- NASA has no established procedures for dealing with astronaut deaths in space
- But researchers around the world have uncovered how such tragedies play out.
With NASA aiming to return humans to the moon in the late decade and possibly Mars in the 2030s, much speculation has been put on how humans will survive long-distance space travel. will be needed.
But what if the unthinkable happens and someone dies?
In 60 years of manned spaceflight, a total of 20 people have died. Fourteen astronauts died in the 1986 and 2003 NASA space shuttle tragedies, three astronauts in the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission, and three astronauts in the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire. .
However, not a single person was actually killed in the universe itself.
NASA doesn’t have a set way to deal with death in space, but researchers around the world have suggested how such tragedies can be dealt with.
First of all, it’s important to point out that there are many ways the universe can kill you.
The biggest of these is exposure to the vacuum of space without a compression suit. This is probably due to the exposure of the astronauts to space due to damage to the pressurized suit or an unexpected failure of the spacecraft.
Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station (ISS), gives an example.
“In the worst-case scenario, something would happen during the spacewalk,” he says.
“Suddenly, a micrometeorite could hit us, and we can’t do anything about it.
“It can puncture your suit and incapacitate you within seconds.”
Emmanuel Urquieta, a professor of space medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says exposure to the vacuum of space can make it impossible for a person to breathe and can cause blood and other bodily fluids to boil.
With astronauts likely to lose consciousness in only 15 seconds, suffocation or decompression would be the most likely cause of death.
In about 10 seconds, the water in your skin and blood evaporates, and your body expands like an air-filled balloon, collapsing your lungs.
If not already dead, the astronaut would be paralyzed within 30 seconds.
Even if you hold your breath, the speed of death will change.
When this happens, the air in the lungs expands, causing the lungs to rupture and causing immediate death. Otherwise, you may remain conscious for up to 2 minutes.
So what happens to your body when the worst happens?
Well, it won’t freeze any time soon.
The only way heat is lost in a vacuum is through evaporation of fluids or through radiation, but in relatively cold objects like the human body this happens very slowly.
But it eventually ends up in a frozen, mummified state, after which it probably travels through space for millions of years, until one day it encounters another planet or star and is destroyed by heat and radiation. .
But what if your body could recover?
Experts say any fatalities during short-term missions to the ISS, moon, etc. are likely to be carried back to Earth.
But on a trip to Mars and back, that wouldn’t be possible any time soon, as the crew could be millions of miles away when that happens.
Instead, the bodies could be frozen in the cold of space to reduce weight and make them easier to store on the way back to Earth, according to professors Christopher Newman and Nick Caplan of Northumbria University.
If not, Urquieta said, it would have to be kept in a special body bag.
He said cremation would not be possible on Mars.Too much energy is required by the surviving crew for other purposes. ”
Burial is also not an option. Bacteria and other organisms from human remains could contaminate Mars.
According to Katherine Conley of NASA’s Office for Planetary Protection, NASA actually has strict laws regarding the contamination of other planets by Earth microbes.
She said that they would all have to be killed, so cremation would be revived, but the most likely outcome would be to keep the bodies inside the spacecraft until they can be brought back to Earth.
So how is death on Mars or the Moon different from what happens en route to such a destination?
Well, it would have been very similar if the astronauts weren’t wearing space suits to protect themselves.
That’s because our lunar satellite has very little atmosphere and Mars is a very thin satellite with very little oxygen.
There is also the danger of radiation.
Previous data from the Red Plant suggests that it is receiving 700 times more radiation than experienced on Earth.
Radiation can alter the cardiovascular system, damaging the heart, hardening and narrowing arteries, and removing some of the cells lining blood vessels, causing cardiovascular disease and even death. There is a nature.
All of these factors must be taken into consideration for any future manned mission to Mars.
But for now, NASA is focused on returning a human boot to the Moon by 2025 as part of the Artemis program.