Florida GoogleX Team Offers To Send Your DNA To the Moon For a Price

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Florida GoogleX Team Offers To Send Your DNA To the Moon For a Price

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 9, 2012 @06:45AM from the to-the-moon-with-you dept.

First time accepted submitter Udigs writes "You might have heard of the Google LunarX Prize. It's a competition where private, often non-profit organizations race to build a vehicle capable of completing a short mission on the moon. But one of the problems facing these private teams is the issue of raising money to make the trip. However, one Florida team is taking an interesting approach: they are offering to send your DNA to the moon for a price. For the inclined, they've started a kickstarter page."

55 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

High price of gas. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 06:48 · Score: 2, Funny

However, one Florida team is taking an interesting approach: they are offering to send your DNA to the moon for a price.

It'll save the aliens gas money to come here and get it.
1. Re:High price of gas. by s.petry · 2012-07-09 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  Aliens? Not exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking more along the lines of a covert program to get more DNA into Government databases, and of course the Government.. er Google... would make a lot of cash doing so.
  
  --
  -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
2. Re:High price of gas. by detritus. · 2012-07-09 16:58 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly. I'll be physically present at the launch and put my vile into the capsule and watch it be loaded on to the rocket, thank you. Anything less than that, I'll keep my money.
Like a big astronaut... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 06:48 · Score: 1

...circle jerk.
1. Re:Like a big astronaut... by TWX · 2012-07-09 07:13 · Score: 2
  
  Somehow I figured there'd be a joke like this in there. If there wasn't then I was going to make it...
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
So my clones are doomed to work on the moon? by shoppa · 2012-07-09 06:51 · Score: 0

They tried this in the movies, and IT DIDN'T WORK!!!

Moon (2009 Movie with Sam Rockwell)
1. Re:So my clones are doomed to work on the moon? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:04 · Score: 0
  
  Thank you for that. Just gave it a preview online...pretty intense. I like it.
I don't understand... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 06:54 · Score: 0

They pay me or I pay them?
1. Re:I don't understand... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:00 · Score: 0
  
  They pay me or I pay them?
  Usually neither. Yeah, kickstarter has had a couple of successes, but most of the time people just squak and make noise, and their project date comes and goes unfunded. The bigger the goal (going to the moon) and more technically oriented it is (going to the moon) the less likely it is to succeed. Things like indy films have traditionally done the best, I think because people tend to actually believe that the thing will be successfully finished. (If you see many independent films, you realize that that standard is pretty low...).
2. Re:I don't understand... by TWX · 2012-07-09 07:12 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, just inspired by a Heathers quote, when they were asked what they would do if they won the lottery right before finding out that the world will be destroyed...
  
  "I'd pay Madonna a million bucks to sit on my face and have her ride like the Kentucky derby...
  
  ...she should pay me, though.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2012-07-09 06:57 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:00 · Score: 0

DNA samples will be stocked in shipping container and dumped into a volcano. $40/sample.
1. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Quiet_Desperation · 2012-07-09 07:03 · Score: 1
  
  Wait, isn't that a central tenant of Scientology?
  And volcanoes are the output ports, so, plan fail, I guess.
2. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by GameboyRMH · 2012-07-09 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  I thought Xenu packed aliens into volcanoes and then blew them up with fusion bombs and now their ghosts are what causes humanity's ills (which is why you should totally not use stupid science-based medicine, it does nothing about the alien ghosts at the root of the problem).
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
3. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by localman57 · 2012-07-09 07:28 · Score: 2
  
  I am _so_ sick of hearing this shit. I'm leaving. And I'm taking Suri with me.
4. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by tilante · 2012-07-09 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  You would post that comment on a day that I don't have mod points. Dammit.
Send mother-in-law's DNA by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:00 · Score: 0

With mother-in-law attached.
Competition by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:00 · Score: 1

For a much cheaper price i'll offer you the privilege to have your DNA sent to some other place just as useless.
10k? by MDMurphy · 2012-07-09 07:03 · Score: 2

While I understand that weight is key, 10k seemed a little high for the DNA sample. A single cell is sufficient to "get your DNA on the moon". I would think that a lower cost would result in many more people taking that option and increased financial contributions.
Granted, having to farm out the DNA collection and storage process is eating up money that isn't going to the launch, and the keeping the resulting samples small will cost more than just sending any cheek scrapings that come in. Even with the 10k price it's only $3500 higher than the next donor level that includes all but the DNA sent to the moon.
Their marketing department might want to revisit this. To be honest though, they're not likely to lower the amount enough to interest me.
1. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:05 · Score: 1
  
