Elysium Space is a space burial company. Burial options the company offers are Earth-orbit and then reentry burnup, and delivery to the lunar surface. The company was the first to offer burial on the Moon.[1]
History edit
Elysium Space was founded by Thomas Civeit in 2013.[2]
In 2015, a launch aboard a USAF Super Strypi rocket failed to reach orbit. The remains will be reflown in the second launch. The remains were to have orbited for 2 years before reentering and going out in a blaze.[3]
It will offer a service to launch the ashes of dead people into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States. This rocket rideshare will launch ashes into a Sun-synchronous orbit about the Earth. The Earth orbiting ashes will eventually have its orbit decay and return to Earth as a shooting star.[3][4]
Memorial spacecraft edit
Elysium Space launches the cremated remains aboard their Elysium Star space mausoleum satellites, a series of 1U cubesats. The Earth-orbiting satellites are designed to remain in space for 2 years before orbital decay brings them back to Earth as a shooting star, burning up in a blazing reentry.[5]
Elysium Space plans to use Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander for their lunar mausoleums.[6]
Elysium Space is in the early stages of planning for deep-space burials.[6]
Missions edit
| Mission | Payload | Date | COSPAR ID | Launcher | Destination | Result | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORS-4 | Elysium Star I 1U CubeSat |
2015 | n/a | Super Strypi | Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) Reentry shooting star |
Failure | Orbit to have decayed in 2 years. Mission failed to reach orbit. | [2][3] |
| SSO-A | Elysium Star II 1U CubeSat |
2018 | 2018-099C | Falcon 9 | SSO Shooting star |
On Orbit | Orbit was to decay in 2 years, but satellite was locked into the Lower Free-Flyer dispenser due to license timing issues. | [2][3][4] |
- Lunar missions are yet to be scheduled
- Extrasolar missions are yet to be scheduled
See also edit
- Celestis, another space burial company
References edit
- ^ Michal Addady (24 August 2015). "This company is offering the first ever lunar burial". Fortune.
- ^ a b c Debra Werner (16 May 2017). "A cubesat packed with cremated remains slotted for SpaceX rideshare mission". SpaceNews.
- ^ a b c d Darrell Etherington (16 May 2017). "Elysium Space to launch the first ever 'memorial spacecraft' via SpaceX". Tech Crunch.
- ^ a b Daniel Starkey (20 May 2017). "SpaceX Will Launch Human Remains Later This Year". Geek.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
- ^ Abigail Beall (16 May 2017). "You can now send your loved one's ashes into orbit on a SpaceX rocket". Wired UK.
- ^ a b Tim Reyes (23 August 2015). "Astrobotic Mission One Manifest". Tech Crunch.
- ^ Roberts, Jeffrey; Hadaller, Adam (23 August 2019). "Behind the US's largest Rideshare Launch: Spaceflight's SSO-A". 33rd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites. Logan, Utah, USA: Spaceflight, Inc.
- ^ Jeff Foust (23 August 2019). "Spaceflight herded 64 cubesats onto a single Falcon 9 and has the scratch marks to prove it". SpaceNews.