It’s always exciting to see a big rocket blast-off, especially one that’s not made for killing people. Even if it’s one taking the ashes of theincluding creator Gene Roddenberry and Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura. As well as carrying a scientific payload for various agencies, including Nasa, Astrobotics, the company running the courier service, offers a $US1.2 million per kg service to civilians and has some suggestions of mementos they might like to send. They include “sand from a favourite beach”, “a baby’s fingerprint” and –this is a gag to play on alien archaeologists who might discover them billions of years hence –a “pet tag”. Then again, it might be nice to look up at the moon one day and think, “He was a very good boy. And now he’s a lunar Rover.”
