I really didn’t have this one on my list of things to think about in 2024, but here we are. In a nutshell, a private firm is launching a small craft designed to land on the moon containing 66 human remains and DNA. The Navajo Nation is objecting because they, and many other native peoples, believe the moon is sacred, and according to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, “The suggestion of transforming it into a resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people and many other tribal nations.” They’ve asked President Biden to prevent the launch.
Admittedly my first reaction was to scoff at the Navajo’s objections, but as a general rule I think it’s ideal to at least consider any objections when they’re raised. I’m take it at face value that the Navajo and other groups considered the moon sacred, but I’m not sure that means their objections should be heeded. No one person or culture owns the moon, so I imagine there’s a myriad of opinions about this.
I’m fine with groups leaving human remains on the moon. It’s not the best use of resources in my opinion, but if that’s something people want to spend their money on, go for it.
My first reaction to all such commentary is a reminder that the Navajo are not a monolithic entity, and what some of them say (even if one is the President) may not be any more representative of consensus Navajo beliefs and priorities than what Trump said about injecting bleach was representative of your beliefs. It may be true that this is deeply offensive to a large number of people, but I’m skeptical. Well-meaning White people have a tendency to want to latch onto any opportunity to “show respect”, without bothering to find out if it’s something the majority of Navajo people could give a shit about compared to much more pressing life issues.
NASA had a namby-pamby bureaucratic response. The company Celestis had a better one:
“The regulatory process that approves space missions does not consider compliance with the tenets of any religion in the process for obvious reasons. No individual religion can or should dictate whether a space mission should be approved,”
“No one, and no religion, owns the moon, and, were the beliefs of the world’s multitude of religions considered, it’s quite likely that no missions would ever be approved,”
“Simply, we do not and never have let religious beliefs dictate humanity’s space efforts — there is not and should not be a religious test.”
(I imagine that at this point a microphone was dropped.)
The Najavo don’t own the Moon, any particular religious belief of theirs is not binding on the rest of the human race for all of time, and it is not an appropriate function of the US government to interfere in legal activity because it offends someone’s religion.
I agree with them, and if NASA had said that I would have no quibble. But their patronizing dismissal of religious belief while characterizing of what they are doing as a “space mission” is a little dubious. Why does the location of these pieces of hydroxyapatite and dessicated protein matter to anyone? Is a concern for the continued existence or physical location of human remains any less superstitious than religious belief?
ETA: I think I should withdraw this comment. I gather these human remains are just a small part of the payload, helping to finance a mission with other significant objectives.
I think the best resolution should be for the spacecraft to also carry a miniature replica of Piss Christ, a little statue of Muhammad and an all-beef patty. And the NASA controller can even say a little prayer before the launch to annoy atheists in case we are feeling left out.
I think the Navajo have a decent point: shipping human remains to the moon is tacky, gimmicky, and will someday be heavily promoted in all likelihood. It also supports space exploration, to a certain extent.
The “stuff” is actually protected, and NASA has already given some thought to the matter. The general idea in broad terms is to prevent space tourism directly at the Apollo landing sites and others, no artifacts be removed, etc. Sort of a “no fly” zone.
Grand Canyon National Park abuts Navajo Nation lands at the confluence of the Colorado River with the Little Colorado River. Navajo representatives (along with others) have always asserted that the confluence is an important and sacred site. Yet when large amounts of money were dangled by developers, this disgusting monstrosity was almost built, a massive tramway from rim to river in Marble Gorge:
The conclusion is not that Navajo people are hypocritical - in the end, the project was canceled through internal lobbying by Navajo people who care about the environment and/or are sincere in their religious beliefs about the confluence. The correct conclusion is that the Navajo people are not some monolithic entity, any more than any other nation, and with specific issues like this I think it’s mistaken and patronizing to treat them as such. With respect to the Grand Canyon, I’m not an “ally of the Navajo” whatever that might mean, I ally with whatever subset of Navajo and non-Navajo people do not want to desecrate the greatest geological wonder on Earth with some hyper-commercial monstrosity.
