ashes, ashes, we all fall down

[astroaztec]

Star Trek-themed urns and coffins

No thanks.

But this brings up the notion of the overall environmental impact of handling a body. One estimate says it takes roughly 1 GJ to cremate a body; I'm big, maybe more for me. One enterprising Swedish town recovers the heat from the crematorium for the public heating system. Burial takes up land. It looks like burial at sea may be the least impact, especially for someone living in a coastal town.

But wait, maybe the initial notion isn't immediately to be rejected fully. It takes about 3 GJ to get me into low earth orbit, or close enough to LEO. Spider & Jeanne Robinson used it in Stardance. Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett used it in Wrath of Khan. It's a lot like burial at sea.

Okay, I'll take the option of scattering my ashes across half a continent at mach 25, but I still don't need the fancy coffin.

Comments

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the bore was on those old coast defense guns they used to have? Because "being fired out of a cannon into the ocean" seems to combine the eco-friendly effects of being buried at sea with the general awesomeness of being fired out of a giant cannon.

[astroaztec.livejournal.com]

The guns which once were around Fort Baker (now the site of a science education camp for kids run by the Yosemite Institute which gets overrun by morris dancers every other year or so) were 16 inch bore. Even if the guns were still present in those crumbling bunkers this presents several obstacles.

I think some of the private launch enterprises are getting to the coffin-sized range, but not yet. Nevertheless I imagine a scene akin to the asteroid entry in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars where a bunch of families all trek to some suitable site to watch a MIRV-like show of immolating ancestors launched by an old Russian ICBM.