Opinion Ashen moon

If you’re rich enough, the Ganga may soon become passé. The Moon Express, a company co-founded by Indian-American Naveen Jain, has been granted a license by the US government to land vessels on the moon. Part of the commercial vessels’ cargo will be the ashes of those willing and able to pay the three million dollar per kilo fee. People can now literally look down from heaven on their loved ones after they have passed on. Moon Express is the first private company to be given a license of this kind, and its morbidity aside, it may spell the beginning of a new impetus for space travel.

The first “space race” was a Cold War era phenomenon, pushed in large part by the strategic concerns of the US and the Soviet Union. For both superpowers, at least initially, space exploration was less about scientific curiosity and the desire for exploration and more a quest for military and ideological superiority over their rivals. With the demilitarisation of space and the end of the Cold War, the rationale for spending huge amounts of public money on NASA and Roscosmos (Russia’s space agency) dwindled for some time. Recently, though, there has been a renewed interest in space exploration, and it presents commercial opportunities for those willing to take them.

Advertisement

A large number of cities including London, Paris, Berlin and New York are already facing a real estate crisis when it comes to graves. There simply isn’t enough space in cemeteries to accommodate the increasing number of bodies. If you can afford it, why not smear the moon with your ashes? Like with Mufasa in the Lion King, your descendants can always look up at you and know you’re there. Besides, space isn’t all morbid. Days after Moon Express was given their license, six private companies have been asked to develop habitats that will allow human beings to live for months, even years, at a time on Mars. Clearly, there’s money to be made in the cosmos with life and death.