Does NASA (edit: or other space agencies) have procedures for dealing with astronaut deaths in space, specifically in regards to body retrieval/in situ burial? If somebody gets killed by a micrometeor, or trips and falls into a canyon on Mars, or gets hit by a golf ball on the Moon, will they always be dragged back to Earth?
Just checking, but is there anyone reading this thread that does NOT have David Bowie’s “Major Tom” running through their head?
I would think the body would be brought back to Earth. My guess is NASA would want to conduct a full autopsy of any astronaut who died during a mission.
James Michener’s novel “Space” deals with this sort of situation.
Wow, I never knew that was a Bowie song. I thought the astronaut Chris Hadfield wrote it himself before playing on the ISS.
I didn’t until you just mentioned it. Thanks for that.
Wow, cool, thanks for that. I was 8 years old when they walked. I vaguely remember it from my childhood.
To the OP, I don’t know if there’s any standard procedure but my guess is they’d do their best to bring them back so long as it does notunduly risk the lives of other astronauts. A guess.
My guess it would depend on the situation. If it was a heart attack in the vehicle then you just fly home with a dead body. If it was some kind of accident during a space walk that caused the body to enter an unstable low earth orbit that would result in human meteor within a month, I am not sure anyone would plan a special trip to retrieve the body.
Interesting thought though – going out in a ball of flames!
Other situations that might present in the future would similarly be tackled on a what-is-practical kind of basis. Let’s say there is a dead body on Mars and its retrieval in some way jeopardises the safety of other astronauts – I bet it gets left behind.
Undoubtedly NASA and other space organisations have procedures and protocols already written to cover these scenarios. I am not expecting anything beyond plain functional pragmatism though.
Yes they would prepare a special trip to get the body from earth orbit.
perhaps even from lunar orbit… But not from the surface of the moon or somewhere further out.
I’d say they kept a body with them if it wasn’t creating a risk to anyone else.
For that reason, they might leave a body in lunar orbit if someone died at the moon ?
I think SOP is to strap the body to the luggage rack on the exterior of the capsule and land in Phoenix.
How long a man lie i’ a spacesuit ere he rot? If you purged the air tanks and flushed the entire system with inert gas, could you just stick him on a shelf somewhere and forget about it until SpaceX can come and retrieve him?
I’ve always loved that version.
Very interesting.
My guess is that Armstrong and Aldrin had no knowledge that any such speech was prepared, let alone the contents.
But there were several more manned moon landings.
No doubt the emotional impact and political fallout would have been less intense had a pair been lost in a subsequent mission. Still, it seems likely that the same speech (with names changed) or a similar speech would have been kept handy. I’m wondering whether word of the contingency plan ever got out over the next few years, before the end of the program.
Since the soul does not have gravity to guide it to heaven or hell, it wanders the universe forever as a space ghost. Hey, it that the origin of Space Ghost?
If it was a mission to Mars, I seriously doubt the dead specimen’s (errrr. spaceman’s) fellow would want to take a few months ride back with a rotting corpse. The smell would be unbearable. It would make a hilarious Weekend at Bernie’s sequel, but it’s just not practical. I would think they would leave the body for the space worms to devour.
All astronauts must be aware of the hazards of space travel, especially those going “where no (one) has gone before…”
They may not have know the text, but they must have known that there was a plan for dealing with a tragedy. I bet there was even training on how to deal with a crewmember’s death. They trained for almost (Apollo 13) anything someone could imagine happening on a mission.
They all (Collins too) were military men with lots of experience losing friends in their country’s service.
Nitpick: the title of the 1969 David Bowie song in question is “Space Oddity.” Major Tom was the, er, major character in the story line.
There was a sequel of sorts to this song in 1983 entitled “Major Tom (Coming Home).” But the artist who did it was not Bowie but Peter Schilling.
They could always just take a quick spacewalk and tie him to the outside to freeze-dry, and bury him wherever they’re going.
I suspect they had to have had at least a suspicion that there was a speech written, or at least preparations made in case they screwed the pooch.