  It's like the "name a star after you" scam. In order for the product to have perceived value, the price has to be high enough.
2. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:19 · Score: 0
  
  I'd pay $10k, if there was some "guarantee" (for whatever it'd be worth) that they would use the DNA to create a new human being in the future out of my cells. Long into the future, of course (no point doing it just 100 years from now, unless we need to populate the earth again, since one could just procreate naturally in the near-term).
3. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think you understand what Kickstarter is. They're not saying "this thing is worth $10k". They're saying "if you pledge $10k to our project, one of the rewards you will get is your DNA sent to the moon". It's like when you donate $15 to a Kickstarter project and they say "for this, you'll get a Thank You on our website and a free bumper sticker!". They're not saying a bumper sticker is worth $15 -- they're just giving you a little trinket for your pledge. This just happens to be a more extravagant reward for a very high pledge.
4. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 08:03 · Score: 0
  
  Hopefully, this suggestion kills your objections in general (and paragraph 2 specifically) while making you laugh:
  Doesn't every strand of hair have enough DNA to qualify? Yep... I'm proposing they launch a hairball to the moon.
  Bill the Cat and Penguin Opus are my suggestions for the LM design, naturally. Crowdsource the optimal design for preservation and finding it at any point in 4e9 years (isn't that how long until Sol goes nova?), have donors send 2 strands of hair in a baggie for $20, and rock that rocket.
5. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 08:07 · Score: 0
  
  I'm a member of the Planetary Society and my name is engraved on disks of several mars probes _on_ mars.
  All included in the membership fee.
  So I thump my nose at those poor bastards who can send only a speck of DNA to our fucking moon.
6. Re:10k? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 10:52 · Score: 0
  
  Uh, human cloning is playing GOD and is the devils work. GOD hates fags
"0BAMA N 2o12" UNDiSPUTED TRUTH "iNHERiT THE WiND" by MRjimvinbur · 2012-07-09 07:10 · Score: -1, Offtopic

http://bit.ly/NiG0Pd http://t.co/cllal5Si http://t.co/61mc8RhH "G0TT http://t.co/2IwAlvY5 http://bit.ly/PcfqhV https://t.co/jwMzk7F1 DAMNN http://shar.es/tWa3W WRiTE" http://t.co/Ncb94x7N "iNHERiT http://t.co/9nZ5S3TI THE http://thkpr.gs/Owh8s2 WiND" http://shar.es/qqL5f http://t.co/9tzQHbJm http://shar.es/t3hJe "0BAMA http://t.co/e0To1A6F iN http://shar.es/t0HTK 2o12" http://bit.ly/LnKsCf UNDiSPUTED http://t.co/8ft6RZUI TRUTH http://shar.es/qqL5f "iNHERiT http://t.co/rMBC60Qp THE http://t.co/yQdpnkvM WiND" http://mysp.ac/MKfQYW ...SEE H0W iT W0RKS http://mysp.ac/N1Tuik http://mysp.ac/MWI9BE F0RWARD http://t.co/saXOq3yA "0BAMA http://t.co/QGXopqHg iN http://t.co/rMBC60Qp 2o12" http://www.mrjimvinnbur.blogspot.com/ THEY D0 ABS0LUTELY N0THiNG http://bit.ly/PcfqhV DELUSi0NAL http://t.co/PKtVRdJc ANGRY - SELFiSH http://t.co/8ft6RZUI LYiNG http://t.co/LyWpopfJ http://t.co/vwzZ5lui STiNGY - C0RRUPT http://t.co/vwzZ5lui GREEDY http://t.co/E18eVzgx CR00KED http://t.co/vwzZ5lui EViL http://t.co/rWUOxWSL http://bit.ly/PcfqhV http://bit.ly/PchS8d HATEFUL http://mysp.ac/MKfQYW RACiST http://bit.ly/PchS8d C0MMUNiST http://bit.ly/PchS8d REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/quDgX ALL HAVE C0MMiTTED P0LiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2o12 http://t.co/p1IhoPG5 ...THE UNRE-ELECTABLE BiGTiME LAZY PATHETiC WHiNiNGASS SUPER CRYBABY http://bit.ly/MX95kC L0SER DEM0N J0HN "THE http://t.co/E2fvHoG0 SUPER http://shar.es/slHsh PACiFiER http://t.co/48LQ33ND SUCKA" B0EHNER http://t.co/qAa7KjS4 G0TT DAMNN WRiTE LUGAR iS CERTAiNLY 0UT & Y0U ARE DEFiNiTELY NEXT & THE UNM0TiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE WELL KN0WN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED S0RRYASS QUiTTER & http://t.co/BNitLXQO L0SER DEM0N http://bit.ly/N00bmC ERiC "THE http://shar.es/tmDBc C0WARDLY http://bit.ly/N00bmC SUPER C0MMUNiST http://shar.es/tm9oK WEASEL" http://bit.ly/N00bmC CANT0R http://t.co/BNitLXQO G0TT DAMNN WRiTE LUGAR iS CERTAiNLY 0UT & Y0U ARE M0ST DEFiNiTELY NEXT & THE 0LD DECREPiT DUMBASS iT'S CERTAiNLY TiME 2RETiRE L0SER DEM0N http://t.co/xoQsTnz4 MiTCH "THE http://shar.es/sl3SS
Warning: One-way trip by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:12 · Score: 1

