this may sound a little grotesque but....?

Question

what would the decomposition effect be on the human body if all corpses were released into space...would they, or could you induce an orbit of the body to fall from space...and then would the bodies desinegrate before falling to earth???

Answer 1

if a body falls from outer space to Earth it would burn as it passes through the atmosphere , wouldnt it.?

Answer 2

It has actually been seriously proposed. A human body launched into open space would be instantly freeze-dried and would be preserved permanently. It would wander among the stars forever.

On the other hand, if you released it near the earth, it would eventually be drawn by earth's gravity to fall from orbit, and it would burn up like any other meteorite before it reached the surface.

It is possible that not all bodies would burn up completely, and there would be blackened and scorched skulls, feet, and eyeballs landing in people's birdbaths. People would not like that, most likely. So steps would have to be taken to prevent that.

Answer 3

Bodies in outerspace would not decompse. Decomposition occurs when tiny orangisms feed of the organic material, chemical processes also contribute. So they would be very well preserved except that they would probably explode.
Human beings live in a pressurized environment. So with they're placed in outterspace there is no air pressure. The pressure inside the body would exceed the pressure outside and they would leak or pop or something.
I'm sure you could get them to orbit (or the pieces). They would probably be destroyed on reentry. They would burn up. Only large meteroites make it to the surface of the earth because they burn up. So if reentry is hot enough to burn up rocks then human bodies don't stand a chance.

Answer 4

The bodies would pretty much become freeze-dried mummies in space - very well-preserved indeed.

If you set them adrift from a craft in low earth orbit, they'd actually remain in orbit as space debris for a long time before the tiny drag from the uppermost bits of the atmosphere eventually slowed them down enough to re-enter.

Space coffins intended for immediate reentry would require some form of propulsion to slow them down enough to return to earth and not remain up there in the way for other craft and satellites to bump into. Otherwise, they'd get catalogued and tracked along with the rest of the space debris up there.

If they didn't want to put an engine on the coffin, they'd have to launch them pretty quickly with something like a coffin rail gun or slingshot. This would actually alter the orbit of the space ship a little bit though, but would be pretty amusing.

I wasn't going to answer this one, but the mental image of astronauts in space suits launching corpses with rocket packs on their backs was just too damned funny to not share with the rest of ya's. ;)

Answer 5

I don't know the scientific answer but it would be reasonable to assume that the bodies would not decompose because there is no oxygen to allow them to. There is no reason why they would not orbit and fall from space as per satellites and other junk. If other matter can desintegrate and burn on re-entry then it is reasonable to expect the human body would. Thinking of expensive cremations?

Answer 6

That is called the "Rube Goldberg incinerator". A human body would completely burn up on re-entry. Sounds a bit expensive to dispose of Aunt Heather that way...

Answer 7

bear with me now... in Star Trek, when Spock was given a space burial, they shot his coffin off the ship to wherever... I then wondered if , when one day that coffin was captured by the gravity of a planet, and it fell there, if some of ol' Spocks body might end up being the 'building blocks' for the new life on that planet.... and gee... what if that's how ours came to be?... and could we 'seed' space with 'our kind of life' by sending out some of our dead to be the new beginnings?... ok... I'll go back to sleep now.... *smile*..........

Answer 8

your body would decompose slower. some bacteria would survive without oxygen, but the radiation would most likely kill them. and the radiation would begin to break down your cells so that would slowly decompose you. and your constantly being pulled in all directions at extremely cold temperatures.

and you could make a body orbit the earth. idk why you would want to because eventually it would fall down to earth and burn up, and i dont wanna breath peoples ashes.

Answer 9

you would probably decompose, but much much slower. The cold of space and the lack of oxygen would kill most bacteria, but not all, so you would still decompose. A body would certainly burn up upon reentry .

Answer 10

that is absolutely brilliant and you are brilliant to address the issue. nobody else even talking about the huge problem of cadaver disposal today.

so many people choose being "buried" at sea in florida. it became popular about 20 years ago and is so much less expensive. for wealthy people, it would likely be a very romantic and hip thing to do. the cost of fuel necessary rocket a cargo of corpses would be too much for all but the rich and famous.

and for the second part of your question, i believe they could easily have the bodies fall whenever they chose. totally doable. they could drop them anywhere. sure sounds like fun.

count me in, einstein!