Moon Express' Lunar Mission to Take Human Ashes to Space

Mars Express will be the first private company to receive permission to conduct a mission beyond the Earth's orbit. But aside from that, they are set to perform another first feat in space and that is to send human ashes to space.

Moon Express is a private space company that earned the U.S. government's go signal to perform a lunar mission. This will be the first mission not operated by the government to send a spacecraft beyond Earth's orbit.

Moon Express faced difficulties before they were granted permission to proceed with their plans. Since there are no private space companies yet that have performed the feat that they are trying to attempt, no regulations were available yet to aid Moon Express in their mission.

But the persistence of Moon Express in creating its own regulations paid off. The government and other concerned agencies reviewed and approved the regulations prepared by Moon Express granting them permission to go beyond Earth's orbit and launch a mission to the moon.

However, that's not the only record Moon Express wanted to set. The company also announced that one of their plans include transporting human ashes to space. This news garnered the interest of many but it might be available only to the privileged few. The cost would be $3 million per kilogram of ash. Apparently, there are people who wanted space to be their final resting spot.

Since space explorations are stepping up, the services offered are also getting more interesting. Earlier this year, Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX announced that they will bring cargo to Mars for future space missions and like the ashes in space, the service also comes with a hefty price.

Sending full human remains in space would weigh about four to six pounds, as per NDTV. And availing of such service would probably cost around $5 million to $8 million, according to Moon Express. And surprisingly, the demands are really high. "We already have a long list," Naveen Jain, co-founder of Moon Express said in an interview.

The mission is set to launch next year by sending a lander to the moon.