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From: space@mit-mc
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Tales from the Orbital Crypt
Message-ID: <464@mordor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Feb-85 18:43:00 EST
Article-I.D.: mordor.464
Posted: Thu Feb 14 18:43:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Feb-85 05:48:57 EST
Sender: daemon@mordor.UUCP
Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL
Lines: 24

From: Tom Wadlow <TAW@S1-A.ARPA>

I read in one of the local papers that the SSI plan for space burial
involved reducing the corpses to a very small size (roughly test-tube
sized containers of ashes, I think) for placement in the orbital crypt.

I wonder how much of a light sail it would take to reach system escape
velocity for such a payload, given:

	- You don't care how long it takes.  (After all, you're dead)
	- All systems are likely to be entirely passive.  Ideally,
		you might like to engrave a message on the container,
		and have the sail be a good optical and EMF reflector,
		but you can probably avoid the necessity for guidance
		or beacons.  This would be a dandelion-seed flight, going
		*away* from the Sun.
	- It must be launchable from Shuttle orbits.  This may be the
		kicker.  I recall reading that there is a minimum workable
		altitude for lightsails, due to residual atmospheric drag
		or something.

An orbiting crypt might be nice, I suppose, but if you could send your
remains as sort of a message-in-a-bottle on a flight to the stars, it 
would be a lot more attractive, I suspect.  --Tom