The cost to get your dna back is where they make their profit.
1. Re:Warning: One-way trip by MDMurphy · 2012-07-09 07:37 · Score: 1
  
  What nefarious plans do you have for when you get your gamma ray-mutated DNA back?
Free Data? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:14 · Score: 0

They want us to pay them for giving them access to our complete DNAs?
Modern day Cryonics by anonymousNR · 2012-07-09 07:15 · Score: 1

Sounds like the modern day Cryonics scam.

--
-- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
That's a long way by StormyWeather · 2012-07-09 07:17 · Score: 4, Funny

to shoot a load.
Sounds like a SCAM by na1led · 2012-07-09 07:19 · Score: 2, Insightful

How are they going to preserve your DNA on the moon, with all the exposed radiation, and freezing temperatures? It's hard enough to keep DNA preserved in a monitored environment here on earth! If you want your DNA preserved, better off just fossilizing it, like they do with Moose Droppings.

--
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
1. Re:Sounds like a SCAM by gl4ss · 2012-07-10 00:00 · Score: 1
  
  they could, you know, sequence it to optical media, or engrave it, or put it in a block of lead.
  the bigger problem is how the fuck they intend to send it to moon.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Why do you need (their) rocket? by wisebabo · 2012-07-09 07:20 · Score: 1

DNA (and in fact the cells in which it is encased) is so unbelievably light that if you could get it out of the atmosphere, the light pressure from the sun could blow it to the moon in a matter of days(?).
So just take some skin flakes and grind it up into an extremely fine powder. Attach it to a weather balloon (with an optional rocket stage). At the edge of the atmosphere with the setting sun in one direction and the moon in another, release the powder.
Is it absolutely positively guaranteed to get to the moon undamaged? Will any of it/you survive? No, but it's not like you were going to do something useful with it anyway (like make a clone). Anyway, some of the bacteria that lives on you might conceivably make the trip. Think of this as the poor man's version of panspermia.
1. Re:Why do you need (their) rocket? by locopuyo · 2012-07-09 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  My rocket works just fine for shooting out dna.
  
  --
  The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
2. Re:Why do you need (their) rocket? by jfengel · 2012-07-09 07:32 · Score: 2
  
  This is the NPR tote bag of space. The tote bag would actually be more useful. They're looking to raise money, and they want to give you a token of appreciation. It's like letting you put your name on it, only a little more personal and a little more sciencey.
  You're not getting DNA delivery out of it. The DNA up there is going to be useless. You're getting bragging rights: "my DNA is on board that rover" when/if they actually make the news by succeeding. It's pricey for bragging rights, but it's cheaper than the $150 million somebody's asking to actually drive you past it (and that, too, is really just bragging rights).
  The only immortality you get out of it is the story.
Re:"0BAMA N 2o12" UNDiSPUTED TRUTH "iNHERiT THE Wi by GameboyRMH · 2012-07-09 07:25 · Score: 1

Was this auto-generated? If so I'm impressed that someone has simulated the intelligence of a crazy ranting hobo.

--
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Preserved for all time? by westlake · 2012-07-09 07:34 · Score: 1

ESI will collect your DNA sample, package it into a storage container mounted on the company's Lunar Descent Vehicle and fly it to the surface of the moon where it will be preserved for all time.
Inside a container subject to extreme temperatures hot and cold and with no meaningful protection against cosmic radiation?
Nothing is forever:

Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. Their continued usefulness for laser ranging might suggest that the lunar environment does not damage optical devices. However, new laser ranging data reveal that the efficiency of the three Apollo reflector arrays is now diminished by a factor of 10 at all lunar phases and by an additional factor of 10 when the lunar phase is near full Moon. These deficits did not exist in the earliest years of lunar ranging, indicating that the lunar environment damages optical equipment on the timescale of decades. Dust or abrasionon the front faces of the corner-cube prisms may be responsible.
Long-term degradation of optical devices on the Moon
I remember one sci-fi writer arguing that quantum effects would set a limit to any form of suspended animation. In time too much information would be erased to make revival possible.
Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:36 · Score: 0

