Aquamation: the greener alternative to cremation

Traditional cremation occurs when a body is placed in a furnace to reduce it to bones and other items that don't incinerate. The bones are ground up to form the cremains, or ashes as we know it. While cremation is greener in a lot of ways than traditional embalming an burial, there is an alternate way which uses less energy. Aquamation uses water and some chemicals to dissolve the body. It has a couple of advantages over traditional cremation and if you didn't know what process they were using, you would could not ell the difference since you still get the same cremains in an urn.

Speeding up decomposition
A fancy term that just means you use water and chemicals instead of fire for rapid decomposition of the body. Alkaline hydrolysis is the process that decomposes a body after a traditional burial. The same process, potassium and water is warmed up which speeds up the rate of decomposition to just a few hours. It is very much like putting the body into a stream of water to help decomposition. All jewelry and artificial joints are unharmed and can be reclaimed afterwards. The water used in the process can be cooled down and spread on a garden as a natural fertilizer. Just like in cremation, the bones are ground up and returned to you as ashes.

Religious objections
If you have religious objections to burning of the body through cremation, this is the process for you. It mimics the natural decomposition of the body through natural means. Buddhist have used a similar process by placing the body in streams with alkaline water to speed up natural decomposition.

Aquamation is available in Austrailia, the US, and is becoming the new alternative to traditional cremation. You can still go out in style with a nice memorial service followed by having your ashes spread in one of the most picturesque spots in the world. Forgo the traditional burial while having your body decomposed in a greener and more frugal way. Aquamation or cremation is the way to go.

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Scatter my ashes on the final frontier

NASA isn't the only one that is waiting for the success of the commercial space ventures. Once the commercial flights become routine, there will be a strong demand for carrying ashes into space. NASA will be setting aside 2.5 billion dollars to help those companies get cargo into space. Once these companies develop that capability they will be looking to expand into other types of cargo. Today, two companies are working on different ways to take cargo and people to space. Virgin Galactic and Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Virgin Galactic is one of the new commercial space companies developing SpaceShipTwo. According to Virgin, more than 300 people have paid almost $40 million in ticket deposits just to spend a few minutes in space. SpaceshipTwo will ride aloft on a carrier aircraft before rocketing off into space. While Virgin will only be providing suborbital flights, these would be perfect to drop off some ashes for those who wish space to be their final resting place.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. known as Space X will use the Falcon 9 rocket to transport cargo to space. They already have a contract with NASA to deliver cargo to the space station. The Falcon 1, an earlier version of their rocket has an interesting past in regards to carrying ashes into space. They attempted and failed to take a cargo of ashes the first time but eventually succeeded on a later flight.  The media reported on the story because they were attempting to take the ashes of James Doohan, "Scotty" from the Star Trek series into orbit along with several others. So, the market has been established to provide transport to space for cremated remains.

As the population ages, the babyboomers will need help planning their memorial for a life well lived. Many people have a desire to have their ashes spread but they don't have an plans for getting it done. They just tell their loved ones that it is their last wish. So, the grieving have to try and figure out a plan to have the ashes taken to that person's favorite spot. This is where you take over. If you are thinking about starting your own company, I see an opening for someone to provide support  and planning for people looking  to have their ashes dropped off in space.

If you are interested in this type of send off, you won't have to wait long but it won't be a cheap way to go. It is the final frontier so plan a nice wake in the evening with the stars out and select the star for your final destination. Who knows, before eternity passes, your ashes may just end up there. Bon Voyage.

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