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Sunday, 27 May 2007 |
By D. W. O'Dell
The future ain’t what it used to be. We don’t have jet packs, moon colonies, or meals in pill form. Okay, we’ve got cell phones, but that’s mainly to give people something to do while they drive. The reality of now is a pale imitation of what science fiction writers promised us we’d be.
But occasionally there is some progress. When I heard that the ashes of actor James Doohan, known to millions as Scotty from the original Star Trek, were going to be shot into space, I thought it an appropriate resting place. It’s not exactly beaming him up, but close enough. Hallelujah that modern technology could provide James Doohan a fitting resting place.
But now I hear that the rocket containing Doohan’s remains (or part of them), along with the ashes of NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper, science fiction author John Meredith Lucas, and about 200 other people less associated with space flight, returned to Earth as planned in New Mexico, and the ashes have been recovered and returned to their families.
What?????
What’s the point of shooting Scotty’s, er, I mean Doohan’s ashes up 72 miles only to have them return to Earth? Isn’t the point to send them into space so they’d stay there? Judging from a quick perusal of various internet sites, it appears that most Star Trek fans were under the same impression. Is space so crowded that we can’t leave a small spacecraft up there indefinitely? Or at least get it out of Earth orbit?
If I (or my heirs) spend $495 to shoot my ashes into outer space, I don’t want to travel 10 miles above the generally designated boundary of what constitutes outer space, only to return to Earth shortly thereafter. I would, at the very least, expect to be pulled into the Sun’s gravitational well to eventually be incinerated by the greatest crematory in the solar system.
We were supposed to have personal space craft by now; but private space ventures can’t even put a tiny payload into Earth orbit. How depressing. After his return to Earth, Doohan’s widow was quoted as saying, “He probably wished he could have stayed.” My question is, why couldn’t he?
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