BS: What a way to go

Subject: BS: What a way to go
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 09:53 AM

From HERE

Ashes of Star Trek's 'Scotty' Primed for Space Launch
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 2 April 2007
4:10 p.m. ET

The ashes of Star Trek's Scotty and one of NASA's first astronauts are once more bound for the final frontier, this time aboard a privately-built rocket to launch from New Mexico this month.

Portions of the cremated remains of actor James Doohan, the plucky engineer of television's Starship Enterprise, and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper are set for an April 28 launch aboard a SpaceLoft XL rocket built by the private firm UP Aerospace.

The space shot – dubbed SL-2 – will lift off from Spaceport America, a state-funded launch site near Upham, New Mexico and about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of the city of Las Cruces.

The remains of Doohan, Cooper and more than 200 people from over 10 different countries will ride the UP Aerospace rocket as part of the Legacy of Flight memorial, a spaceflight arranged for the Houston-based firm Celestis, Inc. A public memorial honoring those whose remains will launch spaceward is set for April 27 at the New Mexico Space History Museum in Alamagordo.

"Space remains the domain of the few, the dream of the many," Celestis CEO Charles Chafer said in a statement. "With Celestis, the dream of spaceflight and the desire to take part in the opening of the space frontier can be realized – and is available to everyone."

(There's more with a couple of photos available at the above website)

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Wesley S
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:27 AM

May his dylithium {sp?}crystals always be fully charged!

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:35 AM

Families have paid $495 to have a few grams of their loved one's ashes placed on the rocket. I wonder how it was decided whose ashes should go.

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:43 AM

Some things never change -- paying high prices to get your ashes hauled is a time-honored tradition that goes back to the earliest dawn of Mesopotamian civilizations.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:43 AM

I bet the training program is a bitch.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Grimmy
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:46 AM

Yet more space junk.

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: frogprince
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 11:51 AM

Pointless, perhaps, but it does appeal to me as a fitting tribute. I still think Lee Hayes made the perfect, sublime statement on mortality by requesting that his ashes be stirred into his compost heap. Better yet, drop my carcass off deep enough in the woods so that the smell won't gross folks out while the critters enjoy it. (after harvesting whatever other folks can use).
                                  Dean

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 11:56 AM

That was the traditional method of disposal of remains in parts of Africa, before the white churches imposed a different standard. You just left the deceased's corpse out on the veldt for hyenas, carrion birds, rodents and insects to distribute into the ecosystem. Didn't take long out there. Of course, it would be very much slower in downtown Columbus, say, or the middle of Edinburgh.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 12:20 PM

Jaines still use the "Towers of Silence" I believe.

And as for me, harvest what can be used and then cremate me. Grind the ashes up dust-fine and drop them into the ventilating system of the library. Then, for years to come, as they dust people will say, "That damned Mike! STILL causing trouble for us!"

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Grimmy
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 01:01 PM

Does anybody actually keep track of where all this space garbage is - or is it just left for future space travellers to smash into?

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: beardedbruce
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 01:07 PM

We know where most of it is- the wrench dropped during Gemini is still being tracked.

There are some odd bolts and such, and the debris from the Chinese anti-sat test that are not well located- but we hope they will or have decayed.

All the dead Geo sats are put into parking orbits out of the way, so the slots in Geosync can be reused.

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Grimmy
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 05:46 AM

Thanks beardedbruce, though I'm still not exactly oozing confidence! For example, what about all the fragments from the Apollo 13 explosion, some presumably made of 'tough' stuff? And how does material decay in space, and in what time frame? I'd sure hate to find some forgotten chunk the hard way!

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: skipy
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 05:57 AM

The engines will ney take it!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Grimmy
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 06:14 AM

Don't stick your head out of the window when travelling at warp speed, folks!

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Naemanson
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:08 AM

Rapaire: "Jaines still use the "Towers of Silence" I believe."

In a recent issue of Smithsonian there was an article on the disappearing vultures of India. So many vultures have disappeared that the Jaines have had to come up with a different way to dispose of their dead.

Apparently the medical system in India is making quite a few reverse engineered drugs. Those drugs are cheap, so cheap that the farmers are using a certain pain-killer for their cattle. Unfortunately the residue in a dead cow kills the vultures.

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: kendall
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:17 AM

Send me to glory in a "Glad bag" don't waste no fancy coffin on my bones
Just put me out beside the curb on Tuesday,
Let the "Sanitation local" bear me home.

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 11:29 AM

Grimmy

"For example, what about all the fragments from the Apollo 13 explosion, some presumably made of 'tough' stuff?"

Not tougher than most. Not a problem- at the time of the explosion, Apollo 13 was in an orbit that returned to earth. Since it happened on the outward leg, the odds are that either the bits blown off were pushed out, away from the earth, or back, which would put them into the atmosphere. Some MIGHT have been blown into odd orbits, but would be no more a hazard than the small objects throughout the solar system. ie, thousands hit the earth every day...

"And how does material decay in space, and in what time frame? "

Orbital decay is usually by air resistance. The atmosphere goes way out- it just gets thinner. The farther out, the lower the resistance and the less decay. NEO (near Earth orbit) where shuttle and space station work is done is a short lifetime, measured in years. GEO (geosyncronous Earth orbit) is effectively forever ( tens of thousands of years)

"I'd sure hate to find some forgotten chunk the hard way! "

True! but there are a lot more there naturally than we have left. All spacecraft now require and end-of-life plan for de-orbit or movement into a safing orbit before launch. Part of the fuss over the Chinese ASAT. ( Testing of weapons systems in Earth orbit has been prohibited
by the UN space agency- you have to go out to the moon or an asteroid to test)

Subject: RE: BS: What a way to go
From: Grimmy
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 11:57 AM

Well, beardedbruce, you have served to remind me just how ignorant I really am! When you mentioned decay, I had visions of stuff withering away after eons of particle bombardment or something!

I guess there are enough potentially lethal objects lurking out there already to worry about, so maybe I shouldn't lose too much sleep over the odd rivet or two.

Thanks for the info - it's interesting stuff.