Stardust memories: Space, the final frontier in funerals
Richard INGHAM
Pioneering and poetic — or borderline macabre, according to your view
— burials in space seem set for a rosy future.
Since the cremated remains of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the Tv
sci-fi series Star Trek, rocketed into the cosmos a decade ago, the
ashes of more than 300 other deceased have followed suit.
This file picture taken 27 April at the New Mexico Museum of
Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico, shows Star Trek fans
and others gathering at a memorial for Star Trek actor James
Doohan and other participants whose remains will be launched
into space on April 28 on the Celestis Earth Rise Service Legacy
Flight. |
They include Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, US
astronaut Gordon Cooper, “Star Trek” actor James Doohan and
comet-spotter Eugene Shoemaker, whose ashes were buried on the Moon.
But celebrities of the space age are not the only ones whose last
journey has taken them to the final frontier rather than the local
cemetery.
Of more than 300 “celestial burials” that have taken place since
1997, most concern lesser-feted men and women who during their life fell
in love with the heavens, and whose loved ones believed a space send-off
was the most fitting tribute of all.
By 2012, as many as 10,000 such burials could be conducted each year,
says a Houston, Texas aerospace company, Space Services Inc., the
vanguard in an unusual but highly promising, er, undertaking.
“Baby-boomers are making different decisions about how to memorialise
themselves and their parents,” says Charlie Chafer, Space Services’
chief executive officer.
“The days of the sort of solemn service, of being buried next to
grandma in the churchyard, that still appeals to a lot of people. But an
awful lot of people these days want to celebrate and memorialise places
and things
This picture taken 27 April at the New Mexico Museum of Space
History in Alamogordo, New Mexico shows Star Trek fans Anna
Hamilton (R) of Santa Fe, New Mexico, father and son fans Will
(L) and Jared (C) Steinsiek watching a missing man formation
from Holloman Air Force Base at the memorial for Star Trek actor
James Doohan, and other participants whose remains will be
launched into space 28 April on the Celestis Earth Rise Service
Legacy Flight. Since the cremated remains of Gene Roddenberry,
the creator of the TV sci-fi series Star Trek, rocketed into the
cosmos a decade ago, the ashes of more than 300 other deceased
have followed suit. |
and activities that were significant to them during their
lives.
“So we are not all surprised about the success. Space is a global
interest, it’s so appealing to people.”
To be clear, what is being sent into space is not the full remains —
just a symbolic thimbleful of ashes, typically weighing a few grams,
which are encased in a small capsule. There are no bodies or body parts.
The capsules are then loaded into a small scientific or commercial
satellite that has a bit of spare payload for sale.
Under the company’s “Earth Return Service,” the ashes are sent in a
sub-orbital loop, reaching an altitude of some 115 kilometres (72 miles)
before the craft parachutes back to Earth for recovery.
The cost: 495 dollars (370 euros) for a gram, 995 dollars for seven
grams.
“We return the flight capsule in a nice case with a certificate, so
that people actually have a keepsake that shows dad, mum or their cousin
has been put into space and has then returned to Earth,” says Chafer
brightly.
For 1,295 dollars a gram (4,955 for seven grams), the company will
place your ashes into low-Earth orbit, where they will encircle the
planet for between 10 and 200 years depending on altitude.
Eventually, orbital decay will bring the spacecraft within the grasp
of Earth’s gravitational pull — and it, and the ashes, will be consumed
in a streak of fire through atmospheric friction.
Six flights have been organised so far, and a seventh, carrying the
ashes of 300 people, is due in October. Customers include Americans,
Canadians, Britons, Germans, Japanese and Austrians.
Plans are afoot for deep space burial, in which a spacecraft “coffin”
would orbit the Sun, like a comet, for millions of years.
This lucrative niche market, started up by Space Services’ forerunner
Celestis, is starting to draw competition.
A woman places flowers and offerings on her father’s grave at
Changpingyuan, China. The issue is whether a burial in space is
to your taste. Some cultures and faiths balk at cremation and
the division of remains, and some people prefer the traditional
solemn way to go rather than the roar of a rocket engine. |
A Canadian company, Columbiad Launch Services, is taking orders for a
launch service provided by an Earth-bound ballistic gun, which fires a
missile-shaped vehicle to a height of up to 250 kilometres (155 miles),
at which point the ashes are scattered into space and allowed to drift
to Earth.
The cost: 12,500 dollars for the full “cremains,” or up to three
kilos (6.6 pounds) of ashes.
One question hanging over space burials is whether they add to the
growing hazard of debris that face satellites and the International
Space Station.
Even a speck of human ashes can inflict bad damage, as the collision
occurs at thousands of kilometres (miles) per hour.
At the moment, that’s not a problem, says Nicholas Johnson, chief
scientist at the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office.
If the remains are packed aboard a satellite which is launched in
accordance with international guidelines and disposed of carefully at
the end of its life — either sent to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere
or parked in a distant orbit where it cannot be a danger — “their
presence won’t make any difference,” he says.
Ultimately, the issue is whether a burial in space is to your taste.
Some cultures and faiths balk at cremation and the division of
remains, and some people prefer the traditional solemn way to go rather
than the roar of a rocket engine.
Jean-Francois Clervoy, a French astronaut who is a veteran of the US
space shuttle, is a fan, for philosophical reasons. “I like the idea
that we are born of stardust and, like stardust, will fall back to
Earth.”
Story and
pictures: AFP |