Since 1997, space memorial firm Celestis has been sending cremated human remains into space, generally in Earth’s orbit. In 1999, it arranged to have a portion of Shoemaker’s remains attached to the Lunar Prospector, which deposited his ashes on the moon. Now, Celestis has announced that, by as soon as 2010, it will send more human remains to the moon, thanks to an agreement with two private spaceflight companies.

For $12,500, you can send one gram of ashes from one person in a capsule to the moon, or for $18,750, up to two grams of ashes from two different people. If you're looking to journey even farther from home, Celestis expects to launch a deep space mission by 2011, which will also start at $12,500. But, for the posthumous spacefarer on a budget, the memorial company will continue to offer Earth orbit services for as little as $1,295.

[Celestis via Yahoo! via Scenario Land]

ISRO reports that at 8:31 pm Indian Standard Time, the Moon Impact Probe performed its “suicide nosedive” onto the moon’s surface. The probe carries a radar altimeter, video imaging system, and a mass spectrometer, which transmits images and data from its landing and stay on the moon to the remote sensing satellite, which will remain in lunar orbit for two years.

But beyond data collection, this represents India’s first toehold in space exploration, and the probe’s decorations reflect that:

The probe had miniature Indian national flags painted on four sides, meant to commemorate the birth of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (known as Children's Day).

It was to "signify the entry of India on Moon," an ISRO official told the Press Trust of India.

The ISRO has reportedly received images from the probe’s crash, but has not yet released them.

[Space.com]

Honeybee Robotics, which has been contracted to develop tools for the eventual lunar outpost, is creating an excavation mechanism with an eye toward employing lunar dirt for as many uses as possible:

Once the device has sucked up lunar dirt, or regolith, this material could be conveniently diverted and used as a protective covering over homes (regolith is good for shielding from radiation). The dirt could also be processed to extract the oxygen bound up in its minerals…

[I]nstead of carting up heavy water, astronauts could travel with hydrogen, and then add oxygen later. Since oxygen is the heavier ingredient in water, and it can be extracted from the surface, this approach saves precious cargo weight.

And once a store of water has been created for the lunar colony, most of it can be recycled without having to create more from scratch.

But the panacea of moon dust is not without its drawbacks:

Moon dwellers will also have to contend with the ubiquitous dust on the surface of the moon, which gets into everything and can wear down joints and connectors and prevent sealing off doors. It also poses a health risk to people, as it can cause breathing problems and is difficult to filter out of habitats.

How to Build Lunar Homes From Moon Dirt [LiveScience]

Image by Jeroen Lapre.

At only a $79 million dollar budget, a major studio could just buy this project out and turn it into a shot at box office gold. In the Hollywood version, the spacecraft would wake up a dormant alien being, long buried underneath the lunar surface, or they'd start a chain reaction that would cause the moon to break up into a billion pieces, which would begin raining down on the Earth. Then NASA would have to hire a maverick space jockey — Eric Bana? — to either deal with the alien menace, or the falling debris.

Or what if the moon turned out to be a deep space probe that's been orbiting the planet for eons? Silently biding its time. Then, a rude awakening comes in the form of us crashing things into it and the bot pilots running the probe try to send down big guns to mete out some stellar justice. It feels like the start of a bad Dimension Films plot, we know. But, there's probably a good idea buried in there somewhere. Just as long as it doesn't dislodge the moon from orbit and force us to watch the only good scene in The Time Machine again.

NASA Takes Aim at Moon with Double Sledgehammer [Yahoo News]

Image from the 1902 George Méliès film A Trip To The Moon.

After several failed attempts, scientists now believe that by withdrawing water from deep within the moon's inner core of newly discovered ice caverns, their terraforming operation will at last prove successful. Once the water is brought up to the surface and pumped through the eight mile wide transforming spheres, it will then be dispersed as new oxygen-rich compounds, which eventually will create a livable lunar atmosphere. The surrounding city has grown twofold in the last several months and its inhabitants anxiously await the momentous outcome.