And I have a strong suspicion that while there is a subset who take traditional beliefs very seriously, the majority of Navajo people would find the whole notion of “desecrating the moon” as silly as anyone else. I don’t think it’s necessarily disrespectful to “the Navajo Nation” to say that superstition should not govern space exploration. I suspect that many or most Navajo people probably feel the same way, in my experience they are on average no more superstitious than anyone else.
It’s also worth noting that, as per the CNN article, the ship has already sailed - Eugene Shoemaker’s remains have been on the Moon since 1999.
The only way you’re going to prevent human remains from ending up there is to ban humans from ever landing on the Moon ever again, which simply isn’t practical.
Granted it’s true that like all people the Navajo are not a monolothic block. However, if they have a president pushing a particular position, there’s a good chance it’s something a significant portion of them care about. Trump bloviates nothing but garbage, but a significant number of Americans buy into that garbage and practically see him as a saint. Not all of us to be sure, but a significant number of us.
I’m kind of with you on this one. If it was the Latter Day Saints, Sufi Muslims, or a Buddhist would the White House feel the need to have a meeting? I kind of doubt it.
I mean, yes and no. Yes I’m sure the President is correct and sincere in describing this as something that’s part of traditional Navajo beliefs, while it’s not something that’s part of (say) traditional Christian beliefs. What that doesn’t speak to is how many people in his community really take this aspect of those beliefs seriously, how many would think “desecrating the moon” is something anyone should seriously be concerned about. Politically, if it’s something 10% of people care about, he can use this to score points with them, while it doesn’t really cost him anything with the 90% who would shrug or laugh.
Good to see that Elysium Space is still kicking. They bought space on our cubesat years ago (2015). I machined the bracket that held the module in place (not to mention a bunch of other cubesat-related stuff).
Kind of a funny story. Consumers bought ~1 cm^3 cremains containers from Elysium. Elysium assembled ~60 of them together into a holder thing. They purchased about 20% of our 1U cubesat (the rest used for our cameras, etc.). Our 1U cubesat was fit inside a 6U cubesat, getting the slot in exchange for doing the FCC paperwork. Finally, the 6U cubesat was a secondary payload on the rocket, with HiakaSat being the primary. So, the payloads had something like five levels of nesting.
Unfortunately, the rocket (the Super Strypi) failed. I think the cremains might have just made it to space, though not to orbit.
Across the entire human race there are a multitude of customs, beliefs, and taboos around the dead. Pretty much any of them you can name will grievously offend some parties. It is impossible to accommodate everyone because there are too many contradictory beliefs.
It’s all irrational in that none of it is from reason, it’s largely emotion based. It is a fact that humans have emotions, often quite strong ones, and they motivate humans at least as much, likely more, than pure reason and logic do. The location of human remains matters a LOT to most people even if you, personally, are not so moved.
To YOU it’s nothing much. The Navajo have their set of beliefs around death and the deceased just like everyone else and they are just as deserving of respect as anyone else’s. They are not “silly”, just different than yours but by all means dismiss another culture entirely [/sarcasm]. It’s not a good look on you.
That said - “deserving of respect” is not the same as “impeding others who do not share the same beliefs”. So I don’t think Navajo beliefs should constrain space flight, but that can be done without dismissing the traditions of a historically oppressed minority as “silly” which is just not cool.
Note: I am aware not all Navajo think the same on any subject, but the traditions and taboos around dead are probably majority beliefs in that community, just as traditions and beliefs around, say, how to treat the dead, show respect, and cemeteries being special places are in maintain Christian America. Imagine if someone wanted to erect a factory in the middle of a national cemetary - the outcry would be no less “silly” but I’m pretty sure no one would use the word “silly” to describe the likely reaction from most citizens.
No, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t in this case. The US’s history with Native peoples is different than these other groups, to say the least.
Does that mean they should acquiesce to their request? No. But it is a public relations thing they need to deal with, and involving the White House is a great way of showing they’re taking it seriously.