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Navajo Say Human Cremains On The Moon Is 'Desecration'
The Navajo Nation, has raised concerns over the intention of placing human cremated remains on a lunar lander vehicle. They describe this mission as a "desecration" of the Moon which holds a sacred place in their culture.
(Peregrine Mission 1)
On January 8, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic's Peregrine lander is set to hitch a ride on a giant United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket making its maiden voyage under a NASA commercial partnership aimed at saving the US space agency money.Peregrine's scientific instruments will probe for lunar surface radiation, helping NASA better prepare for crewed missions going there later this decade under the Artemis program.
But the boxy robot's manifest also includes payloads from two companies—Elysium Space and Celestis—that will contain cremated remains and DNA to stay on the Moon, inside the lander, forever.
While Elysium hasn't offered details, Celestis has 69 individual "participants" including late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, and a dog named Indica-Noodle Fabiano.
Customers paid prices starting at $12,995, according to the company's website.
(Via PhysOrg.)
In his 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, science fiction Grandmaster Robert Heinlein describes what must inevitably happen when the Moon is colonized:
Like all loonies, we conserve our dead and am truly glad the barbaric custom of burial was left back on old Earth; our way is better. But Davis family does not put that which comes out of processor into our commercial farming tunnels. No. It goes into our little greenhouse tunnel, there to become roses and daffodils and peonies among soft-singing bees. Tradition says that Black Jack Davis is in there, or whatever atoms of him do remain after many, many years of blooming.
(Read more about the Lunar Greenhouse Tunnel)
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Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'
Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
Fully Electric, Fully Automated Vegetable‑growing Agribots
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
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'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.'
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'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'
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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
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'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
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