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What happens to man if he dies in space?
20 pioneers have died in space since its exploration began six decades ago.
This included 14 at NASA's space
- shuttle tragedies in 1986 and 2003
- three astronauts during the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission
- and three astronauts at the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in 1967.
However
none of them were killed in space itself.
NASA has not established protocols to deal with death in space
but researchers around the world have put forward how to deal with such a tragedy.
First of all :
- it is important to point out that there are a number of
- ways in which they can be killed in space.
- One of the most important is exposure to
space vacuum without wearing a compressed suit as protection.
Canadian astronaut
and former ISS commander Chris Hadfield provides an example.
He said:
In the worst case scenario
something happens during a spacewalk.
You might suddenly hit a little meteor, and there's nothing you can do about it.
A hole in your suit can occur, and in a few seconds you will become incapacitated.
Exposure to :
a space vacuum will make it impossible
for a person to breathe and lead to boiling of blood and other body fluids
according to Emmanuel Urqueta
Professor of Space Medicine at the Baylor School of Medicine.
The astronaut is likely to have only 15 seconds before losing consciousness
making asphyxiation or pressure relief the most likely cause of death.
This is because within about 10 seconds :
the water in the skin and blood will evaporate
causing the body to stretch like an air-filled balloon that breaks down the lungs.
Within 30 seconds, the astronaut would be paralysed, if not already dead.
Whether you hold your breath or not
it will also make a difference in how quickly you die.
And if you do ;
- the air in the lungs will stretch
- tear it apart, and kill you very quickly.
So :
if the worst happens
what happens to the body?
Well, it won't freeze right away. In a vacuum
the only way to lose heat is to evaporate fluid
or radiation :
which happens very slowly for a relatively cold body like the human body.
However :
it will eventually enter a frozen :
and stuffed state where it will then sail through the universe for millions of years until one day it marks another planet or star to destroy the heat or radiation that remains.
What if your body can recover?
Experts say it is likely to be returned to Earth if there is a death on
a short mission to places such as the International Space Station or the Moon.
But on a round trip to Mars :
it won't be immediately possible because
the crew may be millions of miles away when that happens.
Instead :
the object can be frozen in space cooler to :
reduce its weight and facilitate its storage on the way back to our planet
according to Professor Christopher Newman
and Professor Nick Kaplan of Northumbria University.
It is said that cremation will not be possible on the red planet because it
"requires much of the energy that the surviving crew needs for other purposes".
Burial is also :
not an option because bacteria
and other organisms from human remains can contaminate Mars.
NASA :
has strict laws on polluting other planets with Earth's microbes
according to Catherine Conley of NASA's Planetary Protection Bureau.
So how is death on Mars :
or the moon different from it happening on the way to this destination?
Well :
it would be a very similar result if :
- the astronaut didn't have a spacesuit to protect him.
- That's because our moon has no atmosphere at all
- and it's also very thin without oxygen on Mars.
There is also the risk of radiation. Previous data on
the red planet indicate that it has been exposed 700 times to the Earth's radiation.
Radiation can alter :
- the cardiovascular system
- damage the heart
- stiffen the arteries
or eliminate some cells in vascular linings
leading to cardiovascular disease and possibly death.
However :
NASA is currently focusing on the return of
humans to the Moon by 2025 as part of its Artemis program.
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