Fly Me to the Moon
When planning for their deaths, many people leave their families straightforward instructions for memorialization and for the treatment of their remains. Common practices after a memorial service include internment and burial in a cemetery or other dedicated location, cremation and subsequent spreading of remains in a location meaningful to the deceased, etc. A decidedly less common practice has emerged in recent years with the increasing privatization of space exploration and travel: space burial. This involves sending a small sample of human remains (usually cremated ashes and/or a sample of the deceased’s DNA) and other small mementos into space–either as additional payload for a previously-scheduled flight, or on a dedicated flight specifically for memorial purposes. While the idea of honoring the deceased by jettisoning their remains into the reaches of space has been a fixture of sci-fi for decades, it has only recently become a practice that promises to be meaningfully accessible to average people.
Providers and proponents of space burials say that the process offers a one-of-a-kind experience for those looking to meaningfully memorialize their deceased loved ones. Space burials, they offer, are unique, forward-looking, and hopeful, in striking contrast to typical funerary practices, and the industry is growing accordingly. Many people are seeking creative ways to honor their loved ones as increasing funerary costs drive more and more families to consider options like cremation. Space burials, they offer, start at prices well below that of the average internment. For their part, companies aim to earn customers’ trust by highlighting their unique duty of care based on the solemn nature of their task–the handling of human remains. They also claim attentiveness to the environmental footprint of their memorials, seeking to minimize them insofar as possible. Beyond Burials founder Dan Peabody sums it up: “No matter what accomplishments or failures I have in my lifetime, no matter what happens to me during my life, I have a very comforting feeling, knowing when I pass away, I get to go to space. Nothing can take that way from me.”
Critics, however, have raised environmental and pollution concerns, even over the companies’ insistence that they’re careful. They argue that even small quantities of foreign materials can disrupt extra-terrestrial environments about which we still know comparatively little. Others worry that this practice expresses an inappropriate attitude toward that which has conventionally been thought of as “‘unowned” space. Buu Nygren, the President of the Navajo Nation, points to the moon as a particular instance of a space which is best kept wild and unowned: “We view it as a part of our spiritual heritage, an object of reverence and respect. The act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Is it morally permissible for private companies to sell access to space burials? Why or why not?
Does any one person or entity have a reasonable claim to control over extra-terrestrial space?
How (if at all) does the fact that the Navajo regard the moon as a sacred space impact the moral permissibility of space burials on the moon?
References
[1] Cf., Neil Jones, “The Jameson Satellite” (1931), Tony Richardson, The Loved One (1965), Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek series and films, etc.
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