Saturday, 24 February 2024 – 12:04 WIB
LIVE Techno – The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA plans to send a crew to the Moon in 2025 and Mars in the next decade.
Sending humans into space is an extremely difficult and dangerous proposition. As space travel becomes more common, the chance of someone dying on the journey also increases.
This reminds us of the grim but necessary question to ask, if someone dies in space, what happens to their body?
Capsules
NASA plans to build a house on the moon
According to Emmanuel Urquieta, a space medical doctor, if someone dies on a low-Earth orbit mission – such as on the International Space Station (ISS) – the crew can return the body to Earth in a capsule within hours.
But, if that happened on the Moon, the crew could return home with the bodies in just a few days. NASA already has detailed protocols for such events.
Due to the quick return, it is likely that preservation of the remains will not be a major concern. Instead, the top priority is ensuring the remaining crew return safely to Earth.
The situation would be different if an astronaut died on the 300 million mile journey to Mars, according to the page Science Alert.
In that scenario, the crew might not be able to return. Instead, the remains will likely return to Earth with the crew at the end of the mission, which is several years later.
Meanwhile, the crew will probably store the bodies in separate rooms or special body bags. Stable temperature and humidity inside a space vehicle would theoretically help preserve the body.
However, all of these scenarios only apply if someone dies in a pressurized environment, such as the ISS or a spacecraft.
NASA is now developing body bags that can preserve spacecraft remains for 48 to 72 hours – enough time for them to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).
This is so that when space flights explore further from Earth, NASA has prepared mission death procedures, according to Live Science.
An example of a burial shroud on Planet Mars made of silk.
Bioengineer JJ Hastings and fashion designer Pia Interlandi are carrying out a project to make burial shrouds using silk that can be recycled by humans outside Earth.
This shroud is prepared when humans travel to the planet Mars or the Moon, as reported by Space.
Silk material is known to be comfortable when worn and light. Because previously, if someone died in space, their body would be thrown out of the spaceship through a special door or airlock.
Pia Interlandi said that this material, made from silkworm protein, would also be easy to wear on the body of a stiff corpse.
Meanwhile, JJ Hastings admitted that this concept was actually to save space so that astronauts would continue to carry it and not interfere with other things.
This silk shroud has four layers and is claimed to be 100 percent biodegradable so the body will also decompose more easily without additional waste.
The first layer is underwear. Then on top is a cloth that is for decoration, semi-transparent which is also made of silk, the color at the top is white and as the bottom fades to dark grey.
Then, the third layer is thin silk to wrap and cover the face. And the last or fourth layer is clothing which includes a veil like a blanket which is still made of simple silk, but looks like a large and thick cloth.
2024-02-24 05:04:01
#Silk #Shrouds #Wrap #Bodies #Space
