(NewsNation) — A new company is making it possible for companies to send just about anything into space, with the exception of people, as an advertising move.
Sent in Space was founded by Chris Rose, who told NewsNation it took a lot of work to get to the point where the company is the go-to for anyone who wants to send something into space.
“A lot of our R&D work was focused on more of the sort of testing of ruggedized technology that was designed for use in space,” he said.
Items the company has sent into space include a baby stroller, a chicken nugget, a Barbie, a wedding dress, a portrait of William Shakespeare and a Slurpee.
“We’ve been asked for some pretty unusual things,” Rose said.
However, Rose said his proudest achievements include scientific discovery.
“We did a mission where we had to design a craft to explore a portion of the upper atmosphere, take a sample of that, and be returned to work for scientific analysis under a microscope,” he said. “And within that, we found a very startling discovery, which was an example of very simple organic life, what’s called a diatom.”
The cost of launching a product into space? It varies, but it’s not cheap. Rose said it depends on the complexity of the request. For example, sending a can of Coca Cola into space as compared to sending the drink into space and having robotics to open the can and pour it out.
“Generally speaking, it can range from the low thousands to hundreds of thousands,” he said.
