To build a "cosmic time capsule," the remains of four dead US presidents will be sent to a distant outpost in deep space.
Celestis, a US-based firm specializing in commemorative space trips, has announced the mission, which is scheduled to take off later this year.
The Launch of Former Presidents Into Orbit
Celestis Enterprise Flight will launch a personal travel capsule far beyond the Earth-Moon system to join other planets, moons, asteroids, and comets on a "never-ending journey through the cosmos."
According to a news release, Celestis intends to add the remains of four former Presidents to Enterprise, including George Washington, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, in order to educate future civilizations about the history and legacy of the USA.
The launch is planned for later this year from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket. When the burn phase is over, the spacecraft will be renamed Enterprise Station and become the furthest human outpost ever built, orbiting the sun at a distance of between 150 and 300 million miles.
How will this educate future civilizations?
Deoxyribose nucleic acid, or DNA for short, has proven crucial in our pursuit of knowledge about our origins and the course of our evolution.
In a report by Interesting Engineering, a geneticist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine as recently as last year for their work connecting us to Neanderthals. They traced the genetic contributions of those ancient ancestors to current humans via migrations that occurred some 70,000 years ago.
DNA is being researched as a data storage option since it can be kept in space for thousands of years without deterioration and might be utilized as a cosmic time capsule to uncover the past.
In the future, Celestis believes that the technology will allow us to do more than analyze DNA. We may be able to also extract knowledge about humanity and gain insight into the identities of its members.
"In keeping with the idea that ancient DNA can tell scientists how we evolved, the DNA of these presidents can tell future civilizations that may settle in deep space more about bygone American leaders and culture," the press release reads.
It may even serve as an evolutionary map showing how the US started with Washington and continued to thrive under succeeding presidents like Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan.
Along with hair samples from long-dead US presidents, the corporation will deliver DNA from the likes of Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, their son Eugene, and other cast members of the original Star Trek series.
The idea may seem far-fetched today but it may not be a thousand or ten thousand years from now.
