You might not make it to heaven in the afterlife, but you sure can go as far as the moon. Celestial funerals are now a possibility, thanks to San Francisco startup Elysium Space. For a ginormous fee of about US$12,000, the company will privately transport your cremated remains to the moon.

Founded by former NASA engineer Thomas Civeit, Elysium boasts of bringing space and funeral experts together to provide the unique service.

Although the company was founded in 2013, the service only began to be offered this August, after Elysium managed to seal a deal with space logistics company Astrobotic Technology. They’re taking orders, and the first batch of ashes will travel to the moon on Griffin Lander spacecraft — Astrobotic’s inaugural lunar mission — in 2017.

According to Civeit, the families who are opting for the service usually have a special connection with space or the night sky. Elysium’s initial plan was to run a service called Shooting Star Memorial, in which ashes are briefly sent into orbit and return to the earth as a bright streak across the atmosphere. But then they were approached with an unusual request by U.S. Army infantry soldier Steven Jenks.

Jenks, who lost his mother to lung cancer, wanted to send her remains to the moon because it was a special symbol of their relationship. She would always write to him, “No matter how lonely you feel and how far you are, always look to the moon and know I am with you. I love you to the moon and back, love, mom.” So when he learned that Astrobotic was set up to send various payloads to the moon, he asked if they could take his mother’s ashes too.

Civeit said, “Astrobotic does not provide such services to individuals but we were signing our contract with Astrobotic at the time and we were honored to make Steven’s wish come true.”

For the first 50 signups, the “Lunar Memorials” will cost US$9,950. After that, the price will be hiked to US$11,950.

来生你不一定去得了天堂，但你却能到遥远的月球。有了旧金山的“极乐世界”公司，“天葬”服务现在已成为可能。花费12000美元，该公司便会单独将您火化后的遗物运送至月球。

“极乐世界”公司最初由美国航空航天局前工程师托马斯•西威特创立，该公司将宇宙专家和丧葬专家集合起来，定制提供这种特殊服务。

虽然公司2013年成立，在他们与国际空间物流公司Astrobotic Technology达成秘密协议后，今年八月才推出此服务。他们现已开始接受订单，第一批骨灰将于2017年通过Astrobotic的首次登月任务随格里芬登陆号航天器到达月球。

西威特表示，选择这项服务的家庭通常都对太空和夜空有着特殊的感情。“极乐世界”最初的计划其实是开始一项名为“流星纪念”的服务，将骨灰运送至轨道然后划过大气层回到地球。但后来美国步兵史蒂芬?詹克思找到他们，并提出了新想法。

詹克思的母亲因为肺癌而离世，之后，他想将他母亲的骨灰送到月球上，因为月亮是他们母子情的特殊象征。她经常给他在信里写

道：“不管你感觉多寂寞，离我多么远，别忘了时常抬头看看月亮，就知道我一直在你身边。我对你的爱，好比从地球到月亮再回来那么绵长。爱你的，妈妈。”所以后来他知道Astrobotic公司准备开始运送物资到月球时，就询问能否将她妈妈的骨灰一起带上月球。

西威特说：“虽然Astrobotic并不向私人提供此项服务，但我们与其签订过合同，所以我们很荣幸能让史蒂芬的愿望成真。”

第一批报名的50人大概会花费9950美元。不过在那之后，“月球纪念”要提价到11950美元。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【巨大的】jùdà de ginormous extremely large, huge

    【首次的】shǒucì de inaugural marking the beginning of a new venture, series