...Lets just give away the perfect blueprint from which the aliens can design kick-ass biological weapons.
Meh by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 07:37 · Score: 1

Of all the places my DNA has wanted to go, the moon is not one of them.
1. Re:Meh by camperslo · 2012-07-09 15:18 · Score: 1
  
  Your DNA just might have an interesting adventure there.
  http://archive.org/details/Cat_Women_of_the_Moon
What for? by gmuslera · 2012-07-09 08:01 · Score: 1

Is not like "you" will be in the moon, we are more software than DNA-encoded hardware. And our DNA is probably 99.99% identical to the someone's else DNA that already been on the moon.
I'll do it for half their price by bitt3n · 2012-07-09 08:03 · Score: 1

send me a vial of your DNA, and I'll provide you photographic evidence that I brought it to the moon. You'll know it's me because I'll be holding an american flag, and the picture will be in black and white (got to cut costs somewhere).

--
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
1. Re:I'll do it for half their price by Overzeetop · 2012-07-09 08:53 · Score: 1
  
  Asking a bunch of slashdotters to send you a vial of DNA my very well be the grossest post ever. And there are a lot of gross things on the internet that get linked from /.
  
  --
  Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Typical Humans... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 08:14 · Score: 0

always finding a way to produce more trash and make it someone else's problem later. We can't be happy with junking up our own planet, we have to send stuff to the moon... *sigh*
On a side note: assuming anyone wanted to live on a dead rock, what purpose will DNA being exposed to extreme conditions there serve? False peace-of-mind for the human race? We should be donating money to fix 'global warming', cancer, and other pressing conspiracies first? ;-)
Honeymooners by cyberchondriac · 2012-07-09 08:23 · Score: 1

So that's what Ralph Cramden did to Alice? He was ahead of his time.

--

Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Just one question by suso · 2012-07-09 08:25 · Score: 1

If I pledge $10,000, do I still get a 5 gallon bucket of duck sauce?
Only if they a guarantee my cells will mutate! by TheFunkyShmoo · 2012-07-09 08:27 · Score: 1

If the GoogleX team can guarantee that, because of increased exposure to: cosmic rays, CMEs, etc., my cells will mutate into strange (preferably homicidal) creatures, I'm totally sold. Who could turn down an opportunity like that? I'll go to my grave content in the knowledge that future generations of space faring humans will likely be devoured by my mutated progeny.
Great! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 08:35 · Score: 0

Just what the solar system needed: polluting the moon with egotistic DNA... if your ego does not fit Earth, send it to another planet!
Put my dead molecules on Jupiter! by da007 · 2012-07-09 09:22 · Score: 1

Toynbee Idea
In movie 2001
Resurrect dead
On planet Jupiter
Really. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 12:06 · Score: 0

Everybody else gets theirs archived at cold harbor for free and that has now been going on for decades.
What do I have to possibly gain from having my DNA taken to the moon? A greater prize would be to
have a thai whore inseminated with my sperm and sent to Mars.
Let's pretend by Anonymous Coward · 2012-07-09 17:35 · Score: 0

they can do it. Let's assume their rocket will work, and they will in good faith take a copy of your DNA, and place it in a rocket, (or whatever) and send it to the moon, what the hell will it do there? End up in a tiny pile between the bodies of Tom Cruise and Willzyx? Where it will do, what, exactly?
Exactly. Nothing. They could, let's not forget, TELL you they put your DNA in there, steal your money, skip town, and if no one ever found out, it's not like you (as you'll most likely never see the moon, in as it were, person...) can ever check to see if it got there.
Another non-article about a non-starter "kickstarter" project. Sad AND boring.
Monarchy by MrL0G1C · 2012-07-09 20:50 · Score: 1

I live in the UK, so I'm just going to send my toenails to Her Majesty the Queen instead, Royal Mail will do this for a much better price.

--
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Great idea... by gshegosh · 2012-07-09 21:27 · Score: 1

If our grandchildren ever manage to get out of the oil trouble and they start building cities on Moon, let's make it even harder for them. Space debris is not enough, let's contaminate the Moon, too.
Planning for the Future by sharkey · 2012-07-10 02:23 · Score: 1

Best to get started now, so it'll be there when Frank Poole and HALman need it in about nine hundred eighty-some odd years.

--

--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.