What NASA plans to do if an astronaut dies in space

That's a tough one. I would say Sweet Baby Rays, but I doubt if they can fire up the BBQ on the space station. It would get kind of smokey in there and BBQ and microwaves just don't cut the cheese.

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: greencmp

Dehydration would not leave behind waste and we are comprised of somewhere north of 70% water?

Keep in mind that we are talking about a sealed container so, if you heat a vessel of water to evaporate some, despite the change in the state of the matter from liquid to vapor, the whole bottle including its contents will remain the same mass.

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: JadeStar

Hmmmm, so there must be a real reason for this problem besides it being against cosmic law. Perhaps no means to cremate on board?

Gosh, this is both disturbing and perplexing at the same time.

I suspect that when we have things like fusion pulse spacecraft then incineration will be easy (simply release the body into the blast stream) but cremation it will not be since there would be no way of retrieving ashes since the body would be pretty much vaporized instantly.

Space is probably no place for earthly sentimentality regarding the disposal of bodies. Anyone who signs up to go knows that.

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: Xcathdra

I think they are more concerned about death of an astronaut several years into a very long voyage. Is it practical to test in Earth's orbit and get anticipated results comparative to a death in deep space?

I'm starting to wonder if the questions being asked on this topic are geared towards live astronauts dealing with the loss of an astronaut and its emotional and psychological impact than on the deceased themselves.

Burial at sea has been accepted for various reason. I think space would fall into the same category.

They should come up with a couple options and the astronauts should get some say in their own preferred method.


If it was me and we were in orbit I would ask "in will" to be ejected towards earth to let my body incinerate during re-entry. If on a longer voyage my request would be to aim me towards the sun and let er rip. One hell of a Viking funeral.

If we are the stuff of stars then send me home.

the actually main problem we send humans to space in something as snug as a sardine can.

if your ship is the size of a DDG and powered by fusion or fission this is a non issue. If you have a large ship you can have a dedicated medical area on it and that includes a few morgue compartments. maybe someone might want to perform an autopsy on someone who expires in space. something scientific like that. and we sure as heck need to take into account human psychology and customs. particularly on long duration voyages or you are going to have serious issues.

the only reason these clowns need to contemplate something like that is because we currently put people into space in commandeered phone booths.

I thought the body implodes in space? Just let them float off, that's what I would want. I mean are they planning to have space battles with millions of personnel at risk of dying in space or something?

a reply to: antar

Your blood would boil off however I don't think an implosion would occur. As for space its possible the body would be preserved until its gets close to something that would destroy it. Closure for loved ones verse impacts of keeping a body.

a reply to: Xcathdra

The article of this thread speaks directly of a "SIM" to aid in the others on board to deal with the emotional, physiological, and mental loss of one of their own as well as the direction in which to initiate and establish the necessary protocols to handle the body.

a reply to: Grimpachi

What if, instead of burning upon reentry , you would be stuck in rotational orbit for perpetuity?

Your last sentence gave me goosebumps.

if this can be done to data can it be done to objects; like someone in medical distress that is about to die? or has just flat lined?

i obviously mean deep in the future rather than now or in the near term... and yeah i know this is probably just about observation rather than real temporal manipulation. it would probably require gravity control or circuits of relativistic particles to make a real time cloak. i think it could be done. if there is no quantum of time then perhaps by creating the opposite of the dilation effect of objects travelling at near C. might require exotic mass/energy to go on the other side of the number line at zero velocity. but who knows. maybe there is a quantum of time. maybe wheelerand feynman's advanced and retarded wave thing.

www.nature.com...

originally posted by: stormbringer1701
the actually main problem we send humans to space in something as snug as a sardine can.

if your ship is the size of a DDG and powered by fusion or fission this is a non issue. If you have a large ship you can have a dedicated medical area on it and that includes a few morgue compartments. maybe someone might want to perform an autopsy on someone who expires in space. something scientific like that. and we sure as heck need to take into account human psychology and customs. particularly on long duration voyages or you are going to have serious issues.

the only reason these clowns need to contemplate something like that is because we currently put people into space in commandeered phone booths.

"Robert Bigelow, please pick up the white courtesy phone...."

originally posted by: Montana
Burial at sea was the norm when voyages lasted weeks or more. I don't understand why voyages in space would be different. Many old sailors still request burial at sea even though they haven't been near the ocean in years. I'm thinking of it myself.

