A private company named Moon Express is ready to take human ashes to the Moon at a price of $3 million or about Rs.20 crores per Kg. The company is co-founded by Naveen Jain, an Indian-American who studied from IIT Roorkee. Moon Express is the first privately owned company to get official permission to land on the lunar surface. In an interview to the New York Post, Naveen Jain, the Chairman of the company has told that human ashes can be transported to Moon with a cost of 3 million USD per Kg.
This indicates that the whole remains of a cremated adult human which weighs from 1.8 Kg to 2.7 Kg should cost around $5.5 million or about Rs.36 crores to $8 million or Rs.53 crores approximately to be taken to Moon. In spite of the staggering amount, Jain claims that there is already a long waiting list.
What is Moon Express:
The Moon Express is a Google Lunar X prize contender which also targets to perform mining on the lunar surface in search of valuable natural resources.
The company based in California was founded in August 2010 with the aim to launch commercial robotic missions to the Moon. It plans to establish a long term mining project on the Moon in search for rare Earth elements like dysprosium, yttrium and niobium.
The CEO and co-founder Bob Richard anticipates to extract water from deep beneath the surface of the Moon and mentioned that, “Water is the oil of the solar system”. Chairman Jain was also quoted saying “In 15 years, the Moon will be an important part of Earth’s economy”.
Last year, Moon Express made a deal with Rocket Lab to use the latter’s Electron Rocket technology for three missions.
Rocket Lab is a start-up researching and developing advanced rocket science. Moon Express has planned for two launches next year.
