Making a bizarre hope, a retired physics professor in the Midwest has been planning to send his DNA to the moon’s southern pole after his death. The man has been hoping that it may be used for cloning one day in the intergalactic zoo.
86-year-old Ken Ohm, while speaking to the New York Times, had said that there are endless possibilities of his bizarre death.
He pointed out that his contribution can eventually play an important role in an intergalactic zoo where he hopes that his replica has been caged as a human specimen.
“I’m living with the uncertainty,” stated Ohm. Ohm also has the chance of having a thousand versions of himself cloned, similar to the Republic Army from “Star Wars”.
Ohm, who was a former baseball player and javelin thrower, had wished to become a NASA astronaut during the heyday of the Apollo programme in the 1960s. He said that he was rejected because of his height.
“I did everything I was supposed to, except shrink,” Ohm lamented.
As per the man, even if the results are not as expected, the thought that the generations ahead can now look at the moon and think that “Old Ken has his DNA up there” is enough to inspire him to do that.
Sending Earthling remains at affordable rates
Ohm, who has been a teacher for 50 years and has written several books related to the moon and Midwestern life, will be sending his DNA into space with the help of Celestis, which specialises in transferring Earthling remains and ashes to space on a rocket flight at “surprisingly affordable” rates which began at $2,495.
A trip to deep space or the lunar surface costs around $13,000, which is slightly above the average funeral cost of about $10,000 in New York. Ohm is not the only one who wants to send his DNA into space.
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Civilians, astronauts, and professional baseball players have made a commitment to an orbital end with Celestis. Celestis was set up in 1994 and has launched 17 “memorial” spaceflights since then.
The next lunar flight of the company leaves from Cape Canaveral on Christmas Eve and will be landing on the northeastern end of the moon with remains and DNA.
FDNY Battalion Chief Daniel Conlisk after his death wishes to send his remains into space along with those belonging to his wife Kathy, who died last year.
It was her wish to have “our ashes mixed together and sent into space,” explained 76-year-old Conlisk.
(With inputs from agencies)
