At Mon, 3 Dec 2012 21:56:47 EST Jeff Findley wrote:


In article , samtkc.afd7a18
@spacebanter.com says...

I hope this question is not too far afield (or too morbid), but does
anyone know what would happen to a dead body after 25 years of drifting
in space inside a spaceship? I am writing a story that includes the
possibility of a astronaut dying while on a mission and his spaceship
drifting for 25 years before it is found. I would appreciate any
suggestions about how a body would decay in this situation.

Depends on the conditions inside the spacecraft. If it vented its
atmosphere, you'd find a dessicated corpse, not a rotten one. If the
vessel still had an atmosphere, some amount of rot would definitely take
place, at least until the available O2 in the atmosphere was used up.
If the spacecraft continued to supply O2 (e.g. it didn't know to stop
doing this), I'd imagine the decomposition to be similar to what you'd
see "on the ground".

It would also depend on the availability of blowfly eggs, etc. If
*only* the astronaut's gut bacteria is available, decomposition won't be
the same as "on the ground". Oh, not only would the O2 supply be
needed, so would a suitable temp. *AND* humidity -- space is normally very
cold and dry. Note that to supply O2 for *25 years* is going to need
some sort of atmosphere recycling system or a very large supply of O2 to
begin with. Neither are likely with *current* spacecraft tech.


Of course, I'm not an expert here. But then again, who is? ;-)

Jeff

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