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.
Yeah, like Mr. Bobblehead. :^)
ping
Related...
Documents: Astronauts say Nowak smart but selfish
05:16 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla.—Fellow astronauts described Lisa Nowak as smart, hardworking and a good mother, but also selfish and unwilling to perform tasks for which she hadn’t trained, according to documents released Tuesday by the state attorney’s office.
That glimpse into the astronaut’s life was found in hundreds of pages of documents that include summaries of interviews with four astronauts following Nowak’s arrest in February on charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault and battery.
Police said she drove from Houston to Orlando to confront Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman.
Continued at:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou070501_jj_nowakselfish.28dc5cc6.html
Logical inferences can and will be punished, lol.
On colony ships truly bound for the stars, corpses will be sent to the organ banks and recycling tanks.
>> ust put the body in the vacuum of space tethered to the spacecraft in the shade for a few minutes.
That seems disrespectful. If I were an astronaut that dies in space, I’d want to be in a place of honor. Just strap me to the nose of the ship like a hood ornament. :)
No. There are only bad ones and excellent ones. Excellent piping is stirring, martial, and plaintive. Bad piping is the torture of a cat in a bag.
“Are you dying? There’s no dying in space, y’all.”
How ‘bout death by sex in space?
PRESIDENT MUFFLEY: But who would be chosen?
VON KLUTZ: A special committee would have to be appointed to study and recommend the criteria to be employed, but off-hand, I should say that in addition to the factors of youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross-section of necessary skills, it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included, to impart the required principles of leadership and tradition.
Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time and little to do. With the proper breeding techniques, and starting with a ratio of, say, ten women to each man, I should estimate the progeny of the original group of 200,000 would emerge a hundred years later as well over a hundred million. Naturally the group would have to continually engage in enlarging the original living space.
GENERAL SCHMUCK: (judiciously) You mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Wouldn't that necessitate abandoning the so-called monogamous form of sexual relationship?
VON KLUTZ: Regrettably, yes. But it is a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to perform prodigious service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics, which will have to be of a highly stimulating order.
AMBASSADOR DE SADE: (enthusiastically) Von Klutz, I must confess you have an astonishingly good idea there.
VON KLUTZ: Thank you, sir.
How stupid can they get .... burial in space .... just put a little thrust on it to put it into a decaying solar orbit.
I thought you were referring to Commander Vladimir Vasyutin on Salyut-7.
http://chapters.marssociety.org/usa/oh/aero5.htm
You would think so.
If its T'Pol, it might be worth it!
thanks for the link. I have never heard that about Vasyutin. Of course, things about the ols Soviet space flight program are now coming out and stories about their more serious health/mechanical problems are harder to extract. that would make some very interesting reading. Most of their problems seems to be due to the longer flights they started to fly. Two or three weeks you could do standing on your head. When you’re locked up with one or two individuals for months with very few visitors, one would be a bit “antsy” about getting beck to Earth. That problem seems to have been worked out for the most part during Mir and the ISS flights. Better screening of crews I guess.
Mark
Not immediately. Humans can survive exposure to vacuum, just not for long. You would want to freeze the body before you expose it to vacuum, but the results should resemble mummies found in desiccated climates.
You might be talking about Frank Borman on Apollo 8. A day into the flight, he fell victim to space adaptation syndrome. He didn’t want it broadcast to the whole world that he barfed his lunch up. He put it on their flight voice recorder and downlinked it later for review. After Houston heard his report, they though about aborting 8 but Borman felt better by then. The rest, as they say, is history.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.