"Beam me up, Scotty!"

[stevejr]

This is what happens when Scotty is not at the controls...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18594384/?GT1=9951

[fink]

I don't get it. Why would they have used actual remains for the test? A handful of whatever.. sand.. would have done as well without the unnecessary risk of losing someones ashes. weird.

[maxximilian]

The remains aren't part of the test package...but rather just an expensive indulgence....

The flight carried experiments, but it also carried partial remains that family members pay to have sent into low-earth orbit space....then returned. I liked Scottie....but a pretty silly gesture if you ask me. It's not like you are placing the remains permanently in orbit or sent into deep space. It's just a roundtrip "ride" for some ashes.

[stevejr]

I had been under the impression that the ashes were gonna be released into orbit and not just a simple up & back ride. That didn't accomplish anything...I agree with you, Maxx...a silly gesture.

[Nix]

When I first read it, I thought it was an accident that it had come back to earth but on a subsequent read, it seems it was intentional and this http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368481/ confirms it too.

Seems just a few ounces of ashes went up.

[fink]

Yeah, I thought they were going up for good. And the article wasn't written well enough to explain it properly either. Seems like a waste of time and effort to me.

[maxximilian]

There is one upside to projects like these....private industry getting inolved in space projects. Public support for tax-payer funded space ventures is dropping away. People look at the shuttles and Mars probes and say "Yeah....so what. How much did it cost?"

I think the future of space exploration will be a partnership of both private and government entities. In the meantime, I guess we have to tolerate these indulgences if it leads to true private space use. All the exploration of the "New World" throughout the 16th and 17th centuries was profit driven.

[JPnyc]

Don't ask me why but this brought a poem to mind that I read in Mad MAgazine about 30 yrs ago.

We shot a rocket into space
We fear it fell to earth, someplace
Though we were aiming for the moon
The Chinese claim we hit Kowloon
Now all our space probe expertise
Found nothing but enraged Chinese

(well that was an utterly pointless detour. And now, back to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress)