你愿意将心爱之人的骨灰送往太空吗？

这几年，城市墓地越来越吃紧，价格越来越高，人们正在不断探索新的安葬方式。现在，只需要花大约2500美元（17000元人民币），你就可以将逝者的骨灰送上太空，实现太空安葬。有人认为太空安葬未免太大动干戈，也有人觉得它充满了诗意的悼念。那么，太空安葬在未来究竟是否有市场呢？本期的Quriosity带您一探究竟。

Before 36-year-old James Eberling died inNovember 2016, he told his parents he had one final wish: He wanted his remainsto be sent into space.

36岁的James Eberling在2016年11月去世之前告诉了父母他最后一个愿望：他希望他的遗体可以被送往太空。

Now Eberling's dream is about to be realized, as his and about 100 others' cremated remains were launched into space on Dec.3 in a memorial satellite by the company Elysium Space.

现在，Eberling要梦想成真了。12月3日，Elysium Space公司将Eberling和大约100位逝者的骨灰装进了一个纪念卫星，并送上了太空。

The San Francisco-based company said families paid about $2,500 to have a sample of their loved ones' ashes placed aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Elysium Space是美国旧金山的一家公司。该公司表示，逝者的家人支付2,500 美元后，猎鹰9号火箭（SpaceX Falcon 9）就会带着逝者的骨灰样本前往太空。

Traveling into space will be the remains of military veterans and aerospace enthusiasts, alongside those whose families were "looking to celebrate a loved one within the poetry of the starry sky," Elysium Space said in an emailed statement.

Elysium Space 在一封邮件声明中表示，进行太空安葬的逝者包括退伍军人和航天爱好者，还有些逝者的家人“希望能用星空的诗意来纪念故人”。

James' ashes and the others were packed into a 4-inch square satellite called a cubesat, Elysium Space Founder and CEO Thomas Civeit explained to CNN. Families will be able to track the spacecraft in real-time through an app as it orbits the earth for about four years before it falls back to Earth, according to Civeit.

Elysium Space创始人兼CEO Thomas Civeit向CNN详细描述道， James和其它逝者的骨灰被装进了一个4平方英尺的“立方体卫星”，该卫星将围绕地球飞行大约4年，然后返回地球。在这段时间里，逝者的家人可以通过应用程序对卫星进行实时追踪。

The launch is part of a "rideshare mission" organized by Spaceflight. The company said it purchased the rocket to accommodate clients, which range from schools to commercial businesses to government entities and international organizations. Sixty-four small satellites from 34 different organizations will be aboard, Spaceflight said.

此次发射任务是Spaceflight公司组织的“共享任务（rideshare mission）”的一部分。公司称购买火箭是为了满足客户需求，客户包括学校、商业公司、政府部门和国际组织。来自34个不同组织的64颗小卫星将参与此次共享任务。

'May you now soar thru the Heavens'

愿你此刻翱翔天际

Eberling was a missile and rocket enthusiast his entire life, his mother Beverly told CNN. He was also an avid photographer, and often went to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to take pictures of launches.

Eberling的母亲Beverly告诉CNN，他生前热衷于导弹和火箭，还是个热心的摄影师，常常去往加利福尼亚州的Vandenberg空军基地拍摄发射火箭的照片。

At the time of his death, James' family was only aware of missions carrying peoples' remains into space after being launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Beverly said in a phone interview with CNN from Lompoc, California.

电话采访的另一端，Beverly正位于加州隆波克城。她告诉CNN，在儿子去世时，他们全家只知道在弗罗里达州的Cape Canaveral基地，曾进行过用航天器运载人们的遗骸进入太空的项目。

But about a month after James died, they discovered Elysium Space, and told the company they would like ' ashes to be launched from Vandenberg AFB. That way, the family could be there.

但是在James去世后一个月左右，他们发现了Elysium Space公司，告诉该公司他们想将James的骨灰自Vandenberg空军基地送入太空。那样的话，全家人都能在那儿目睹这一过程。

A sample of James' ashes were put in a small capsule engraved with his initials, JME.

