "ad" in that name...
Call me crazy, mod me -1, Wrong, whatever. I just wonder about launching stuff into space for no good reason. There's only so much mass on Earth, and what happens if the mass we throw off doesn't come back? I understand what we gain by launching satellites and all, but what does this gain us? I suppose it does have some advantages over the problem of finite room to bury people, but still...
#define DRM chmod 000
This is old news - Celestis handled my brother back in 2000.
www.eFax.com are spammers
This seems awfully affordable for launching anything in to space. Even if it is cremated remains, I would have expectede that it would be more expensive. Their webpage claims they have two of these in orbit already though. So all I need to do is find $11k and then cremate myself...
Only $11,000? Thats pretty cheap, considering the cost of taking a pound of gear into orbit. How do they get human remains that light? Even when you cremate a body, significant bones and dust remain. What do they do, throw away most of it and just send up a little bit of each person on their sattelite? Cremated remains can weigh upwards of two to five pounds. I'm wondering if this is all a scam, considering the high cost of burial space in certain geographical areas. In some places, a burial plot can cost even more than $11,000.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
LSD Guru Tim Leary, Gene Roddenberry, and 22 others had their remains shot up into orbit in a capsule in 1997. The capsule was supposed to remain in orbit for around 18 months, then burn up on reentry into the atmosphere, for a double cremation!
Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
In a few billion years this little wet dustball of ours is going to disappear in a poof of smoke when good old Sol gets middle-aged (insert old fat guy joke here). I want my DNA sent in the other direction. I want my genes to land on some planet (or planets) throughout the galaxy and start new lifecycles. Damn right.
..I've always thought that space burials are one of the best ways we have a shot at 'meeting' alien races.
:-)
Yes, many of these coffin launches are going to get sucked up into solar gravity wells and burn up, but some are going to get caught in orbits around low-atmosphere bodies or other survivable situations.
My thinking behind this? the universe isnt *that* old compared to its predicted total lifespan; humankind may indeed be one of the 'first races'. By the time enough life-bearing planets produce that cycle, humanity may already be several hundred million years extinct. But putting our 'relics' (ie our corpses) out into the void, where they may survive fairly intact for far longer (assuming they have the sense to vacuum-pack our corpsicles) we stand a fair chance that something out in the distant future is going to find one of these human relics, and if they havent watched enough sci-fi, probably resurrect the human race from our DNA
[seriously, blasting your corpse into space probably has more value to it than any current cyrogenics program, as far as the odds of you being resurrected go, the cost of maintenance,[hopefuly none] and value to the human race (lets face it, most of the people going into alcor drums we probably dont want back!)
Certainly, I'd like to do this, on the condition that the launch params were sufficient to give me a good shot at escaping the sol system limits and not returning to ground as space-trash on one of our neighboring planets.
This service won't help you with that. The small sample of you that they send will end up vaporized on reentry.
Denser elements come into being for millions of years, until the very oldest stars first burnt out, then re-ignited by burning heavy elements, until finally bursting in novas and flinging heavier elements out into the universe.
After many many such novas, eventually enough of these heavier elements were produced to coalesce and form our sun and its planets. One of the heavier elements -- carbon, some 12 times heavier than fundamental element hydrogen -- conveniently arranges itself into the benzene rings of six atoms that are the scaffold for all Earthly life. It is because of this that Carl Sagan said that we were all made of star-stuff.
And after all that work of billions of years to collect heavy elements here on Earth, you want to just throw away all that by shooting it into space?
Learn to recycle, fer cryin' out loud!
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Actually, flying straight the sun is very difficult.
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.
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.
My rights don't need management.
So everyone will want to send the whole of themselves (not just the egocentric parts), yet cut costs so embalming, clothing will be out of question.
Maybe the geosync orbit will be a belt of zombies visible from the ground, from which dead bodies will occasionally whack the windows of the next space station.
I'd much rather be thrown into the atmosphere, on the night side so people would see a shooting star and make a wish. Hopefully the shooting star will not reach the ground, now that would be messy.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Wasn't there an urban legend about an engineer that took some of his buddy's ashes, epoxied them onto a Mars sattelite, and wrote the whole thing anonymously (luckly for me Anonymously is spelled for you in the posting form)?
Read the small print, they send a "symbolic portion" of the cremated body, that could be one speck of the ash, that way you can send up an unlimited number of bodies in one go, sounds like a license to print money to me!
Another rip off is the name a star after you, listed at the bottom as part of the cheaper option, I have researched this name a star after you after hearing it on the radio and thinking about naming one after my girlfriend (she is into cosmology) but after researching it I discovered that all the people do is write the name down in a book that the company has, but the company has no right to name the star (only the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has the right to officially name celestial objects), so all you get is an expensive piece of paper ($50 and up) and here they are charging $300 bucks for that a digital broadcast!!
Tom: No, actually, Helping Children Through Research And Development is the acronym, Mike. It stands for: Hi, Everyone, Let's Pitch In 'N' Get Cracking Here In Louisiana Doing Right, Eh? Now Then, Hateful, Rich, Overbearing Ugly Guys Hurt Royally Every Time Someone Eats A Radish, Carrot, Hors d'oeuvre, And Never Does Dishes. Eventually, Victor Eats Lunch Over Peoria Mit Ein Neuesberger Tod. .
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
I don't think you understand the scale of things. Space...is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Anybody know how the human body decays in space?
Sorry for the gruesome question, but I'm curious.
...it's Season 1, ep 20, Elegy.
