Dead American Presidents’ DNA Will Travel To Deep Space As Part Of Time Capsule

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff,” astronomer Carl Sagan famously said.

It appears burial company Celetis is taking the scientist’s words literally, as it prepares to send the DNA of four former, now deceased United States Presidents into deep space on board a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.

Thankfully, the remains of George Washington, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan aren’t going to be blasted into orbit. Rather, the leaders’ “authenticated” hair samples will be put on the upcoming Enterprise Flight as part of a deep space time capsule.

These hair samples, which were originally kept in the Louis Mushro collection, were given to Celestis as part of an anonymous donation for the mission. The agency said this would mark the first time that any President has gone to space “symbolically or otherwise.”

Joining the former rulers’ follicles will be the cremated ashes and DNA samples of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry, engineer James ‘Scotty’ Doohan, and visual effects master Douglas Trumball, among several others.

“The overarching goal of Celestis is to assist human expansion throughout the solar system. By adding the DNA of these American icons to Enterprise, we establish a precursor for future human missions, and add to the historical record of human exploration of deep space,” said the company’s CEO Charles M Chafer.

Intriguingly, the firm thinks that by sending remains into space, it could one day act as a method of data storage that future civilizations can use to trace the history of humans now, akin to a “floating DNA library,” as IFL Science put it.

As per Space.com, the first-ever Enterprise Flight is scheduled to travel between 93 million miles and 186 million miles into deep space beyond Earth and the Moon and will include over 200 capsules of cremated ash remains or personal messages from clients across the world.

“This flight will indeed go into the history books, and thanks to the DNA presence of historical figures, the Enterprise Flight’s story won’t just end with its entry into a solar orbit,” Celestis concluded.

[via IFL Science and Space.com, cover image via Aeide13 | Dreamstime.com]