Space burial

Space burial is the idea of disposing of human remains in outer space. Orbit burials are not really "space burials", but are usually performed by launching a small capsule, containing a sample of cremation ashes of the deceased, into orbit using a rocket. It may thus be described as a symbolic act rather than actual burial. Several companies part of the NewSpace movement such as Elysium Space^[1][2][3][4] and Celestis have commercial offers for Earth Orbit, Moon Orbit and more. As of August 2013, Elysium Space was offering the most affordable service worldwide at US$1,990.

History

The concept of launching remains into space using conventional rockets was proposed by the science fiction author Neil R. Jones in the novella "The Jameson Satellite", which was published in the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" in 1931.^[5] It was later proposed as a commercial service in the 1965 movie, "The Loved One,"^[6] and by Richard DeGroot in a Seattle Times newspaper article on April 3, 1977.^[7] Since 1997, the private company Celestis has conducted numerous space burials, usually as part of a third-party space mission.

The first space burial, Celestis' Earthview 01: The Founders Flight, was launched on April 21, 1997. An aircraft carried a modified Pegasus rocket containing samples of the remains of 24 people to an altitude of 11 km (38,000 ft) above the Canary Islands. The rocket then carried the remains into an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 578 km (359 mi) and a perigee of 551 km (342 mi), orbiting the Earth once every 96 minutes until reentry on May 20, 2002, northeast of Australia. Since the contents came down to earth eventually, this was unsuccessful. Famous people non-buried on this flight included Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary.

The second known space burial was the burial of a sample of the remains of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker on the moon.^[8] At the suggestion of colleague Carolyn Porco, Shoemaker's ashes were launched aboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft on January 6, 1998 by a three-stage Athena rocket.^[9] The ashes were accompanied by a laser-engraved epitaph on a small piece of foil.^[8] The spacecraft crashed on command into the south polar region of the moon on July 31, 1999.

Although Celestis does not currently offer space burial for animal remains, a Monroe, Washington police dog may have been on a 2012 burial flight, a contractual violation.^[10]

List of orbit burials

• April 21, 1997: 24 remains samples launched into Earth orbit on a modified Pegasus rocket
• January 6, 1998: Sample of the remains of Eugene Shoemaker launched as secondary payload on a three-stage Athena rocket to the moon
• February 10, 1998: 30 remains samples as a secondary payload launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
• December 20, 1999: 36 remains samples as a secondary payload launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
• September 21, 2001: 43 remains samples as a secondary payload failed to be launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
• January 19, 2006: Sample of the remains of Clyde Tombaugh on the New Horizons spacecraft launched by an Atlas V rocket to Pluto
• August 3, 2008: 208 remains samples flown as a secondary payload, lost in the failure of a Falcon 1 rocket^[11]
• May 22, 2012: 308 remains samples successfully launched as a secondary payload along with SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket^[12]

Notable individuals buried in space

Launched into Earth orbit on April 21, 1997

• Gene Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991), creator of Star Trek.
• Gerard K. O'Neill (1927–1992), space physicist.
• Krafft Ehricke (1917–1984), rocket scientist.
• Timothy Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996), American writer, psychologist, psychedelic drug advocate, and former Harvard professor.

Buried on the Moon on July 31, 1999

• Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997), astronomer and co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.

Launched into Earth orbit on December 20, 1999

• Charles Oren Bennett (January 21, 1928 – 1999), space illustrator.

Launched into outer space in a trajectory out of the solar system on January 19, 2006

• Clyde Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997), American astronomer and discoverer of Pluto in 1930. A small sample of Tombaugh's ashes are aboard New Horizons, the first spacecraft to attempt to pass by and photograph Pluto. This is the first sample of human cremated remains which will escape the solar system to travel among the stars.

Launched into Earth orbit on May 22, 2012

• James Doohan, (March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005), actor best known for his portrayal of Scotty in the television and film series Star Trek.^[13]
• Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004), American astronaut. He was one of the original Mercury Seven pilots in the Project Mercury program, the first manned space effort by the United States.^[13]

Future space burials

• Majel Barrett (1932–2008), American actress who played Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series; wife of Gene Roddenberry. Her remains may be launched into space in 2014, as was not done in 1997 with the remains of her husband.,^{[citation needed]} whose ashes evidently fell back to earth.

References

External links

• Elysium Space Website
• Celestis Website
• The Real Elysium - Send Your Loved One Into Space for $2k, Pando Daily, August 9, 2013
• Have A Space Burial As Elysium Sends Your Ashes Into Orbit, TechCrunch, August 9, 2013
• The Ultimate One-Way Ticket, Wired Magazine, February 21, 2006
• Death Is a Long, Strange Trip, Wired Magazine, November 7, 2006