Posted by Nick Azer in : Integration, Odyssey Moon ,
If you’ll go ahead and turn your eyes to the top of the blog, and note the lovely little header, you’ll see the blog title states this is about “Colonization and Integration of the Moon”.
Everyone’s familiar with the idea of colonization, but is this “Integration” business?
Integration is simply the term that seemed to best describe efforts that aren’t exactly colonization, but that do increase the integration of the moon with our society here on Earth; e.g., having our human remains from Earth put to rest on the moon. While no one’s colonizing the moon there, it is becoming a part of our lives perhaps in an even greater way than colonization itself would cause.
The other day, I was rather startled to see I’m not the first to use the phrase “integration” (or, “integrated” to be exact) in this context. From Odyssey Moon, Ltd:
“Moon 2.0 will begin with robotic explorers that will deliver new knowledge about the Moon and the Earth. They will be followed by people with the goal of permanently integrating the Moon into Earth’s economic and social spheres, creating a two-world system for human growth and prosperity.”
“Moon 2.0″ being the alternate name used to describe the Google Lunar X Prize. The way they put it wraps the concept up in a pretty nice little nutshell: creating that two-world system, though in my eye, that will technically happen before we actually ever colonize the Moon itself (while they state humans on the moon will have integration as a goal, e.g. in their future).
Integration will extend far beyond the ashes effort, and could range to include things like resources from the moon being used on Earth, being able to own your own piece of the moon, Lunar webcams for our amusement, and God knows what else that could happen along (and soon). Interesting things always happen when entrepeneurs storm new territory…
Posted by Nick Azer in : Ashes, Astrobotic, Celestis, Google Lunar X Prize, Lunar conservation, Odyssey Moon, private sector ,
As many have heard through various news outlets lately, a company (Celestis) is now offering to send human remains to the Moon or the Moon’s orbit. Celestis actually describes it universally as “Luna”, e.g. the “Luna Service“, which I guess sounds more romantic.
Commerical ventures to the Moon are, as you can tell, a reality, and in fact may very well be far more important in implications than any governmental effort. This ashes effort may go down as a large, early step down a historic and critical path.
For now, though, let’s look at the practical matters of having our remains on and around Luna.
For an easy $10,000, you can have one gram of remains transported to the moon (or, as they note, attempted to be transported to; the remains get a free! re-flight if the mission fails). For two participants (e.g., husband/wife), or for more remains (7g instead of 1g), the cost is higher, up to $30,000 (well, $29,985).
As the Yahoo!/Reuters article
linked above notes, Celestis projects 1,000 capsules will go on the first flight, with 5,000 on later flights. Half a dozen have already registered remains for the first flight. The service was inaugurated some time ago, in 1999, for the remains of
Dr. Eugene Shoemaker. Celestis is itself a company of
Space Services, Inc. which has already had other ventures, such as Name a Star.
The thing I wonder about personally with the remains is,
where exactly are they headed? Looking at Earth’s
history with this kind of thing, and from my perspective of having recently finished my Bachelor’s in
Urban Studies and Planning…I respect the idea of putting remains on the Moon, but the track record for future respect to their location is not a pretty one (and so proper identification of their location becomes critical). And therein lies one of the first Lunar Environmental Planning issues: How, exactly, to prevent the resting place of these remains from being turned into a waste dump, or a base for a country or company unaware of the location’s significance, or something else similarly inappropiate.
It seems like a no-brainer now that we’d be able to avoid something like that with such a high-profile and newsworthy venture, but mankind really is a race never to be underestimated, especially when we’re building things.
Whenever we as a race get in a big rush to pioneer somewhere, the little things (like preserving the sanctity of people’s remains) often get passed over in the excitement of the moment (just like Neil Armstrong’s
missing A). Let’s see what we can do this time to make sure these little oversights remain a habit of mankind on just Earth, and not on other celestial bodies :)
For now, though, we have an exciting project to keep our eye on and to entertain our daydreams. And, really, who knows what they’ll
come up with next? :)
