A retired physics professor in the Midwest has made an unusual wish: to send his DNA to the moon’s southern pole after his death. The man has hoped that it will be utilized for cloning in the intergalactic zoo one day. In an interview with the New York Times, 86-year-old Ken Ohm stated that there are numerous theories for his strange demise. He stated that his contribution could one day play an essential part in an interplanetary zoo, where he hopes his replica has been confined as a human specimen. “I’m living with the uncertainty,” stated Ohm. Ohm also has the chance of having a thousand versions of himself cloned, similar to the Republic Army from “Star Wars.”
The fact that future generations will be able to stare at the moon and think, “Old Ken has his DNA up there,” is enough to urge him to do it
Ohm, a former baseball player and javelin thrower, aspired to be a NASA astronaut during the Apollo program’s prime in the 1960s. He said that he was turned down because of his height. “I did everything I was supposed to, except shrink,” Ohm bemoaned. According to the man, even if the results are not as predicted, the fact that future generations will be able to stare at the moon and think, “Old Ken has his DNA up there” is enough to urge him to do it. Ohm, who has been a teacher for 50 years and has written several books related to the moon and Midwestern life, will be sending his DNA into space with the help of Celestis, which specializes in transferring Earthling remains and ashes to space on a rocket flight at “surprisingly affordable” rates, which began at $2,495.
A voyage to outer space or the lunar surface costs roughly $13,000, which is a little more than the average funeral cost in New York, which is around $10,000. Ohm is not alone in his desire to launch his DNA into space. Civilians, astronauts, and professional baseball players have pledged to join Celestis in orbit. Celestis was founded in 1994 and has since flown 17 “memorial” spaceflights. The company’s next lunar voyage departs from Cape Canaveral on Christmas Eve and will settle on the moon’s northeastern limb with remains and DNA. After his death, FDNY Battalion Chief Daniel Conlisk desires to send his remains into space alongside those of his wife Kathy, who died last year. It was her wish to have “our ashes mixed together and sent into space,” explained 76-year-old Conlisk.