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

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."

38 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. High price of gas. by Anonymous Coward · · 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 · · 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.

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      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    2. Re:High price of gas. by detritus. · · 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.

  2. Like a big astronaut... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...circle jerk.

    1. Re:Like a big astronaut... by TWX · · 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...

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      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Competition by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  5. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

    Wait, isn't that a central tenant of Scientology?

    And volcanoes are the output ports, so, plan fail, I guess.

  6. 10k? by MDMurphy · · 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 · · 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 · · 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.

  7. Re:I don't understand... by TWX · · 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.
  8. Warning: One-way trip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The cost to get your dna back is where they make their profit.

    1. Re:Warning: One-way trip by MDMurphy · · Score: 1

      What nefarious plans do you have for when you get your gamma ray-mutated DNA back?

  9. Modern day Cryonics by anonymousNR · · Score: 1

    Sounds like the modern day Cryonics scam.

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

    to shoot a load.

  11. Sounds like a SCAM by na1led · · 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.

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    -- 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 · · 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.

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      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  12. Why do you need (their) rocket? by wisebabo · · 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 · · Score: 1

      My rocket works just fine for shooting out dna.

    2. Re:Why do you need (their) rocket? by jfengel · · 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.

  13. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by GameboyRMH · · 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).

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    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  14. Re:"0BAMA N 2o12" UNDiSPUTED TRUTH "iNHERiT THE Wi by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

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

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    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  15. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by localman57 · · Score: 2

    I am _so_ sick of hearing this shit. I'm leaving. And I'm taking Suri with me.

  16. Preserved for all time? by westlake · · 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.

  17. Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Of all the places my DNA has wanted to go, the moon is not one of them.

    1. Re:Meh by camperslo · · Score: 1

      Your DNA just might have an interesting adventure there.

      http://archive.org/details/Cat_Women_of_the_Moon

  18. What for? by gmuslera · · 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.

  19. I'll do it for half their price by bitt3n · · 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).

    1. Re:I'll do it for half their price by Overzeetop · · 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 /.

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      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  20. Re:I will send them... TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by tilante · · Score: 1

    You would post that comment on a day that I don't have mod points. Dammit.

  21. Honeymooners by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

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

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  22. Just one question by suso · · Score: 1

    If I pledge $10,000, do I still get a 5 gallon bucket of duck sauce?

  23. Only if they a guarantee my cells will mutate! by TheFunkyShmoo · · 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.

  24. Put my dead molecules on Jupiter! by da007 · · Score: 1

    Toynbee Idea
    In movie 2001
    Resurrect dead
    On planet Jupiter

  25. Monarchy by MrL0G1C · · 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.

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    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
  26. Great idea... by gshegosh · · 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.

  27. Planning for the Future by sharkey · · 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.

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