Ashes to the Moon

Having your ashes spread in space or sent to the Moon is not a cheaper alternative to the standard burial. The process of hiring a company to blast your remains into orbit using a rocket is not a green burial. It does however exist, and for those more interested in something unique for the spreading of ashes versus a green burial, we discuss the possibility here. Celestis is a company offering memorial space flights. Space services, Inc is the company behind the space flights and they have launched some celebrity ashes into space. For those of your concerned, Celestis states that they will not create more space debris by these launches of ashes into orbit.

If you want to go one step farther and have your ashes placed on the moon , they have teamed up with another company, Odyssey Moon , to do this starting at the end of 2009. Odyssey Moon is a company participating in the Google Lunar Xprize. The Google prize is for landing a robotic probe on the moon and completing prescribed missions. It is worth $30 million dollars. The Odyssey Moon corporation intends on carrying 1000 capsules full of ashes on their first lunar mission. The lunar lander will stay on the moon with all those capsules aboard. So it isn't exactly spreading your ashes but having them interred on the moon.

The fact that your relatives will be able to look up and know that a small part of you has made it to the moon is very alluring to some. Once we start regular supply service to the moon, having your ashes placed on the moon will be more mainstream. If we ever get the space elevator going, who knows what kind of services will be offered for those wanting to go out in style.