November 1st, 2007Death and Sex
These are the two unsaid taboos of space travel.
With Japan and China gearing up to explore and potentially colonize the moon, space and science administrations are just beginning to tackle the questions that need to be answered sooner or later. Questions like ‘what should we do if somebody dies in space?‘ and ‘what should we do about sex?‘
We have been fortunate in the half-century of space travel that nobody has died while in space. The loss of 17 astronauts by NASA (3 on Apollo 1, 7 on Challenger and 7 on Columbia), while tragic, did not require a surviving crew to return with a body. The Russians thought they might need to address this in 1987 when cosmonaut Alexandr Laveikin had to return to Earth prematurely due to a heart condition that went undetected, but it turned out to be a minor issue not worth the attention it received. Had he become critically ill during the mission, he would have been close enough to home that it would have been possible to return him to the Earth to receive treatment. Crews on the Moon or Mars may not have this option, though.
So in addition to the first question we need to ask ‘what should we do if somebody becomes critically ill?‘ If an astronaut is seriously injured or ill en route to Mars and there’s no chance of that person recovering, should the crew pull the life support plug and eject the body out the nearest airlock? I couldn’t imagine a harder decision for a mission commander to make than this, but with a limited supply of food, water, oxygen and medical supplies, could a crew really put themselves at risk of running out just for the sake of one life?
I can guarantee that they’d make a valiant effort to save their comrade, but the decision would need to be made eventually.
So how about sex? On a 3-year mission to Mars the crew would undoubtedly have some urge to hula. Heck, even if we sent only one gender there could be a problem with sex, or lack thereof.
In most science fiction books I’ve read involving long-duration travel through space, crews usually start to pair off before they even leave the comfort of Earth’s atmosphere. This might work out in books where the gender balance is mostly equal, but what if somebody is married? What if, in a crew of 20, there are only five women? Regardless of how far we humans have come since living in caves, there are some things that we can’t always ignore.
What would we do about pregnancy? While I’m no expert on the subject, I’m almost certain a pregnant woman would have some troubles with atmospheric re-entry or launching into space for the return trip to Earth.
Then there’s the problem with solar radiation. Crews will be bombarded with intense doses of this dangerous radiation while en route to Mars, and even after they land on the Red Planet. Should the space agency collect sperm and ovum before the mission in the event these brave explorers want to have children after their successful return to Mother Earth?
It’s situations like this that makes me both glad and sad that I don’t work for NASA or JAXA, though it won’t stop me from voicing my potential solutions to the problem.
A mission to Mars should consist of at least ten people, but preferrably twenty. Two of these people should be doctors, capable of handling most common situations and having another area of expertise (cardiology, chiropractic, etc). This will give the mission a bit of a cushion should one doctor fall ill or worse.
Members will be encouraged to join the mission in pairs, but this would not be a requirement. This could reduce sexual tension with some of the crew, and perhaps remaining spots could be filled in a balanced fashion. The mission should not be viewed as a chance to hook up, but a balance could make things easier for everyone. If people decide to have intercourse during the mission, some form of contraception should be used. It is not realistic at this point to try and have a child in reduced or null gravity situations.
In the event a crew member is seriously injured and there is no chance for recovery, it will be at the discretion of the senior doctor and mission commander to continue or terminate health care. Nobody on Earth should make the decision as the crew will be in the best position to mae the call. If there is a death, the body could be ejected into space, stored in cold storage, or buried on Mars. However, a death on the planet would require burial on that world as there would be no cold storage locker on the Martian lander. In any event, the method of burial will be left at the discretion of the crew, and the deceased.
To protect the explorers from prolonged exposure to solar radiation, the inter-planetary vessel should be constructed in space from materials found mostly on the Moon. Lead would make a good radiation barrier and can be mined and easily handled by machines in the reduced gravity of the Moon. The interior of the vessel could be constructed using other metals and alloys found on the Moon, and any plastics or fabrics would be sent up from Earth in unmanned rockets. Computers, living supplies, water, air, and food would also be sent up in unmanned rockets.
