THE NEW HORIZONS SPACE PROBE carried 30 grams of Clyde Tombaugh's ashes to commemorate Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto in 1930. The package is no different in its information content than 30 grams of cigarette ashes, since Tombaugh's unique genetic information was burnt up and never loaded on board. A proper celebration of Tombaugh's historic contribution could have taken the form of an electronic record of his DNA. The Principal Investigator of the mission, Alan Stern, told me that sending a stem cell with Tombaugh's genetic making would have triggered a bureaucratic nightmare at NASA. The challenge is even bigger for launching a complete human being in the form of an astronaut to a journey in space that lasts more than a few years.