Official News page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: FINAL TRIP TO THE MOON

by Hazed

For those that don't want a traditional burial after they die, the alternative is cremation, but that leaves the decision of what to do with the ashes. Interring them in a memorial site is of course the next best thing to burial, but many people opt to have their ashes scattered somewhere which meant something to them during their lives - a garden, their team's sporting ground, or into a river or sea.

But here's a new way to get rid of the ashes. A US company has announced it will be offering an "ashes to the moon" service starting next year.

Celestis Inc is the company which last year blasted the remains of Star Trek actor James Doohan into space, having started in the space funeral service back in 1997. The new service to the moon will cost as little as $9,995 to send a symbolic one gramme of ashes, up to a more substantial $29,985 for 14 grammes.

Odyssey Moon Limited and Astobotic Technology Ltd are the two companies which will carry out the actual delivery. They are both in the private lunar mission business, and plan to put robotic landers onto the surface. The capsules containing the cremated remains will be attached to the landers and will then be left on the Moon at the end of the mission.

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