Ever wondered what happens if you die in space?
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For as long as man has been able to venture into space, he has been preparing for the worst case scenario – dying in space.
Eighteen individuals have lost their lives in space as a result of in-flight mishaps in the roughly sixty years that space travel has been feasible.
It wasn’t a given even when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969.
In the event that the astronauts’ journey ended tragically, President Richard Nixon had a backup script prepared paying honour to the astronauts.
William Safire, Nixon’s wordsmith, thought about how they would explain tragedy to the country in his memoir.
Safire wrote: “We knew disaster would not come in the form of a sudden explosion.
“It would mean the men would be stranded on the moon in communication with Mission Control as they slowly starved to death, or deliberately ‘closed down communication,’—the euphemism for suicide.”
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This does make one wonder: what happens to your body if you pass away in space?
It’s never pleasant to pass away, but the process your body goes through when you’re in space is extremely horrific.
This hypothetical situation will help you understand how the body would shut down.
Imagine you are an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and a micrometeorite rips a hole in your suit.
Annoying? Yes.
Most likely life threatening? Also yes.
The hypothetical astronaut would experience unconsciousness around 15 seconds after the hole occurs.
Before freezing, they would likely suffocate or experience decompression.
This is due to the fact that the vacuum of space would cause the water in their blood and skin to vaporise if their skin were exposed to it.
The body would then enlarge outwards like a balloon inflating with air when this occurred.
Although death seems much more likely in this situation, their lungs would collapse and they would become paralysed within 30 seconds.
The astronauts are already in excellent physical condition when they leave Earth, thus death is unlikely aboard the ISS.
However, there have been other horrifying mishaps in which astronauts have perished, with the Space Shuttle Challenger’s disastrous launch in 1986 being particularly tragic.
All seven crew members died when the rocket disintegrated a minute after launching.
Scientists debate on what astronauts are supposed to do with dead bodies while they are in space.
While some have advocated for the more appetising option of being kept in cold storage, others have argued that cannibalism may be justified in specific circumstances.
