You say that in the Moon are

the human remains of who?

By Ernesto Pérez

On January 6, 1998, an ounce of Eugene Shoemaker's cremains traveled to the moon aboard NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft.

Shoemaker confirmed the theory that the huge Arizona crater was formed by the impact of a big meteorite.

He also believed that the craters on the Moon were of similar origin.

The crater is also known as Barringer Crater for Daniel Barringer, who in 1903 was first to suggest that it was produced by a meteorite impact.

Eugene was an American geologist and one of the founders of the field of planetary science.

Eugene said shortly before his death the biggest disappointment in his life was “not going to the moon and banging on it with my own hammer.”

But Carolyn Porco, a former student of him, in an act of love and admiration had the idea of fulfilling Eugene's desire (and frustration) by using one of NASA's missions to the Moon to send a portion of Eugene's ashes in a small capsule inside the Lunar Prospector Moon mission.

Wrapped around the capsule was a 1.5 inch (3.8 cm) square piece of brass foil, laser-inscribed with a composite image.

And, when he shall die Take him and cut out in little stars:

The actual 'burial' of the ashes was going to be a crash of the space probe on the Moon.

And he will make the face of the heavens so fine That all the world will be in love with night

The heaven's nights now are not the same since there is one of us resting above there.

And pay no worship to the garnish sun. Now the sun is not the most embellished star in the cosmos, but the Moon.

William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet - 1595

● a photo of the comet he discovered

● a photo of the Arizona crater he insisted that was of cosmic origin

● a fragment of a Shakespeare's poem from Romeo and Juliet

The three elements on the engraving are:

Eugene Shoemaker with his beloved wife Carolyn Shoemaker in a 1994 photo taken at the Palomar Observatory.

Carolyn C. Porco, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, proposed and produced the tribute. She said, "The idea to give Gene Shoemaker the moon as his final resting place came to me on July 19th , the day after Gene died and the moment I read in the morning newspaper that his body would be cremated.

The homage that Carolyn paid to Eugene was well chosen, and with a lot of human love, warmth, and reverence.

On July 31, 1999, after eighteen months of successful orbital scientific operations, Lunar Prospector was commanded to crash into the surface of the Moon.

The actual 'burial' of the ashes was going to be a crash of the space probe on the Moon.

The fulfillment of one man's dream, and the final episode of his inspirational life, met on impact.

At his journey's end, thirty years to the month after humans first set foot on the Moon,Eugene M. Shoemaker became the first inhabitant of Earth to be sent to rest on another celestial body.

But more than "The fulfillment of one man's dream" ...

… his burial on the Moon is the product of the love of a student and the approval of his wife ...

… that wanted him to rest forever in the place where he wished the most: the Moon.

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