Florida GoogleX Team Offers To Send Your DNA To the Moon For a Price 55
First time accepted submitter Udigs writes "You might have heard of the Google LunarX Prize. It's a competition where private, often non-profit organizations race to build a vehicle capable of completing a short mission on the moon. But one of the problems facing these private teams is the issue of raising money to make the trip. However, one Florida team is taking an interesting approach: they are offering to send your DNA to the moon for a price. For the inclined, they've started a kickstarter page."
High price of gas. (Score:2, Funny)
However, one Florida team is taking an interesting approach: they are offering to send your DNA to the moon for a price.
It'll save the aliens gas money to come here and get it.
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Aliens? Not exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking more along the lines of a covert program to get more DNA into Government databases, and of course the Government.. er Google... would make a lot of cash doing so.
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Exactly. I'll be physically present at the launch and put my vile into the capsule and watch it be loaded on to the rocket, thank you. Anything less than that, I'll keep my money.
Just one question (Score:2)
If I pledge $10,000, do I still get a 5 gallon bucket of duck sauce?
Like a big astronaut... (Score:1)
...circle jerk.
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So my clones are doomed to work on the moon? (Score:1)
Moon (2009 Movie with Sam Rockwell) [imdb.com]
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Wait, isn't that a central tenant of Scientology?
And volcanoes are the output ports, so, plan fail, I guess.
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I thought Xenu packed aliens into volcanoes and then blew them up with fusion bombs and now their ghosts are what causes humanity's ills (which is why you should totally not use stupid science-based medicine, it does nothing about the alien ghosts at the root of the problem).
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Competition (Score:1)
For a much cheaper price i'll offer you the privilege to have your DNA sent to some other place just as useless.
10k? (Score:3)
While I understand that weight is key, 10k seemed a little high for the DNA sample. A single cell is sufficient to "get your DNA on the moon". I would think that a lower cost would result in many more people taking that option and increased financial contributions.
Granted, having to farm out the DNA collection and storage process is eating up money that isn't going to the launch, and the keeping the resulting samples small will cost more than just sending any cheek scrapings that come in. Even with the 10k price it's only $3500 higher than the next donor level that includes all but the DNA sent to the moon.
Their marketing department might want to revisit this. To be honest though, they're not likely to lower the amount enough to interest me.
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It's like the "name a star after you" scam. In order for the product to have perceived value, the price has to be high enough.
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I don't think you understand what Kickstarter is. They're not saying "this thing is worth $10k". They're saying "if you pledge $10k to our project, one of the rewards you will get is your DNA sent to the moon". It's like when you donate $15 to a Kickstarter project and they say "for this, you'll get a Thank You on our website and a free bumper sticker!". They're not saying a bumper sticker is worth $15 -- they're just giving you a little trinket for your pledge. This just happens to be a more extravagant re
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Was this auto-generated? If so I'm impressed that someone has simulated the intelligence of a crazy ranting hobo.
Warning: One-way trip (Score:1)
The cost to get your dna back is where they make their profit.
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What nefarious plans do you have for when you get your gamma ray-mutated DNA back?
Modern day Cryonics (Score:2)
That's a long way (Score:5, Funny)
to shoot a load.
Sounds like a SCAM (Score:3, Insightful)
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they could, you know, sequence it to optical media, or engrave it, or put it in a block of lead.
the bigger problem is how the fuck they intend to send it to moon.
Why do you need (their) rocket? (Score:2)
DNA (and in fact the cells in which it is encased) is so unbelievably light that if you could get it out of the atmosphere, the light pressure from the sun could blow it to the moon in a matter of days(?).
So just take some skin flakes and grind it up into an extremely fine powder. Attach it to a weather balloon (with an optional rocket stage). At the edge of the atmosphere with the setting sun in one direction and the moon in another, release the powder.
Is it absolutely positively guaranteed to get to the
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This is the NPR tote bag of space. The tote bag would actually be more useful. They're looking to raise money, and they want to give you a token of appreciation. It's like letting you put your name on it, only a little more personal and a little more sciencey.
You're not getting DNA delivery out of it. The DNA up there is going to be useless. You're getting bragging rights: "my DNA is on board that rover" when/if they actually make the news by succeeding. It's pricey for bragging rights, but it's cheaper tha
Preserved for all time? (Score:2)
ESI will collect your DNA sample, package it into a storage container mounted on the company's Lunar Descent Vehicle and fly it to the surface of the moon where it will be preserved for all time.
Inside a container subject to extreme temperatures hot and cold and with no meaningful protection against cosmic radiation?
Nothing is forever:
Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. Their continued usefulness for laser ranging might suggest that the lunar environment does not damage optical devices. However, new laser ranging data reveal that the efficiency of the three Apollo reflector arrays is now diminished by a factor of 10 at all lunar phases and by an additional factor of 10 when the lunar phase is near full Moon. These deficits did not exist in the earliest years of lunar ranging, indicating that the lunar environment damages optical equipment on the timescale of decades. Dust or abrasionon the front faces of the corner-cube prisms may be responsible.
Long-term degradation of optical devices on the Moon [ucsd.edu]
I remember one sci-fi writer arguing that quantum effects would set a limit to any form of suspended animation. In time too much information would be erased to make revival possible.
Meh (Score:1)
Of all the places my DNA has wanted to go, the moon is not one of them.
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Your DNA just might have an interesting adventure there.
http://archive.org/details/Cat_Women_of_the_Moon [archive.org]
What for? (Score:2)
I'll do it for half their price (Score:2)
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Asking a bunch of slashdotters to send you a vial of DNA my very well be the grossest post ever. And there are a lot of gross things on the internet that get linked from /.
Honeymooners (Score:2)
Only if they a guarantee my cells will mutate! (Score:1)
Put my dead molecules on Jupiter! (Score:1)
Toynbee Idea
In movie 2001
Resurrect dead
On planet Jupiter
Monarchy (Score:2)
I live in the UK, so I'm just going to send my toenails to Her Majesty the Queen instead, Royal Mail will do this for a much better price.
Great idea... (Score:2)
Planning for the Future (Score:1)