This vessel would not be capable of atmospheric flight, so a Martian lander with the capability of launching back into space would need to be attached. Initial supplies required for the stay on Mars should be sent ahead of the manned missio, with machinery and lab equipment arriving with the crew. Also, since the vessel would never need to enter the atmosphere, it could be nuclear powered and use a Photonic Laser Thruster. This would ensure ample power for the duration of the mission, and then some. A second smaller Japanese reactor should also come and be sent down to the planet to provide power for the lab and living quarters. I suggest a Japanese reactor as these units could likely survive atmospheric entry and landing. Heck, they can survive a 7.3 magniture quake just fine, so a little ride at 36,000 Km/h should be nothing.
Supplies on the planet should be sufficient to let the crew survive comfortably for up to three years. In the event the Martian lander fails to launch, the crew might need to remain on the planet for as many as two years (assuming a new lander or key components had to be sent from Earth). While it’s possible to survive in prefab lab structures, it would be better to cover and pressurize a natural rock formation. This would allow for crew to potentially live in a greenhouse, where genetically modified vegetation provides some breathable air and the limited heat from sunlight can be trapped.
So there are my ideas on the matter. As one might expect, going to Mars will not be cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But with a strong international effort (hopefully by every nation currently involved in space technologies), we can send some of our best and brightest people farther than anyone before with as many resources as possible.
What do you think we should do about death or sex in space? Can we afford to let these questions linger in the hopes we’ll never need to answer them?
Sex in space sounds like a lot of fun, and should be encouraged. More seriously though, on the issue of euthanasia, it’s incredibly controversial on earth so I think NASA would come under immense criticism if any astronaut was deliberately “terminated”. The possibility of an astronaut becoming irreversibly ill should be taken into consideration when planning food and medical supplies, so ending his or her life shouldn’t be necessary.
In a perfect world, I agree. Just because we can’t perform heart surgery in a rural hospital doesn’t mean we should let anyone with a bad heart die. Instead, we need to transfer them to a city hospital that can repair hearts.
But it’s a different story altogether when planet hopping. We can’t easily “stop and turn around” in space with our current level of technology. If a vessel is almost at Mars and someone comes down with a serious illness or injury where they can’t survive the stresses of atmospheric entry, should that person remain on the orbiter (in excrutiating pain) for the rest of the mission? What if the mission is going to last 3 years? Should the commander split the crew, returning to Earth with the orbiter and sick/injured person while the remaining explorers are left on the surface of Mars?
These are difficult questions in any situation
“should that person remain on the orbiter (in excrutiating pain) for the rest of the mission?”
There’s not really any difference between this situation and that of a terminally ill patient in hospital, kept alive as long as possible (often with that patient in great discomfort) because the law forbids doctors or family to “turn off the machine”.
I agree that the doctor and mission commander should be allowed the decision to terminate health care (just as doctors and immediate family should have that same right on earth). My argument is that public opinion, if not the law, will forbid it. So yes, that poor crew member may well be left in space for three years after all.
There are no laws in space. Only on Earth, and only in countries and territorial waters. Everywhere else is fair game.
That said, I really hope this isn’t something that mission commanders will have to deal with anytime soon
I agree that some people on Earth will not like any situation where a person’s life was terminated for “the sake of the mission” or even to put them out of a very long and painful existence. But the reality is that we will not be in any position to effectively handle this scenario in a “universally accepted manner” unless we spend the next century developing technologies to enable very rapid transport between worlds while never leaving the relative safety of Low Earth Orbit.
I’m all for making space travel faster and safer, but we will never accomplish anything of note without a little bit of risk.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing. We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” - John F Kennedy
Death and Sex in Space…
These are the two unsaid taboos of space travel.
With Japan and China gearing up to explore and potentially colonize the moon, space and science administrations are just beginning to tackle the questions that need to be answered sooner or later. Questi…
Wow, that was pretty deep. I’m not even sure how to answer the questions. It’s definitely not like a science fiction book where you don’t actually have to think about physics and reality and such.
Yep. This is why I wanted to get the ideas up on the site. It’s not something that we can really answer until the time comes that it happens. Regardless of the rules and regulations we create here on Earth, things will be quite different in the vacuum of space or on the barren world that is Mars.
I really hope that our future explorers will fare better than those of years gone by, but we humans are pretty frail sometimes