Memorial Spaceflights and Extraterrestrial Burial

Abstract

The human desire to explore our world has led to dramatic shifts in science, technology, and culture. As our knowledge expands so too has our ability to more definitively reach places once thought inhospitable or beyond our grasp. In the early ages of human history, the oceans represented a vast unknown, full of rage and danger suggesting the domain of a tempestuous god or gods. As sailing and navigation developed our eyes turned to the stars and heavens as the new, final frontier. The emptiness beyond Earth’s atmosphere has only recently become a destination to sate our natural curiosity and, at present, life in outer space remains a dream of science fiction or the lucky few who participate in the scientific study of our universe. For those who feel cheated in being born too late to explore Earth, but also born too early to explore the cosmos, there is a burgeoning space memorials industry that may give some consolation.