A physics professor has ambitious plans for his DNA after his death. He wants to send them to the moon in the hope that aliens will create an army of his clones.
The idea may sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but Ken Ohm, 86, has hired a Texas-based company to launch his remains to the south pole of the moon’s surface.
The Kansas native has a long-lived love of space and dreams of one day being an astronaut — but NASA said no because he’s 6 feet tall — but is working with the Celestis that charges $12,500 for a one-way trip to the moon.
While Ohm looks forward to aliens finding his genetic blueprints, he also sees the mission having the ultimate memorial: When the moon is full, his descendants will look up and think, “Old Ken has his DNA up there,” he said.
Ken Ohm, 86, has hired a Texas-based company to launch his remains to the south pole of the moon’s surface
Founded in 1994, Celestis specializes in launching remains into space, and now that commercial flights have started, the company sees a new avenue for human burials.
However, the company has launched remnants of people from more than 35 countries around the world, including James “Scotty” Doohan, who played Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek television and film series.
Celestis offers several options for space burials that involve launching ashes into space and returning them to Earth, to orbit, to the moon, and even to deep space.
An Earth Rise monument starts at $2,495, while an Earth Orbit monument costs $5,000.
This results in ash being shot into space atop a rocket, which orbits the Earth but is destroyed upon reentry.
However, the funerals on the moon and in deep space cost $12,500 – the average funeral on Earth costs about $10,000.
Capsules containing the cremated remains are placed aboard a UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket.
The launches are part of missions sponsored by the NASA Spaceflight Opportunities Program, which conducts microgravity experiments and technology demonstrations, according to Celestis.
While Ohm looks forward to aliens finding his genetic blueprints, he also sees the mission as having the ultimate memorial: When the moon is full, his descendants will look up and think, “Old Ken has his DNA up there,” he said.
Celestis offers several options for space burials that involve launching ashes into space and returning them to Earth, to orbit, to the moon, and even to deep space.
And Ohm has chosen the moon as his final resting place.
Speaking to The New York Times, Ohm said he has also considered aliens recreating him for an “intergalactic zoo.”
When Ohm blasts off into space, his family and friends are invited to watch the rocket take off with his DNA inside.
But before takeoff, Celestis will hold an astronaut dinner and a memorial service for those in attendance.
Family members also receive a personalized video of the experience and an official certificate of mission completion detailing mission achievements.
In 1999, the ashes of famed planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker were the first to be sent to the moon.
Shoemaker hoped to become an Apollo astronaut, but a medical condition diagnosed in the early 1960s prevented him from doing so
But that dream became a reality when he sent his remains to the moon’s surface after a fatal car accident in 1997.
Carolyn C. Porco, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, proposed and produced the tribute.
“I felt that this was Gene’s last chance to go to the moon and that it would be a fitting and beautiful tribute to a man who was a great figure and a pioneer in the exploration of the solar system,” Porco said in 1998.