According to my ex, on submarines, they would store the body in the freezer if there was enough room. If there wasn't room because it was the beginning of the 3-6 tour, then he said hypothetically, the body would be shot out of an empty torpedo tube. While watching Red October, during the scene where they had to seal off a chamber, killing the men inside while the chamber flooded to prevent the submarine from sinking, my ex's cousin turned to me and said you know they can do that while he's on the sub and kill him that way too, right. Nothing like trying to make Navy wife more anxious. LOL

Now admittedly, I don't know how much of the above is just stories to try and spook me and is bunk.

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: Grimpachi

What if, instead of burning upon reentry , you would be stuck in rotational orbit for perpetuity?

Your last sentence gave me goosebumps.

It would be pretty much impossible to stay in orbit. Even satellites fall out of orbit once they run out of fuel. There are traces of atmosphere even if it is minute which slow anything in orbit and when they slow down they fall.

orbit

Anyway, Viking sun burial/cremation seems kind of cool although it wouldn't be so bad to be the first human on Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, etcetera either, even if you were the first dead one.

It would something for the history books.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
They should come up with a couple options and the astronauts should get some say in their own preferred method.


If it was me and we were in orbit I would ask "in will" to be ejected towards earth to let my body incinerate during re-entry. If on a longer voyage my request would be to aim me towards the sun and let er rip. One hell of a Viking funeral.

If we are the stuff of stars then send me home.

Seeing as how fusion is the stuff which fuels the stars the "mini star" at the heart of a fusion rocket would be a just as good in my opinion.

"Ashes to Ashes...Dust to dust...we are all made of star stuff...engage."

originally posted by: Montana
a reply to: Ultralight

After the many thousands of tons of junk that has already been placed in the solar system? Little late for this "cosmic law"!!

That doesn't even count the poor moon we turned into a garbage can! What aliens must think of us!

Failed Lunar Leftovers

List of Artificial Objects on the moon

Being fired into a star seems like the perfect send off to me, much better then becoming worm food.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: stormbringer1701
the actually main problem we send humans to space in something as snug as a sardine can.

if your ship is the size of a DDG and powered by fusion or fission this is a non issue. If you have a large ship you can have a dedicated medical area on it and that includes a few morgue compartments. maybe someone might want to perform an autopsy on someone who expires in space. something scientific like that. and we sure as heck need to take into account human psychology and customs. particularly on long duration voyages or you are going to have serious issues.

the only reason these clowns need to contemplate something like that is because we currently put people into space in commandeered phone booths.

"Robert Bigelow, please pick up the white courtesy phone...."

indeed. i think the problem may go away rather sooner than we think. but if one were to have to face "burial at sea" as it were there are certainly dignified options such as emolation by the sun or "internment" on or in a celestial body. it would however have to be informed by the decedent's or the decedent's families wishes. otherwise it is a gross infraction of human dignity. And there are few things more personal to most people than deciding and executing the final disposition of remains.

on a semi related note here are two 'bots singing Linkin Park's song "In My Remains" acapella harmony style:

Just shoving a body out an air lock would not work as if the space vehicle is travelling 7000mph the body would be travelling at 7000mph at time of ejection. Therefore the body would simply follow the craft to its destination, even if that were thousands of miles.
The only true way to eject a body into space from a craft is to put the body in a container and fit a thrust mechanism to the container to drive it away from the craft. But I don't think that would be an option as any long distance travel in space fuel would be at a premium and not to be wasted on waste.
Sooner rather than later it has to be solve as the odds of everyone surviving really long spave journies would be incredible.
I think the answer would be a sealable body sized container and disolve the corpse in acid. Why disolve the body? They might have to use the container multiple times.
I also think if they can find the right disolver they could use the residue gor fuel.

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: Ultralight
a reply to: greencmp

Excellent point! Does that mean no weight loss/gain either on the long journey?? Not that one would wake up and float to the fridge for that last piece of chocolate cake...

As long as the mass of the whole vehicle remains the same and any fuel expenditures are completely and accurately accounted for.

You could pick up or drop things (not sure what to pick up on the way, maybe the Chinese Mars lander

) en route but, you would have to recalculate the entire journey.

Do0es it really matter? I don't think the Apollo missions followed such a strict "must be a specific weight" protocol.

The Apollo astronauts left waste bags full of their urine, feces, and vomit on the Moon. They also left many other things: their life-support backpacks, boot overshoes, hammers, shovels, cameras, unused film, and more.

Sure -- they also brought rocks back with them, but I don't think they needed to strike some perfect balance between what they left and what they brought back (i.e., they didn't need to hit an exact and specific mass). Granted, they had a limit, but that's not the same thing.