Growing Bank Accounts of Side Space Businesses
About two years ago the ashes of James Doohan, chief engineer Montgomery Scott in “Star Trek,” and Gordon Cooper, the Mercury program astronaut, were sent to space along with the ashes of 185 other individuals. Fees of $995 and $5,300 for the cremation flight were paid to Space Services, Inc., Houston, Texas, who sponsored the death flight for the families.
Recently, news has come out stating that this same crematory space business is still thriving, and the charges are quickly “rising to the moon”. Another Houston-based company called Celestis, Inc. will begin launching cremated human remains to the moon around 2009. A price of $9,995 will transport 1 gram, amounting to less than 1% of the 3-to-5-pound cremated remains of one person, including the option of watching the remains launched from Earth, an accompanying plaque with the deceased person’s name on it, and an added scattering of the remaining cremated remains at a nearby sea.
Of course, that price does not include the cremation price of approximately $2,000, as compared to coffin burials at a minimum of $5,000 and much higher on Earth. The person’s ashes when arriving on the moon will stay within a capsule in a spacecraft on the lunar surface forever—never being dispersed. “We are pleased to schedule these Luna Service missions, to extend our leadership in the commercial space industry, and — most importantly — to serve our global community of families and loved ones wishing to honor the life of a special person,” said Charles M. Chafer, Celestis founder and president.
For those who do not want to go alone, for $29,985, the remains of two people and their remains totaling 14 grams can be launched by Celestis. With this sort of burial, the people left behind to grieve will have no way to honor the deceased on Memorial Day, or a place to go to when grieving. Many who need form of contact with the deceased will have a marker somewhere—following through with the dispersing of the ashes at a chosen location or with traditional a burial sites of the urn.
More and more non-traditional burial sites are being chosen by the aging Baby Boomers. One unique method is to carver the carbon in the cremated ashes to create a “certified, high –quality diamond”, which can be work by a friend or family member at the price of $2.699 to $19,999 for loose stone, plus the price of setting it. Another is the process of plastination, using plastic polymers to infiltrate and preserve the body for educational, research or diagnostic purposes for medical students, as the processed tissues possess interactive visibility. Cryonics has also been chosen by approximately 100 people, which is the preservation of human bodies at low temperatures for a possible eventual resuscitation when a cure has been found for a cure of the dying individual, at price of $170,000 and up.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 am and is filed under Mars News, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
