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You Can Now Be "Buried" On the Moon
Dave Knott writes: Space burials are longer the stuff of science fiction (and wealthy science fiction TV show creators.) The cremated remains of more than 450 people have been shot into orbit. Yet, despite the promise of space being a unique "resting place," almost every tiny vial of remains ever sent there has come back down to Earth or burned up upon re-entry. This wouldn't have happened had the ashes landed on Earth's moon — a fact that hasn't been lost on the companies pioneering this futuristic funeral technology. The San Francisco-based company Elysium Space officially launched its 'lunar memorial' service earlier this month, and will soon be sending the remains of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier's mother upwards as part of its first ever moon burial.
The company's website further explains how the lunar burials will work: "You receive a kit containing a custom ash capsule to collect a cremated remains sample. After we receive the ash capsule back from you, we place your capsule in the Elysium memorial spacecraft. The latter is eventually integrated to the Astrobotic lander during the designated integration event. From here, the lander is integrated onto the launch vehicle. On launch day, the remains are carried to the moon where the lander will be deployed to its dedicated location, preserving our memorial spacecraft for eternity." Because Elysium can only send a small portion of cremated remains to the moon (less than a gram), participants aren't actually paying to have their loved ones literally buried on the moon. However, this has not deterred the company from launching the service, charging $11,950 per "burial".
The company's website further explains how the lunar burials will work: "You receive a kit containing a custom ash capsule to collect a cremated remains sample. After we receive the ash capsule back from you, we place your capsule in the Elysium memorial spacecraft. The latter is eventually integrated to the Astrobotic lander during the designated integration event. From here, the lander is integrated onto the launch vehicle. On launch day, the remains are carried to the moon where the lander will be deployed to its dedicated location, preserving our memorial spacecraft for eternity." Because Elysium can only send a small portion of cremated remains to the moon (less than a gram), participants aren't actually paying to have their loved ones literally buried on the moon. However, this has not deterred the company from launching the service, charging $11,950 per "burial".
Clyde Tombaugh got a better funeral for his ashes - Pluto. Quite fitting and hard to beat within the solar system.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
And will you care? No.
Can you send a genetic sample instead? Because I know people who'd be willing to pay for this right now.
I nominate Ted Cruz for the next flight!
You are all cows. Cows say moon. MOOOOOON! MOOOOOOOON! Moon cows MOOOON! Moon say the cows. YOU MOONCOWS!!
Why would you choose to be buried in such an inert way? I much prefer the thought that future generations on Earth will breathe the molecules of my decomposed corpse.
why can't you keep yous shit at home?
Humans are idiots, dead or alive!
What a waste of resources. The selling argument '...preserving our memorial spacecraft for eternity.' is idotic, nothing is for eternity, in particular this solar system we all know perfectly will eventually be eaten by its Sun.
Achille Talon
Hop!
Color me skeptical. The cost of the fuel and launcher alone would be a few more zero. The only way they could do it at that cost, would be to have hundred of people "buried" in the same launch.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
What a stunningly stupid idea. We can't settle for littering the places we actually go to; we have to send our crap to places we don't even visit.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
So we are going to colonize the Solar System with ghost? Now that's nifty!
Not sure why anyone needs to transport their remains to the Moon? I believe in cremation as a means to reduce the effect of all the remains taking up space on Earth. If you believe in any kind of after life it does not involve our physical bodies. I suppose some will feel having your remains on the Moon represents a closeness to God although nobody has really proven where God is? To spend money transporting remains to somewhere much farther then where you died is a wasteful means.
"You Can Now Be "Buried" On the Moon", where "now" equals some nebulous point in the future, but before the scam artists run off with all the money and claim bankruptcy.
From their 'how it works' site: http://elysiumspace.com/how-it...
"Depending on the initial altitude of the latter, our memorial spacecraft will respectfully and peacefully orbit the Earth from a few months to several years."
"Eventually, in a last poetic moment, the spacecraft will harmlessly reenter the Earth’s atmosphere, blazing as a shooting star."
So basically, just like every other 'ashes to space' launch. The word 'moon' appears nowhere.
Not ashes, not even DNA. If my whole body is on the moon, there is a small chance future alien civilization will be able to save my brain, put it in a robot body, and I will live forever just like the Zoromes!
What a waste of resources.
Like your ownership of a computer and mismanagement of time spent on Slashdot.
TO THE GULAG WITH YOU.
More space junk and debris from rich, narcissistic jerks.
I prefer to have my *whole* body buried on something better than a moon. I'm thinking it would be cool to have my entire body buried on some planet - likely one that will orbit the sun until some cosmic event where the sun goes super nova or something consuming said planet.
Hmmm . . . I wonder if I could get that arranged for around the same price . . . maybe an incremental additional cost, but I'll get my whole body buried and on a *planet*.
I'm good with the earth.
Well, I guess that's one way to opt out of the circle of life.
When someone says, "Any fool can see
$12k per gram? I'll stick with cocaine, thanks...
Fuck you. You're dead. I'm not going to pollute the solar system just because you thought it would be cool. You won't even be alive to enjoy it! How fucking stupid.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
There are options now for "green" cremation or "Promession" where you are frozen, then disintegrated and buried. Let that matter do some good for future living things, don't be selfish in making your body the "end of the line" for the organic molecules you absorbed to build it.
As Neil DeGrasse Tyson put it:
"I would request that my body in death be buried not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna during my lifetime."
Heck no - At the very least I want a vial of my blood sealed in amber so alien scientists can dig me up on the moon (After the earth has blown itself up, of course) and use my DNA to recreate Human World...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
These fools want to be Ozymandias, king of kings. The Earth doesn't need your kind.
I hope they play Rocket Man at the launch.
Xenogenesis, anyone?
I have a friend who wants to be "buried" on the moon as follows:
Seated at a Card Table, playing poker
With a Beer
And a Royal Flush in his hands
So that some day Astronomy students can look up and see him.