25 years in space?

[samtkc]

I hope this question is not too far afield (or too morbid), but does
anyone know what would happen to a dead body after 25 years of drifting
in space inside a spaceship? I am writing a story that includes the
possibility of a astronaut dying while on a mission and his spaceship
drifting for 25 years before it is found. I would appreciate any
suggestions about how a body would decay in this situation.

Sam




--
samtkc

[Robert Heller]

Well, "decay" in the normal *earthly* understanding implies organic
rot, which is a process involving bacteria and/or insects. In a
*sterile* space environment, this is not going to happen, at least not
for very long (lack of air, too cold, lack of bacteria and/or insects,
etc.). Depending on how 'clean' the spaceship is, there will be little
or no *organic* decay. Loss of air pressure will affect the body,
depending on the sort of space suit (if any) the astronaut is wearing.
If he/she is wearing a current issue NASA suit -- the sort the Apollo
crews wore -- (basically a reinforced balloon) and if the air leaks
out, the body will be a mess. If he/she is wearing a 'skin suit' (sort
of like a scuba diver's wet suit, but reinforced with wires and/or
heavy duty elasic -- currently under development at MIT for use with
the proposed Mars missions), the body will be kept intact (the head in
an open 'fish bowl' helmet might be a different issue). If the
astronaut is NOT wearing a space suit, then when the air leaks out of
the ship (25 years is plenty of time for some high speed grain of sand
to punch a hold somewhere), the body will be a decompressed mess. Oh,
under hard vacume, the 'water' (most of a body's mass is water), will
have boiled off.

>
> Sam
>
>
>
>

--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 / hel...@deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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[Harri Tavaila]

1.12.2012 0:44, Robert Heller kirjoitti:
> At Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:58 EST samtkc<samtkc....@spacebanter.com> wrote:

> Depending on how 'clean' the spaceship is, there will be little
> or no *organic* decay.

Never mind the spaceship it's the astronaut that will not be clean
enough; most of decomposition will happen because of the growth of
natural bacterias that people carry inside thir guts.

Assuming the body remains in pressurized environment it will decompose
unless the humidity is very low in which case it will mummify. If the
suit or ship is in near vacuum the situation is slightly different and
will lead to a different kind of mummification (freeze drying).

H Tavaila

[Jeff Findley]

In article <samtkc....@spacebanter.com>, samtkc.afd7a18
@spacebanter.com says...

Depends on the conditions inside the spacecraft. If it vented its
atmosphere, you'd find a dessicated corpse, not a rotten one. If the
vessel still had an atmosphere, some amount of rot would definitely take
place, at least until the available O2 in the atmosphere was used up.
If the spacecraft continued to supply O2 (e.g. it didn't know to stop
doing this), I'd imagine the decomposition to be similar to what you'd
see "on the ground".

Of course, I'm not an expert here. But then again, who is? ;-)

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 3 Dec 2012 21:56:47 EST Jeff Findley <jeff.f...@nospam.ugs.com> wrote:

>
> In article <samtkc....@spacebanter.com>, samtkc.afd7a18
> @spacebanter.com says...
> >
> > I hope this question is not too far afield (or too morbid), but does
> > anyone know what would happen to a dead body after 25 years of drifting
> > in space inside a spaceship? I am writing a story that includes the
> > possibility of a astronaut dying while on a mission and his spaceship
> > drifting for 25 years before it is found. I would appreciate any
> > suggestions about how a body would decay in this situation.
>
> Depends on the conditions inside the spacecraft. If it vented its
> atmosphere, you'd find a dessicated corpse, not a rotten one. If the
> vessel still had an atmosphere, some amount of rot would definitely take
> place, at least until the available O2 in the atmosphere was used up.
> If the spacecraft continued to supply O2 (e.g. it didn't know to stop
> doing this), I'd imagine the decomposition to be similar to what you'd
> see "on the ground".

It would also depend on the availability of blowfly eggs, etc. If
*only* the astronaut's gut bacteria is available, decomposition won't be
the same as "on the ground". Oh, not only would the O2 supply be
needed, so would a suitable temp. *AND* humidity -- space is normally very
cold and dry. Note that to supply O2 for *25 years* is going to need
some sort of atmosphere recycling system or a very large supply of O2 to
begin with. Neither are likely with *current* spacecraft tech.

>
> Of course, I'm not an expert here. But then again, who is? ;-)
>
> Jeff

--

[David Spain]

Don't know about 25 years, but Geoffrey Landis occasionally posts to the
sci.space.... groups and has this interesting link (at least for shorter
term effects with some references based on animal studies):


http://www.geoffreylandis.com/vacuum.html


Dave

[J. Clarke]

In article <201212041116....@sharky2.deepsoft.com>,
hel...@deepsoft.com says...

>
> At Mon, 3 Dec 2012 21:56:47 EST Jeff Findley <jeff.f...@nospam.ugs.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > In article <samtkc....@spacebanter.com>, samtkc.afd7a18
> > @spacebanter.com says...
> > >
> > > I hope this question is not too far afield (or too morbid), but does
> > > anyone know what would happen to a dead body after 25 years of drifting
> > > in space inside a spaceship? I am writing a story that includes the
> > > possibility of a astronaut dying while on a mission and his spaceship
> > > drifting for 25 years before it is found. I would appreciate any
> > > suggestions about how a body would decay in this situation.
> >
> > Depends on the conditions inside the spacecraft. If it vented its
> > atmosphere, you'd find a dessicated corpse, not a rotten one. If the
> > vessel still had an atmosphere, some amount of rot would definitely take
> > place, at least until the available O2 in the atmosphere was used up.
> > If the spacecraft continued to supply O2 (e.g. it didn't know to stop
> > doing this), I'd imagine the decomposition to be similar to what you'd
> > see "on the ground".
>
> It would also depend on the availability of blowfly eggs, etc. If
> *only* the astronaut's gut bacteria is available, decomposition won't be
> the same as "on the ground". Oh, not only would the O2 supply be
> needed, so would a suitable temp. *AND* humidity -- space is normally very
> cold and dry. Note that to supply O2 for *25 years* is going to need
> some sort of atmosphere recycling system or a very large supply of O2 to
> begin with. Neither are likely with *current* spacecraft tech.

Why would oxygen be needed? E. Coli and many other common bacteria are
facultative anaerobes--they will use oxygen if it is available but it is
not essential to their existence.