Back in 2008, Space.com covered Celestis's plan to expand their shoot-your-remains-into-space program to include sending a vial of your ashes to the Moon. The article says that the service will be available in 09, but Celestis's website currently says that the it won't "launch" until 2011.
A small portion -- 1 gram -- of the encapsulated cremated remains of one person can be sent to the moon for $9,995. The price includes the option of watching the launch, an inscription of the deceased's name on an accompanying plaque, and complimentary scattering of the remainder of the remains at sea near the launch site.
For $29,985, Celestis will launch 14 grams total of the cremated remains of two people together...
Future customers won't be the first people to have their remains spread on the moon. In 1998, Celestis, at the request of NASA, provided a Luna Flight Capsule to the family and friends of the late legendary astronomer and planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker. The Celestis Flight Capsule, containing a symbolic portion of Shoemaker's cremated remains, was attached to NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft and launched on a one-year mission orbiting the moon.
On July 31, 1999, at the completion of Lunar Prospector's mission, the spacecraft was intentionally crashed into the moon's south pole, making Shoemaker the first human to be laid to rest on another celestial body. NASA called the memorial "a special honor for a special human being."
Fly Me to the Moon ... Forever
Celestis Memorial Spaceflights
(via Monochrom)
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we can’t be content to litter up just the earth, eh?
I hate to sound like a knee-jerk cynic, but the point of this is?
instead of my ashes after I’m dead, I wonder if I could send 1 gram of hair while I’m still alive…
The moon has more than enough dust.
Again, don’t wish to be a naysayer for no reason, but this translates as ‘lots of other peoples ashes’, presumably packaged in other junk, on the moon.
Scotland’s more accessible wild areas are cluttered with ‘memorials’. “He loved this place” – i.e. he probably occasionally left some litter out of his car there for other people to clear up.
Even for 10K, how am I going to fulfill the option to watch the launch?
On one hand, kind of a cool idea, on the other hand a ridiculous waste of money and energy.
I think it’s awesome, and got a little teared up at NASA’s statement about Shoemaker.
I don’t really see the point of sending my ashes anywhere. If I am sending anything to the moon It would be a vial of blood or something, with my genetics in tact. If future moon people want to clone me I think they should have that option.
Also, why are you limited to one gram of ashes but given the option of a plaque? can’t I replace that mass with more of me?
Looks like the maximum weight is 14 grams…
My question is : if I’m not dead, can I cut one of my finger and have it cremated and sent to the moon, thus visiting the moon in my lifetime ?
…You know, it just hit me: would Celestis consider sending up the cremated remains of someone’s amputated limb *before* they died? It would have been great to be able to send my right leg after last year’s chopping. That way I get to see the launch *and* know whether or not the mission was a success, not to mention being able to brag to everyone that I made it to the Moon before them!
For $9,995 ?! Most expensive gram you can buy! Note: Moon Dust may not be legal in quadrants, please contact your local galactic authorities. and avoid leaving near Keith Richards.
So how will my constituent elements rejoin the life cycle when they remove my ashes from Earth’s biosphere? Being dead on the moon seems like a cold and lonely desolate non-existence to me.
Now being shot into the Sun and radiating photons to the far end of the Universe, that’s a glorious end fit for a god.
@wingbatu
I agree. Why send ashes, which is basically undifferentiated carbon and some trace elements, and not that distinct from anyone elses ashes? Why not send 1g of DNA, whether hair, skin, blood, stem cells. That would be sending a unique, albeit of course incredibly limited, representation of one’s identity. Better than just sending carbon.
“DNA: When you care enough to send the very best.”
Neil Armstrong and those other eleven fellows will all get freebies, I trust.
Audrey Meadows seems like another good candidate (if she was cremated, that is).
The cynic in me wonders if the ashes really go to the Moon, or if they just blast the rocket into space. Because that’s probably what I’d do if I was running the scheme.