Astronauts land on a planet with lots of scenes from various periods of history but everyone there seem to be frozen in time, it's actually a great big cemetery planet where the rich have their bodies sent to live out eternity.
I am NaN
Or maybe burning in the sun wouldn't be so bad. There was another novel whose author and title I can't recall at the moment, in which one of the characters was a human transformed into an entity that could in fact survive in the sun. She discovered that there were intelligent creatures living there that were taking actions apparently designed to shorten the sun's life.
There's a old CNN article on it here
How much *space garbage* is there? How much of it will burn up on re-entry (given time)? How much is too large or in too high an orbit?
I would think, considering the size of space we've contributing very little garbage with the most being in some sort of earth orbit. With all the NASA/USSR satellites plus all the now commerical (communications, GPS, etc) we have to have.... what?, a hundred or so devices up there?
So don't push the body into the sun from orbit.
Do it from a solar sail craft that is hovering over the sun (from a point where light pressure is balanced between gravitational pull), and just drop the body in.
As far as I know, the idea belongs to Bob L. Forward. That's how one of the characters is "buried" at the end of his novel Flight of the Dragonfly (which was later re-published in bloated form as Rocheworld; get the original).
Since the light sail craft was not in orbit, there was no forward component of motion. Thus, when released from the craft, the body was not in orbit either. The only force acting on the body was the gravitational pull of the star.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3473103.stm
Swedes offer freeze-dry burials
The environmentally-conscientious could soon ensure they don't end up polluting the earth after they die, thanks to a company in Sweden.
Concerns about the environmental impact of embalming fluids or cremation have led Promessa Organic to come up with a chilling alternative.
Their method involves freeze-drying the corpse in liquid nitrogen.
Sound vibrations then shatter the brittle remains into a powder that can be "returned to the ecological cycle".
Biologist and head of Promessa Organic Susanne Wiigh-Maesak said she hoped to promote environmental and existential awareness.
"Our ecological burial reduces environmental impact on some of our most important resources; our water, air and soil," she explains on her company website.
"At the same time it provides us with deeper insights regarding the ecological cycle, and greater understanding of and respect for life on earth."
Compost
After the freezing process, the odourless powdery remains are laid in a coffin made of corn starch and buried in a shallow grave.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak says the soil "turns the coffin and its contents into compost in about six months" which means relatives can then plant a bush or tree on the spot.
The method is based upon preserving the body in a biological form after death, while avoiding harmful embalming fluid
Susanne Wiigh-Maesak,
Promessa Organic
"The compost formed can then be taken up by the plant... The plant stands as a symbol of the person, and we understand where the body went," she said.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak says she would very much like to become a white rhododendron.
The company has applied for a patent on her method in 35 countries.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak said the authorities in Joenkoeping, 328 km (204 miles) south-west of Stockholm, were ready to start operating its first freeze-drying facility in the next couple of years.
The head of cemetery administration in Joenkoeping said younger people were keen on the idea as "green burials" are becoming popular in Sweden.
So alcholics are garbage and by inference are on par with wife beating scum, because they have a genetic predisposition towards a drinking problem? I have to say of all the stupid things typed in haste and posted on slashdot you sir have entered into the hall of fame of fuckups.
Panel F, Relay #70
The disappointing thing is that since the sun is ~8.5 light-minutes away, we won't even get to enjoy seeing it explode before we burn to a crisp.
actually, being a student of anthropology/archaeology has made me want to be cremated even more. i don't want my body dug up in a couple hundred years to be studied!
Maybe it was the business with launching dead pets into space for burial, or maybe Aimee Thanatogenos taking that ride, eh?
Hmmmm. I'll have to find a copy of that movie somewhere. Haven't seen it for years.
Your house/apartment/whatever is taking up far more space than a single grave. I can think of a few ways to improve this situation.
If anybody is interested in an anime which deals with this issue, I HIGHLY recommend Planet ES. It deals with a salaryman in space who works as a space debris collector (futuristic garbageman). Apparently space trash is a HUGE problem in the series, and even a tiny screw floating out in space can kill if its moving fast enough. Very interesting. I wonder how closely our future will mirror this.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
The people are not worthless. But their bodies are. You aren't (normally) attached to the bodies of your friends and families, you're attached to their minds and souls. No matter what you do with the body, whether you burn it or bury it, the soul is not around any more. The body is just a bit of decomposing matter. Ecologically speaking, it's garbage.
I would rather have my ashes scattered in a place that I loved, so that my family could remember me every time they were there, and so that my body would go back into the nature environment and nurture new life. I'd rather go out in a burst of flame than slowly be eaten away by worms over the decades.
Many cultures manage to do quite well without cemetaries - Japan has a 97% cremation rate. While I respect the right of people to dispose of their bodies as they see fit, I believe that the US would be better off if we did the same.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
I think that it would be great to be buried in space with a trajectory towards a planet that one day you will be either discovered there or your dna or whatever part of your decomposed body could contribute to the evolution of life on that planet in 22342342 million years.
rock on
I don't have a good answer for that, myself. I don't have any answer.
Dance like nobody's watching. Sing like you're in the shower. Fuck like you're being filmed.
what if one of these bodys manage to get to the surface of a non-habiteted planet? wouldn't that "contaminate" the planet?
and what if this body reaches a planet with simple life forms, probably the bordy will have some bacteria or virii, that could be a big hazard to native life
-- SouNerd.com
Not that it seems like a huge problem, sending a few bodies into earth orbit, but does this company actually monitor, or know exactly where in earth orbit these bodies are going? I can imagine the headlines one day when a spaceshuttle has a hit-and-run with a body in orbit nobody expected to be there