The date is July 22nd, 1969, and for the last
twenty one hours and thirty six minutes, America
and the world at large has been glued to its
television sets, watching the incredible exploits
of humanity’s first steps on another world.
The culmination of thousands of years of mankind's
dreams and fantasies to reach past the bonds
of earth and touch the heavens, the American
moon landing has ushered in a new age for
humanity, and signaled the first brave steps
of our civilization into the universe.
Live updates on the mission have poured over
televisions and radios around the world, and
from time to time glimpses of this historic
mission have made their way back home to Earth.
Now the world awaits the return of these bravest
of men, ready to be welcomed back home not
just as American heroes, but heroes for all
the world.
Suddenly though, television screens all over
the globe cut from the non-stop news coverage
of the historic moon landing to the White
House, where a somber looking President Nixon
stares directly into the camera.
With a faltering start, he clears his throat
and begins to speak.
“Fate has ordained that the men who went
to the moon to explore in peace, will stay
on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin
Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their
recovery.
But they also know that there is hope for
mankind in their sacrifice.”
The president continues, finally nearing the
end of his speech.
“In ancient days, men looked at stars and
saw their heroes in the constellations.
In modern times, we do much the same, but
our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow and surely find their way
home.
Man's search will not be denied.
But these men were the first, and they will
remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the
moon in the nights to come will know that
there is some corner of another world that
is forever mankind.”
The screen cuts to the massive mission control
room in NASA, the place where the hopes and
dreams of every nation on earth has rested
for the last six days.
With battery power failing on the lunar lander,
communications with the men trapped on the
moon are near an end.
Finally, the two brave astronauts make their
final goodbye to their loved ones and the
world at large, imploring that the world should
not mourn for them but be inspired for their
many accomplishments.
The radio cuts out.
The lander's gone dark.
Trapped on the surface of the moon, the men
will continue to have a few hours worth of
oxygen, but will soon suffocate- if they don't
freeze to death first.
On TV screens around the world, a priest appears
live from inside the historic St. John's Episcopal
Church in Washington D.C.
The Father commends the souls of Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin to the deepest of the deep,
much as if he were conducting a burial at
sea for fallen sailors.
Then, he finishes with the Lord's prayer.
The previous scenario was a very real possibility,
and a carefully crafted response should the
historic Apollo 11 suffer some form of catastrophic
failure and be unable to return to the earth.
Given the incredible number of unknowns involved
in the mission, from the suitability of the
lunar surface for a heavy lander to touch
down on, to unknown environmental hazards
on the moon and their effects on men and equipment,
NASA and the American government had made
every preparation for the first manned moon
landing to end in disaster.
The real Apollo 11 of course ended in a historic
victory for all mankind, and signaled America's
triumph over its Soviet rivals in the space
race.
Yet at many points throughout the mission
failure was only ever a heartbeat away.
For example, when the lander undocked from
the command module, the lander received a
tiny bit of thrust from venting gases in the
docking tunnel.
While minor, in the weightless state of the
spacecraft in orbit, this small amount of
thrust actually placed the lander four nautical
miles away from the point it was supposed
to be when it was to begin its descent burn.
In turn, this placed the planned landing site
amidst a dangerous boulder field on the rim
of a crater.
Armstrong was famously forced to 'eyeball'
the landing and burned his fuel reserves dangerously
low in doing so, but found a suitable landing
spot nonetheless.
What if the astronauts had died on the moon
though?
What if you died in space today?
What would happen to your body, and how would
NASA respond?
If Armstrong and Aldrin had died on the moon,
there were already plans in the US government
to designate the site an official memorial.
That meant that the site would be off limits
to anybody else in the future.
In essence, the astronaut's bodies would remain
forever undisturbed inside their spacecraft
for all eternity- or at least until the sun
swallows the earth and moon up as it becomes
a red giant one day.
Even in some far off future where the US or
other nations had a significant lunar presence,
recovery of the bodies would be off-limits.
How much would be left of the bodies is debatable
though.
If the lunar module had not suffered any penetration
of its hull, and the astronauts died say because
of a power failure or a failure to ignite
their ascent engine and return to the command
module, then there would remain an atmosphere
within the lunar module.
This would also be true if the astronauts
had simply stayed inside their space suits.
In that case, bacteria would have begun to
decompose the body much the same as they do
here on earth, using up the remaining oxygen
in the atmosphere.
There may not have been enough oxygen to keep
humans alive, but there would have been enough
for bacteria to thrive for a short while.
When the oxygen ran out however, bacterial
respiration would switch to fermentation,
and the process of decomposing would continue
much as on earth.
At least for a short while.
The lunar lander was equipped with multiple
layers of mylar insulation to help keep the
heat of the sun from cooking the astronauts
to death and destroying sensitive equipment,
while other parts that wanted to receive warmth
from the sun were coated in darker, more heat-absorbent
materials.
This ultimately would have seen the lunar
lander very quickly go cold, and as the lander
froze on the inside so would the astronauts.
