{"id":44785,"date":"2024-01-07T02:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T02:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/uss-largest-indigenous-tribe-objects-to-depositing-human-remains-on-moon\/"},"modified":"2024-01-07T02:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T02:00:06","slug":"uss-largest-indigenous-tribe-objects-to-depositing-human-remains-on-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/uss-largest-indigenous-tribe-objects-to-depositing-human-remains-on-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"US\u2019s largest indigenous tribe objects to depositing human remains on Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON: The United States will soon launch its first spacecraft to attempt a soft lunar landing since the Apollo era, in a historic collaboration with the private sector \u2014 but not everyone is celebrating.<\/p>\n

The Navajo Nation, America\u2019s largest indigenous tribe, has raised concerns over the presence of human cremated remains on the lander vehicle, calling the mission a \u201cdesecration\u201d of the Moon as it holds a sacred place in their culture.<\/p>\n

On Jan 8, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic\u2019s Peregrine lander is set to hitch a ride on a giant United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket, making its maiden voyage under a Nasa commercial partnership aimed at saving the US space agency money. Peregrine\u2019s scientific instruments will probe for lunar surface radiation, helping Nasa better prepare for crewed missions going there later this decade under the Artemis programme.<\/p>\n

But the boxy robot\u2019s manifest includes payloads from two companies \u2014 Elysium Space and Celestis \u2014 that will contain cremated remains and DNA to stay on the Moon, inside the lander, forever.<\/p>\n

While Elysium hasn\u2019t offered details, Celestis has 69 \u201cparticipants\u201d, including the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, and a dog named Indica-Noodle Fabiano.<\/p>\n

Customers paid prices start at $12,995, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

In a Dec 21 letter addressed to officials at Nasa and the Department of Transportation, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren expressed \u201cour deep concern and profound disappointment regarding a matter of utmost importance\u201d, and called for Nasa to delay the launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moon holds a sacred position in many indigenous cultures, including ours,\u201d Nygren wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the Moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space.\u201d <\/p>\n

No control over payloads<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nygren added the situation was reminiscent of the Lunar Prospector mission launched in 1998 by Nasa, which intentionally crashed a probe into the Moon\u2019s surface. On board were the remains of renowned geologist Eugene Shoemaker.<\/p>\n

Then, too, the Navajo voiced objections. Nasa apologised and committed to consult Native Americans in future, according to a contemporary report in The Spokesman-Review of Spokane.<\/p>\n

Nasa\u2019s deputy associate administrator for exploration Joel Kearns, said an inter-governmental team had arranged a meeting with the Navajo Nation, but added the agency had no control over its private partner\u2019s payloads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take concerns expressed by the Navajo Nation very, very, seriously, and we think we\u2019re going to be continuing on this conversation,\u201d Kearns told reporters.<\/p>\n

Celestis was less conciliatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect all cultures\u2019 right to engage in religious practices, but no single culture or religion should exercise a veto on space missions based on religious tenets,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Denying that the mission \u201cdesecrates the Moon\u201d, it stressed the material would remain aboard the lander rather than being deposited on the surface. Kearns said Nasa\u2019s growing private partnerships could lead to \u201cchanges to how we view this\u201d or to establishing industry standards.<\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: The United States will soon launch its first spacecraft to attempt a soft lunar landing since the Apollo era, in a historic collaboration with the private sector \u2014 but not everyone is celebrating. The Navajo Nation, America\u2019s largest indigenous tribe, has raised concerns over the presence of human cremated remains on the lander vehicle, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/_img\/social-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}