Posted on 05/02/2007 9:20:58 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Never mind sex in space; what about death up there?
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 2, 2007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back?
When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight?
With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most “Earth-like” planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration. Some of these who-gets-thrown-from-the-lifeboat questions are outlined in a NASA document on crew health obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
NASA doctors and scientists, with help from outside bioethicists and medical experts, hope to answer many of these questions over the next several years.
“As you can imagine, it's a thing that people aren't really comfortable talking about,” said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer. “We're trying to develop the ethical framework to equip commanders and mission managers to make some of those difficult decisions should they arrive in the future.”
One topic that is evidently too hot to handle: How do you cope with sexual desire among healthy young men and women during a mission years long?
Sex is not mentioned in the document and has long been almost a taboo topic at NASA. Williams said the question of sex in space is not a matter of crew health but a behavioral issue that will have to be taken up by others at NASA.
The document does spell out some health policies in detail, such as how much radiation astronauts can be exposed to from space travel (no more radiation than the amount that would increase the risk of cancer by 3 percent over the astronaut's career) and the number of hours crew members should work each week (no more than 48 hours).
But on other topics – such as steps for disposing of the dead and cutting off an astronaut's medical care if he or she cannot survive – the document merely says these are issues for which NASA needs a policy.
“There may come a time in which a significant risk of death has to be weighed against mission success,” Wolpe said. “The idea that we will always choose a person's well-being over mission success, it sounds good, but it doesn't really turn out to be necessarily the way decisions always will be made.”
For now, astronauts and cosmonauts who become critically sick or injured at the International Space Station – something that has never happened – can leave the orbiting outpost 220 miles above Earth and return home within hours aboard a Russian Soyuz space vehicle.
That wouldn't be possible if a life-and-death situation were to arise on a voyage to Mars, where the nearest hospital is millions of miles away.
Moreover, Mars-bound astronauts will not always be able to rely on instructions from Mission Control, since it would take nearly a half-hour for a question to be asked and an answer to come back via radio.
NASA will consider whether astronauts must undergo preventive surgery, such as an appendectomy, to head off medical emergencies during a mission, and whether astronauts should be required to sign living wills with end-of-life instructions.
The space agency also must decide whether to set age restrictions on the crew, and whether astronauts of reproductive age should be required to bank sperm or eggs because of the risk of genetic mutations from radiation exposure during long trips.
Already, NASA is considering genetic screening in choosing crews on the long-duration missions. That is now prohibited.
George Jettison.
Moral relativism raises its ugly head again.
Have they considered freeze drying? Then they could just bring it back. With most of the water gone it would be much lighter and not offend anyone. Might be a bit of a shock if someone opened the wrong closet.
A critically ill astronaut using up precious oxygen is a problem? It’s the same amount that would be available to him had he remained healthy, right?
Emotional health screenings are needed. Remember that romantic triangle with the astronaut who drove in diapers to confront the other woman? Just imagine how things like that would play out in outer space.
Never mind sex? I don’t care what they do with my body after I expire, but we need to focus on the sex thing. Far more important!
JP (Willing to be a test subject for the “How to have sex in space” program)
Not if he was injured during a collision or other systems failure that has put pressure on the oxygen available or able to be converted.
I’m sure they aren’t talking about a critically ill person under normal situation, but say the module is hit by something, and damaged, and people are critically injured during it and systems are harmed/limited as well?
You have to think about every contingency.
Just like they buried Spock in one of the Star Trek movies. Strap him into a photon torpedo and fire him into space accompanied by bagpipe music.
“...For now, astronauts and cosmonauts who become critically sick or injured at the International Space Station – something that has never happened...”
But it happened aboard either Salyut 6 or Salyut 7. One of the Russian commanders got sick, sick enough to have commend transferred to someone else. That mission had to end early. I can’t remember the flight but I remember the incident from reading about it. If I can find the flight, I’ll post it here.
The dead body question is easy: Chuck it out the airlock and call it a burial at sea. (Of course, you’d have to take care that the corpse achieves escape velocity or it will follow you all the way to Mars!)
Failing that, wrap the corpse in a tarp or similar material and secure it to the outside of the orbiter hull until you're about to reenter earth orbit.
Exactly - though you’d probably want to attach a small thruster to the corpse to send it on a course into the sun. (It won’t ever achieve solar escape velocity anyway, and having frozen corpses cluttering up the solar system is a bit disturbing.)
The same way they got rid of dead sailors back in the days of sailing ships.
By "Commiting their remains to the deep."
Only in this case, "the deep" would be deep space.
“Just like they buried Spock in one of the Star Trek movies. Strap him into a photon torpedo and fire him into space accompanied by bagpipe music.”
Is that what that was. I thought it was a gigantic Maui Jim sunglasses case.
Found it. Vitali Mikhailovich Zholobov, who flew aboard Soyuz 21 to Salyut 5, (not 6 or 7), was the cosmonaut I was referencing.
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