# What contingency plans are there for a death at the Space Station? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170 "2017-05-21T19:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/21 "2017-05-22T11:44:44Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The whole of space around them is nearly at absolute zero – much colder than any morgue freezer (those only cool, they don’t freeze). As others have pointed out, space isn’t _anything_. In earth orbit it’s close enough to the sun so that anything in the sun will get very warm indeed (260-degrees C) while anything in the shade will cool to -100-degrees C (Still not absolute zero but cold enough). So, if you’re going to implement your meat locker idea, be sure to stick the body where the sun don’t shine. [Universe Today](https://www.universetoday.com/77070/how-cold-is-space/) covers this in much greater detail, and even uses the ISS as an example. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/22 "2017-05-22T12:00:06Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So a dead astronaut would alternate from warming towards somewhere close to normal body temperature on the sunny side of the Earth to heading towards absolute zero every time the station passes into the Earth’s shadow. The whole cycle will repeat every 90 minutes, and I have no idea just how much of a temperature swing takes place over that short timeframe. The ISS maintains a particular orientation WRT the surface of the earth. ISTM you could keep the dead astronaut’s body positioned between the ISS and the earth, so that it would be shielded from direct sunlight for most of its transit between the earth and the sun (and of course it would be shielded from direct sunlight for most of its transit behind the earth). If you kept the body in a spacesuit, the white exterior would minimize solar heating during the transition periods. In the end, the time-averaged temperature of the body would be much less than the arithmetic average of the equilibrium temperature in direct sunlight and the equilibrium temperature in shade, and it should also be fairly stable. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/23 "2017-05-22T12:14:22Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > if they die near the end then they will be brought back if in the middle part, apparently chucked out of an airlock. I would hope that they’d put them in a body bag tethered to the station. That way the body could later be retrieved and put in a capsule for return to earth. However personally if I was an astronaut and died on the job I would want my remains to burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry (and would let my next of kin know that). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/24 "2017-05-22T16:18:48Z")
Simplest approach would be to strap the body to the bottom of the spaceship (heat shield) for the return trip. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/25 "2017-05-22T17:45:17Z")
No need for that; just tie a single string between the reentry vehicle and the body; they’ll both arrive at the top of the atmosphere together. What happens next is automatic and inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/26 "2017-05-22T20:42:22Z")
**Shagnasty** , let me guess: You won it as the second-place prize in a slogan-writing contest for a soap company, right? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/27 "2017-05-22T20:54:26Z")
Sounds like **Chronos** was reading Heinlein as a young’un. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170/28 "2017-05-23T01:29:33Z")
It was a major award! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-contingency-plans-are-there-for-a-death-at-the-space-station/787170.md?page=1)