You Trekkers out there will be glad to hear that Scotty’s remains have been found. Astronaut Gordon Cooper’s ashes were also in the payload launched into suborbital space back in April, only to have the payload lost in the New Mexico scrub. Weather and the rough terrain kept them from finding anything until now. The link above should have more details later today.
Special note:
Hey! Have you donated to the Shannon Malloy Fund?
Update (Sept 15 2007): Donation button removed.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
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May 18th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
The reporting of this story across the various news services has been really inaccurate.
Saying that they found it implies that they lost it in the first place. That isn’t really the case. They just had not managed to retrieve it.
They had transmitters on the payload to lead them in. Weather and rough terrain kept them from performing the retrieval kept them from actually picking it up, but to imply that they lost the payload is a pretty big misrepresentation of the available facts.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I thought “Trekkies” was the accepted term?
May 18th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I wonder if they can hold onto the container until the return to the moon. Or at least attach it to the LRO?
May 18th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I wouldn’t care in the slightest if Scotty’s ashes had landed in a puddle of mud or up Keith Richards’ nose.
It shouldn’t but it does irk me that so much time and expense is placed on a completely worthless pile of carbon dust.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Mori- even I know that Trekkers is the term used by fans of Star Trek to describe themselves, whereas Trekkies is the term used by the media much to the annoyance of the fan-base.
Now excuse me, I have to get back to my imaginary girlfriend.
May 19th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Ummm, imaginary girlfriend,,,is she inflatable?
Having been a fan of Star Trek for over 40 years, I still refer to myself as a trekkie, just to irritate other FaNatics. Just as I call science fiction SciFi(pronounced Ski Fee). Some times people take themselves WAY too seriously,,,
The ashes in orbit thing is all about symbolism, ie, “this thing or act is representative of something else”,,,
What that “something else” is, is debatable and personal. I hope in our rush to extreme rationalism, we don’t lose the ability to enjoy a good pun. Anyone familiar with poetry understands that metaphor, symbolism and sylogism is an integral part of that art form. Art itself is often about implication. Rationalism is straight ahead logical, while art is somewhat like thinking side ways,,,
The orbiting of Scottys ashes is meant to call attention to an emotional/exciting connection with space travel and the greatness of being an explorer in a new realm. Scotty represents all of that.
Scotty, I will remember you,,,and thanks for the stories.
GAry 7
May 19th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Er, I respect that you’ve done a 180 on your post about Shannon Malloy, but don’t you think that your continued pitching of the donation fund is a bit like overcompensation? Just put an ad on the side or something.
May 19th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Gary: Keith Richards snorting his father’s ashes = Art.
Sending Scotty’s ashes into space = waste of money
Sending Ken Hamm on a trip to Alpha Centauri = Priceless.
May 19th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Dustin: It’s a way of keeping it available. If you haven’t been to the site in a week, or you just found it, it’s a good way to let you know it’s there. It would look a bit nicer on the border, but then most people would think it was an ad.
May 20th, 2007 at 5:56 am
It *is* an ad.
May 20th, 2007 at 9:58 am
But an ad from Phil, not an ad from Google, which is what it looks like.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Christian Burnham said:
> It shouldn’t but it does irk me that so much time and expense is placed on a completely worthless pile of carbon dust.
> Sending Scotty’s ashes into space = waste of money
But it’s not your money, so why does it bother you so much? How is it any different than an intercontinental flight to Europe to go backpacking or ski the Alps, or flying out to Vegas and blowing the money gambling, or buying an old car to rebuild into a hot rod, or any of a million other personal uses for personal money for one’s own emotional satisfaction?