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25 years in space?
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.
Sam |
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25 years in space?
At Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:58 EST samtkc wrote:
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. Well, "decay" in the normal *earthly* understanding implies organic rot, which is a process involving bacteria and/or insects. In a *sterile* space environment, this is not going to happen, at least not for very long (lack of air, too cold, lack of bacteria and/or insects, etc.). Depending on how 'clean' the spaceship is, there will be little or no *organic* decay. Loss of air pressure will affect the body, depending on the sort of space suit (if any) the astronaut is wearing. If he/she is wearing a current issue NASA suit -- the sort the Apollo crews wore -- (basically a reinforced balloon) and if the air leaks out, the body will be a mess. If he/she is wearing a 'skin suit' (sort of like a scuba diver's wet suit, but reinforced with wires and/or heavy duty elasic -- currently under development at MIT for use with the proposed Mars missions), the body will be kept intact (the head in an open 'fish bowl' helmet might be a different issue). If the astronaut is NOT wearing a space suit, then when the air leaks out of the ship (25 years is plenty of time for some high speed grain of sand to punch a hold somewhere), the body will be a decompressed mess. Oh, under hard vacume, the 'water' (most of a body's mass is water), will have boiled off. Sam -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 / Deepwoods Software -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ () ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail /\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments |
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25 years in space?
1.12.2012 0:44, Robert Heller kirjoitti:
At Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:58 EST wrote: Depending on how 'clean' the spaceship is, there will be little or no *organic* decay. Never mind the spaceship it's the astronaut that will not be clean enough; most of decomposition will happen because of the growth of natural bacterias that people carry inside thir guts. Assuming the body remains in pressurized environment it will decompose unless the humidity is very low in which case it will mummify. If the suit or ship is in near vacuum the situation is slightly different and will lead to a different kind of mummification (freeze drying). H Tavaila |
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25 years in space?
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". Of course, I'm not an expert here. But then again, who is? ;-) Jeff -- "the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer |
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25 years in space?
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 -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 / Deepwoods Software -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ () ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail /\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments |
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25 years in space?
On 11/30/2012 4:08 PM, samtkc wrote:
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. Sam Don't know about 25 years, but Geoffrey Landis occasionally posts to the sci.space.... groups and has this interesting link (at least for shorter term effects with some references based on animal studies): http://www.geoffreylandis.com/vacuum.html Dave |
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25 years in space?
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