The Eberlings will send a message with him, that reads, "James, you were a grounded Eagle on Earth -- may you now soar thru the Heavens."

詹姆斯的骨灰样本被放在一个小胶囊里，上面刻着他名字的首字母，JME。Eberling夫妇随附了一张留言，上面写着，“James，你曾是大地上还未展翅的雄鹰，愿你此刻得以驰骋于天际。”

The two years since her son's death have been "nerve-wracking" for Beverly. She'd given the company some of her son's ashes, and at one point she was skeptical the mission would actually go forward.

儿子去世后的两年里，Beverly一直“神经紧绷” 。她把儿子的部分骨灰交给公司，但她一度怀疑这个项目是否真的能顺利进行下去。

But the Eberlings were patient, and they finally got an email telling them the launch date had been set for November 19, 2018, Beverly said, two years to the day that James died.

The launch has been delayed, but Beverly doesn't mind.

Beverly 说，他们夫妇俩还是沉住了气，耐心等待。最终，他们收到了一封邮件，告诉他们发射日期定于2018年的11月9日，也就是James去世的两年后。虽然骨灰的发射延期了，但Beverly并不介意。

"We're overjoyed to be able to grant him his final wish. and it means a lot to my husband and myself that we're able to do this for him," Beverly said. "And I think that James is very, very happy to finally see that this is going to finally take place."

“能够满足儿子最后的心愿，我们无比欣喜。我们能为他做到这些，对我的丈夫和我而言都意义非凡。” Beverly说，“而且我相信，看见一切终于如愿以偿，James会非常非常开心的。”

It won't be the first time someone's earthly remains were sent to be among the stars. In 1998, a small vial of astronomer Eugene Shoemaker's ashes crashed into the moon as part of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission and remains on the surface.

这并不是第一次有人的遗体被送到星际中。1998年，作为NASA探月任务的一部分，一小瓶天文学家Eugene Shoemaker的骨灰坠落月球，并留在了月球表面。

And the ashes of "Star Trek" actor James Doohan, who played "Scotty" on the show, were sent to space among 320 sets of ashes on a mission similar to Elysium's in 2012. Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper's ashes were on board that flight as well.

2012年，在一个和Elysium类似的任务中，320个人的骨灰被送入了太空，包括在《星际迷航》中扮演斯科特的演员James Doohan的骨灰。水星7号宇航员戈登·库珀的骨灰也在其中。

But all previous memorial missions have been secondary payloads on other missions. Elysium Star 2 is the first dedicated spacecraft whose sole purpose is to act as a cosmic tombstone.

但以前的所有骨灰发射都是其他任务的次要载荷。“Elysium Star 2 ”是首个专注充当宇宙墓碑的航天器。

If this launch goes well, the company has even bigger ambitions. Civeit noted they would like to launch a mission every year, with Elysium Star 3 hoped to take place in 2019. He noted that new smaller rocket companies like Rocket Lab were making these sorts of missions more possible.

如果这次发射进展顺利，公司还有更大的野心。Civeit指出，他们希望每年进行一次发射任务，Elysium Star 3有望在2019年发射。他指出，RocketLab这样小型火箭公司的出现，让此类骨灰发射任务愈加可行。

“It takes a very long time to find a launch service provider and have a payload being deployed,” he said. “We can only hope that with new companies like Rocket Lab and Orbex, it will be possible to reduce the time it takes to launch a payload to maybe just a few months.”

他说:“找到发射服务提供商并部署有效载荷需要很长时间。”“我们只能希望，有了Rocket Lab和Orbex这样的新公司，就有可能将发射有效载荷的时间缩短到几个月左右。”

After that, things get even more ambitious. The company has an agreement with US company Astrobotic Technology, who are planning to send a rover to the Moon in 2019, to launch one of their memorial payloads to the lunar surface. ”

之后，公司更加雄心勃勃。该公司与美国Astrobotic Technology公司达成了一项协议，后者计划在2019年向月球发射一辆月球车，来向月球表面发射他们的一批骨灰纪念物。