What happens if someone dies in space?

How to handle death in space depends on distance from Earth and many other factors.

Since space exploration began more than 60 years ago, 20 people have died, including 14 in NASA's space shuttle tragedies in 1986 and 2003, three astronauts on the Soyuz 11 mission in 1971, and three astronauts in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in 1967. Given the complexity of manned spaceflight, such a low death toll is remarkable, according to Science Alert .

However, NASA is planning to send crews to the Moon by 2025 and to Mars in the next decade. Commercial flights are becoming more frequent. As space travel becomes more common, the likelihood of people dying along the way increases. The question is, if someone dies in space, what happens to the body? Emmanuel Urquieta , professor of space medicine and emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine who specializes in astronaut health maintenance, explains how to handle such a situation.

If someone dies on a mission in low Earth orbit, like the International Space Station, the crew can bring the body back to Earth in a capsule within hours. If it happens in lunar orbit, they can bring the body back within days. NASA has detailed procedures for such events. Because of the ability to return to Earth quickly, preserving the body is not NASA’s biggest concern. Instead, the top priority is ensuring the remaining crew members return safely to Earth.

The situation would be different if the astronaut died during the 300-million-mile journey to Mars. In that case, the crew would not be able to return to Earth and continue on. Instead, the body would likely return to Earth with the crew at the end of the mission, about two years later. In the meantime, the crew would store the body in a separate chamber or in a special bag. In theory, the constant temperature and humidity inside the spacecraft would help preserve the body.

But all of these measures apply only to people who die in pressurized environments like stations or spacecraft. What happens if a person enters space without a spacesuit? The astronaut will die almost instantly. The loss of pressure and exposure to the vacuum of space will make it impossible for the astronaut to breathe, and his blood and other bodily fluids will boil.

If astronauts landed on the Moon or Mars without protective gear, what would the process be like? The Moon has almost no atmosphere. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, almost no oxygen. The results would be similar to exposure to space: suffocation and boiling blood. If an astronaut were to die after landing on the surface of Mars, cremation would be undesirable because it would require too much energy that the surviving crew would need for other purposes. Burial would also be undesirable because bacteria and other organisms from the human body could contaminate the Martian surface. Instead, the crew would likely preserve the body in a special bag before returning it to Earth.

An Khang (According to Science Alert )

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