If you’ve always had a secret desire to be buried in space your dream might just come true. A US Funeral business is now taking reservations for landing small capsules of ashes (cremated ashes that is) on the moon.
“Celestis’ first general public lunar mission could occur as early as 2010 and reservations are now being taken,” said Charles M. Chafer, Celestis founder and president, in an email to AFP.
“We can send up to 5000 individual capsules to the lunar surface,” he said.
The company also hopes to install a cemetery on the lunar surface to hold the cremated remains of the dead, or a smaller symbolic portion of them, which might one day be visited by relatives of the deceased.
Transportation of the ashes will be handled by two other US private space companies - Odyssey Moon and Astrobotic Technology, both of whom are working on making commercial flights to the moon.
So how much will it cost to be “buried” on the moon? Well .. to send a tiny one gram portion of cremated remains to the moon it will cost about $9,995.
If that’s too expensive you could consider their other funeral services such as sending ash into earths orbit, the cheapest option starting at $700 or you might want your remains launched deep into space at a charge of about $37,000!
Ten years ago NASA paid tribute to top US astronomer Eugene Shoemaker by carrying into space a portion of his cremated remains.
After a year in lunar orbit Shoemaker’s remains were intentionally planted on the moon’s south pole, the first time human remains have been landed on the lunar surface — but maybe not the last time.
