Hmm. I suppose it’s time to share my own story of smuggling human remains onto the International Space Station.
As I’ve mentioned in other threads, I’ve worked on a few cubesats at this point. They get launched in several different ways, but one of those ways is for them to be shipped to the ISS in a cargo capsule (Cygnus, Dragon, etc.), which is unloaded into the space station proper. The dispensers are then put into an airlock, and either activated from there or grabbed by Canadarm and aimed somewhere else before dispensing. The cubesats shoot out of a little spring-loaded tube (there is an alternate method involving having a Russian throw the cubesat out the airlock, but we did not go that route).
My grandfather died shortly before our first launch. He was the origin of my career (computers) and my interest in math and the sciences, and space in particular. I don’t know where I’d be without him, but it wouldn’t be where I am today. I knew I had to do something in his memory. Initially I was going to put up a small memorial, maybe just electronic, but I knew I had to do something more significant.
I did much of the final integration work on our cubesats. That gave me the opportunity to add his ashes. I sealed a few milligrams of them between two strips of Kapton tape, alongside a small printed “plaque”, and attached it to the bottom plate of the cubesat, below the batteries where no one would be the wiser.
The ISS does not allow human remains onboard, or at least didn’t. So I kept quiet, except to my immediate family. I was not even sure he’d make it to the ISS at all, as there are no hard guarantees about the ride, but getting him to space was enough for me.
Unlike Scotty, my grandfather only spent a few months onboard the ISS (I did not have a Lord British to hide the remains somewhere). After that, the cubesat was sent flying, and remained on orbit for about 9 months (cubesats do not last long at that altitude).
RIP, Grampy.