Lunar Prospector moves the ashes of Eugene Shoemaker to the Moon

1998/12/01 Burke, J.D. Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

In the most curious tribute of all time, the ashes of Gene Shoemaker, who died in a car accident last July, were introduced into the Lunar Prospector spacecraft. After a year looking for water, mineral and gas, the Prospector collides against the Moon and disappears.

"This action is very important to us," said Gene's widow, Carolyn Shoemaker. "Somehow it allows us to collect our feelings. From now on we will know that Gene is there every time we look at the moon."

After introducing the ashes in a polycarbonate capsule, they have placed them in a corner of the spacecraft, after being tested on other flights and stored in a vacuum closed aluminum pocket. The capsule is covered by a brass sheet in which appear the image of Hale-Boop, the Meteor Crater of Northern Arizona and a passage of Willian Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The translation of the fragment is as follows:

• And when he dies. If you make thousands of small stars your body. He will adorn the firmament mercilessly.

Carolyn Porco, a former student of Shoemaker, prepared a special charge with the collaboration of the Shoemaker family and NASA. "As the entire scientific community working with the planets knows, Gene's desire was to always go to the Moon as an astronaut of Naples and investigate there the geology of the astro," said Porco.

For health reasons, Shoemaker could not be the first geologist to arrive at the Moon. Instead, it contributed to the choice of the astronauts of Apollo and the training they needed, both from the geology of the Moon and from the impact craters. He then led the team of scientists of the Clementine project.

This action has led to an intercultural debate and has denounced that the people of Navajo is a "ruthless attack against the convictions of many Americans of origin" sending Shoemaker's ashes to the Moon. NASA apologizes publicly and promises that in case something similar happens "more opinion will be requested".