How much decomposition would take place before
all bacteria froze or suffocated to death
is unknown, but the remains would likely remain
very recognizable to future archaeologists
who visited the site.
What happens though if you died on a space
walk?
Let's say you're hanging on the outside of
the international space station, and suddenly
through some error you're blown clear of the
ISS.
With no hope of rescue, you suffocate within
a few short hours.
In this scenario, bacteria would begin to
consume you much the same as in the moon scenario,
as your suit will still retain an atmosphere
for bacteria to thrive in.
Eventually the bacteria would die off, though
you would probably remain pretty warm for
a long time as your remains would remain exposed
to sunlight.
While 'space' itself is cold, objects can
be pretty warm thanks to the non-stop glare
of the sun, and the lack of an atmosphere
means that heat cannot be easily leached away
the same way it does here on earth.
On a chilly winter day your body's heat is
steadily leached away by the atmosphere it's
constantly in contact with, but in a vacuum
there is no medium to wick heat away from
your body.
This is why heat management is vitally important
for all spacecraft and satellites.
Eventually though the blast of never-ending
radiation from the sun and passing cosmic
rays would begin to destroy the integrity
of your space suit.
Over the course of a few months to a few years
the space suit will eventually suffer a structural
failure, and with your suit being full of
your decomposing gases, it will promptly explode
as air rapidly expands due to the leak.
You'll then litter your personal orbit with
chunky bits of your leftover flesh and space
suit both, like a gross overripe meat balloon
that burst open.
Space is risky business, and NASA has already
planned on what to do about fatalities during
one of its missions.
During the age of the space shuttle, a crew
fatality would be dealt with much in the same
way that a current fatality would be handled
aboard the International Space Station.
The dead crew member would be very quickly
placed inside a pressurized space suit and
sealed inside, then moved to the coldest part
of the space craft for storage.
This would be done to protect the rest of
the crew and ship from contamination, and
because dead bodies are... well, if you've
ever been around anyone who's died then you
know it can be a messy affair- even if they
die peacefully.
In a zero g environment you really don't want
to be dealing with the waste, stomach contents,
and gases that will be voiding from the corpse.
Aboard the space shuttle the body would then
simply be returned to earth for a proper burial.
Aboard the ISS though, things would be a little
bit trickier as obviously the crew can't return
whenever they feel like it.
There the body would likely be moved to an
airlock so it could remain as cold as possible
and preserved for a proper burial back home,
and then could be placed inside one of the
unmanned resupply craft that routinely visit
the ISS.
On a longer voyage though, like say a trip
to Mars, NASA has to be prepared to handle
crew fatalities as well.
While astronauts are carefully selected to
avoid any potential health issues that could
cause a space fatality, sometimes tragedy
is simply unpredictable, and there are plenty
of hazards already out there in space waiting
to claim lives.
An extremely long duration mission such as
a trip to Mars is rife with possibilities
for disaster, and fatalities must be planned
for.
In this situation how to deal with the fatality
would likely fall on the mission commander.
Much like in the ISS, a fatality could simply
be stored in a suit and then kept in an airlock,
but mission constraints may not make that
a feasible option.
With such a long-duration mission there is
simply no way that the crew could keep the
body around indefinitely, both for practical
reasons such as possible contamination from
a suit failure, but also for morale reasons.
In this event, simply jettisoning the body
into space may be necessary.
The spacecraft itself would likely be in an
orbit which would have it enter partially
into the Martian atmosphere in order to help
it slow down enough to get caught by Mars’
gravity, instead of simply being sling-shotted
into orbit around the sun again.
This means that the body would likely burn
up in the Martian atmosphere, being much lighter
and smaller than the spacecraft itself, so
if the astronauts wanted the body to have
any chance of recovery by future space travelers,
then it would have to be ejected with enough
force to alter its trajectory and avoid burning
up in Mars’ atmosphere.
As long as the spacecraft was far enough away
from Mars, this could be very easily accomplished
and require minimal thrust.
The body would thus remain in orbit around
the sun, and in a century or two could be
recoverable by future space archeologists
wishing to give it a proper burial.
If you were to die on the surface of another
planet though, then much like dying enroute
there what happens to you would likely end
up being the choice of the mission commander.
If feasible, you may be stuffed into a suit
and returned with the rest of the astronauts
for burial at home, but likely whatever foreign
body you happened to be on at the time would
end up being your permanent resting place.
In order to avoid contaminating another planet
with earth life though, your body would need
to be thoroughly cremated- something which
may prove difficult to do on an early mission
to Mars or another planet, but which would
be critical.
Someone, someday, is bound to die during a
space mission, and what to do with their remains
when they do is of vital importance- not just
for the safety and comfort of the crew, but
for the bereaved family members back home
and the world whose hopes and dreams rested
in them.
Hopefully we won't have to find out what NASA
actually does with a dead crew member in space
for a long time, but it's good to know that
we are at least prepared to handle this eventuality.
What do you think should be done with bodies
in space?
Let us know in the comments!
And then watch “3 Men Stuck In Space When
An Oxygen Tank Exploded - This Is How They
Survived.”
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