Sending a corpse into interstellar space. Would you volunteer after your death?

[szputnyik]

Mainly inspired by this: https://what-if.xkcd.com/64/

This could be a good follow-up on the Voyager probes. Launching an actual human body on a solar escape trajectory, so aliens could have a chance to capture and examine it in the future.

[Dispatcher]

Or they might wonder why we put so many preservatives in the tasty food which we provided for them.

[Sillychris]

I wanted to have myself mummified and used as scaffolding for a satellite. Solar panel in each hand and a transmitter hat. Maybe some propulsion in my butt, that's close to the center of mass, right?

[Captain Sierra]

I'd rather get put in cryosleep right before I die, and shot out into interstellar space. Then woken back up, if only for a few moments, to see the beauty of the universe, and then be a cold corpse in space.

[Brotoro]

I'm pretty sure I couldn't volunteer after my death.

[Captain Sierra]

I'm pretty sure I couldn't volunteer after my death.

XD fair enough. I was waiting for someone to catch that.

[Sillychris]

XD fair enough. I was waiting for someone to catch that.

Why aren't there "like" buttons?!

[Dispatcher]

XD fair enough. I was waiting for someone to catch that.

Since there are many forum members for whom english is not their primary language, I give them the benefit of a doubt; meaning in this case that the title of the OP may not be so much a trick question as it may seem.

[Canopus]

Wouldn't make much sense though. Your body gets destroyed before anyone can find anything.

I don't think sending anything so slow in random directions just so it could potentially be found makes any sense at all. Sending radio messages everywhere makes much more sense and is much faster.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Canopus

[szputnyik]

Sending radio signals is more difficult, if not impossible for interstellar distances, because in time, the signal would just fade into thermal or background radiation. I read somewhere that if in the future there will be human colonies in other star systems, and our understanding of physics doesn't change significantly (finding a way to send messages reliably to vast distances, preferably faster than light) it would actually make more sense to communicate with them with "snail mail", essentially written letters sent on probes that could automatically decelerate at the new system, than to attempt radio contact.

Edited February 23, 2014 by szputnyik

[Seret]

Sending radio signals is more difficult, if not impossible for interstellar distances, because in time, the signal would just fade into thermal or background radiation.

On the flipside they are dirt cheap and move at light speed. Adding more power to a transmitter or more sensitivity to a receiver is fairly easy. There are some folks messing around with laser messaging at interstellar distances, but it's either that or radio.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Seret

[WhiteWeasel]

This brings up the question, how would an unprotected body decompose in space?

[Seret]

This brings up the question, how would an unprotected body decompose in space?

Strictly speaking it wouldn't. Space is very cold and dry, the body would dessicate quickly, and the microorganisms that normally break a body down would perish. You might get a bit of swelling from autolysis, but the cold might stop even that once the body had cooled. Drying of a body is enough to cause mummification (Egyptian sand burials, Peruvian mummies, etc) and prevent normal decomposition. The body would break down very slowly after that, but I wouldn't like to say by what exact process. It just wouldn't be the normal one where bacteria turn you to mush.

[Brotoro]

This brings up the question, how would an unprotected body decompose in space?

An unprotected body in space wouldn't decompose (at least not like it does on Earth, since that requires the action of other organisms). An unprotected body in space would basically freeze-dry. Then over a long period of time I suspect it would get eroded away by micrometeorite impacts, cosmic ray sputtering, and ultraviolet from stars breaking down the organic molecules.

[Red Iron Crown]

Sending radio signals is more difficult, if not impossible for interstellar distances, because in time, the signal would just fade into thermal or background radiation. I read somewhere that if in the future there will be human colonies in other star systems, and our understanding of physics doesn't change significantly (finding a way to send messages reliably to vast distances, preferably faster than light) it would actually make more sense to communicate with them with "snail mail", essentially written letters sent on probes that could automatically decelerate at the new system, than to attempt radio contact.

I think it would make more sense for the probe to carry the radio transmitter and begin transmitting when it gets close enough to the destination system. That would save all the problems of deceleration and recovery.

To the OP, I don't see the point of sending a corpse. We could send something more useful for that mass.

[Albert VDS]

Do Clyde Tombaugh's ashes on New Horizons count?

[NASAFanboy]

When I die, I have two options.

Shot out into interstellar space in a cold freezer pod that will last a billion years.

Put into GEO in an freezer pod designed to last for a long time.

Or, I use whatever technology we have in 2150 and I don't die.

[John Crichton]

I'd volunteer part of my body...the rest goes to people who need my organs. Although they might want to pass on the liver

[Seret]

Or, I use whatever technology we have in 2150 and I don't die.

Is that a typo, or have you been consulting the world's most optimistic actuarial table?

[NASAFanboy]

Is that a typo, or have you been consulting the world's most optimistic actuarial table?

The issue is not optimists, but extreme pessimists.

Let's end it at that, before it gets ugly.

[cziken20]

I would completely volunteer to be graved on Moon.

[Holo]

Is that a typo, or have you been consulting the world's most optimistic actuarial table?

You may have been looking at the old tables, the ones that don't take into account advancing technology.

[Nick7892]

Do you mean something like this?

http://www.celestis.com/services.asp