Tuesday, 29 August 2023 – 10:09 WIB
LIVE Techno – Sending humans into space is a very difficult and dangerous proposition. Since human space exploration began more than 60 years ago, 20 people have died.
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Those who experienced this unfortunate event included 14 people in the NASA space shuttle tragedies in 1986 and 2003, three cosmonauts during the Soyuz 11 mission in 1971 and three astronauts in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in 1967.
The Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to send crews to the Moon in 2025 and astronauts to Mars in the next decade.
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What Happens If Someone Dies in Space?
Commercial space flights will become routine. As space travel became more common, the chances of someone dying en route also increased.
This brings to mind the bleak but necessary question to ask, if someone dies in space, what happens to their body?
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According to Emmanuel Urquieta, 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.
Astronauts working outside the International Space Station (ISS).
But if it did happen on the Moon, the crew could be home with the body in just a few days. NASA already has detailed protocols for such events.
Due to the speedy return, it is unlikely that preservation of the remains will not be a major concern for NASA. Instead, the top priority is ensuring the remaining crew return safely to Earth.
The situation would be different if an astronaut died en route 300 million miles to Mars, according to the Science Alert page, Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
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 may store the bodies in separate rooms or special body bags. Stable temperature and humidity inside the spacecraft would theoretically help preserve the body.
But all of these scenarios only apply if someone dies in a pressurized environment, such as a space station or spacecraft.
Astronauts would die instantly if they left without the protection of their spacesuits. The loss of pressure and exposure to a vacuum would render the astronauts unable to breathe. Blood and other body fluids will boil.
A shroud covering the face of a corpse on Planet Mars.
What would happen if an astronaut went out to the Moon or Mars without a spacesuit? The moon has almost no atmosphere, while Mars has a very thin atmosphere and almost no oxygen. So the result is almost the same as exposure in open space, namely suffocation and boiling blood.
Suppose an astronaut dies after landing while on the surface of Mars. Cremation was undesirable as it required too much of the surviving crew’s energy for other purposes. Burials aren’t a great idea either. Bacteria and other organisms from the body could contaminate the surface of Mars.
Instead, the crew will likely store the body in a special body bag until it can be returned to Earth.
Much remains unknown about how explorers will deal with death. It’s not just a question of what to do with the body.
Helping the crew cope with loss, and helping grieving families return to Earth, is just as important as handling the bodies of the deceased.
But to actually colonize another world – whether the Moon, Mars, or a planet outside our solar system – this dire scenario requires careful planning and protocol.
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But if it did happen on the Moon, the crew could be home with the body in just a few days. NASA already has detailed protocols for such events.
2023-08-29 03:09:02
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