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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