I would say that sending him
to Jupiter is appropriate, enlightened, and the highest honor".

I would think a true scientist would have considered it a rather useless
payload which may have displaced a useful experiment (unless of course the
experiment was to examine the effects of interplanetary space travel on
ashes)

My bet is someone sitting around said, we have a payload capability of 156
pounds, 3 ounces. The payload came in at 156 pounds and 2 ounces. They
then said (with family's permission) Let's put an ounce of Gene aboard.

There you have it. ;-}
--
Jim in NC