Funeral in the Stars?

This week's blog prompt was to investigate alternative funeral practices. Instantly, I was reminded of a unique funeral practice that was brought up in an archaeology class I took last semester: lunar and celestial burials. In my class last semester, the final unit was a discussion on archaeology of the moon and, surprisingly, there are indeed human remains on the moon's surface, as well as in orbit. Eugene Shoemaker is one of the most well-known lunar burials, whose remains were placed on the moon in 1997. There are even websites offering to deliver the cremains of your loved ones to sit among the stars, for a fee. For $995 your departed can be launched into space and then brought back down to earth, but for $2000 they can remain in earth's orbit. The most expensive service, called The Voyager Service, costs $12,500 and will send 1gram of your loved one's cremains deep into space. Although expensive, this method of funerary practice is certainly unique and also helps with the growing problem some countries face of overcrowding in their graveyards.

Callisto, a moon that orbits Jupiter