The US company Space Crystals is offering a unique experience of immortalizing one's essence by having a person's DNA grown into crystals on the International Space Station (ISS) and then launching them onto the Moon's surface with a lunar lander, Space Crystals President Kevin Heath told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2023) The US company Space Crystals is offering a unique experience of immortalizing one's essence by having a person's DNA grown into crystals on the International Space Station (ISS) and then launching them onto the Moon's surface with a lunar lander, Space Crystals President Kevin Heath told Sputnik.
"We send out DNA collection kits, collect the client DNA, then in the lab we take the client DNA and infuse it into two crystalline solutions per client. We then launch them to the ISS and, while in orbit, grow two totally unique crystals per client embedded with the client DNA," Heath said.
Heath explained that the crystal growth happens in the first five-to-seven days of their flight in space and after that period, they are set aside to wait until being returned back to Earth to be reunited with their owners.
"Upon their return to Earth, the client receives one of the crystals while the sister crystal is mounted in a Lunar Time Capsule (designed and built by Texas A&M University) and installed on a lunar lander with 1GB of your unique personalized data and launched to the surface of the Moon to remain for all eternity," he said.
Heath explained that he came up with the idea several years ago but could not make it happen until commercial flights to the ISS and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions to the Moon were made available.
"I came up with it after visiting a funeral site where they had really elaborate and expensive mausoleums that were deteriorating over time, which made me think that no matter what you do here on this planet it won't last," he said. "Compare that to the footprint of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, which will be there forever, and combine that with seeing Jurassic Park, where they extracted DNA from a mosquito embedded in Amber and you have the beginnings of the idea for Space Crystals."
Heath pointed out that the idea was for the crystals to be totally unique, like snowflakes, and came up with idea of growing them in space where they would not be affected by gravity.
"It is a celebration of life and a way for someone to preserve their essence forever," he said. "In the summer of 2024, our clients will be able to hold their totally unique space crystal embedded with their DNA in their hand and look up at the Moon and know that the sister crystal will be there forever - something we call the 'crystal connection."
Heath emphasized the crystal project is a totally unique and exclusive one and the company is only targeting 266 sales for the first flight.
"Which means out of the 7.8 billion people on the planet, only a handful will get this opportunity this year," he said.
Heath noted the company cannot disclose whom they are working with, but added that it has contracts to fly to the ISS and to the Moon.
Heath revealed the company performed terrestrial experiments in early 2022 to test out the concept and then flew 36 test samples in orbit on the ISS in May of 2022 to verify the process.
"We were able to achieve crystal growth in all 36 vials. The crystals that returned from space are about the size of small marbles," he said.
The company is targeting their first customer flight to the ISS late this spring and a flight to the Moon in early 2024, Heath said.
"As you know, flying things in space is very expensive. So, unfortunately, this program is not for everyone as the price is $150,000 per client," he said. "However, we are donating 3% of the net profits to STEAM education to get the kids excited about the limitless opportunities if they follow a career in science, technology, engineering, arts and/or Math."
Heath also said that the customer offers at present are not sold out yet.
"If the demand is there, we plan on flying follow on missions with other types of crystals. So, for example, this first set will be synthetic Amethysts and in the coming years we could fly Emeralds, Ruby's, etc., and our repeat customers could end up with the whole Thanos Glove," he added.�
