What if? A manned mission to Mars, say, and a crew member dies 2 months into the trip?

Question

Or has a heart attack - what now??

Answer 1

"We have good news & We have Bad News. The Good news, Mr. Jones is the first person to land on Mars. The bad news, he's also the first dead person to land on Mars."

Answer 2

Because of the massive amount of supplies needed to take a crew to Mars, it is unlikely that there would be any room to "store/freeze/refrigerate/package" a body. At first I thought about the possibility of putting the body into an EVA suit and attaching it to the outside of the vehicle. But, in order to brake into orbit around Mars, then accelerate away from Mars, the body would have to be brought back into the crew compartment, something not especially pleasant or easy for the crew to do, especially after the body has been decaying for 8 months or so. So, my guess is that the plan for the death of a crew member on an "upward" journey to Mars would be to jettison the body, much as Arthur Clarke's "David Bowman" did with Frank Poole's body in "2001". The crew size would probably be at least six, possibly eight, on the first few trips to Mars. The surviving astro-/cosmo-/taiko-nauts would have to put aside grief and shoulder the extra work in a rearranged schedule.

A severe or disabling injury/illness would have to be dealt with using whatever medical abilities exist in the un-affected crewmen. Should the casualty be the ship's doctor, s/he's in the worst circumstances of anyone in the crew.

Because of fuel constraints, once a mission is two months on its way to Mars, it has to go to Mars. There is no "turning around", aborting back to Earth, or taking of any "shortcut" back to Earth. The gravity of Mars is needed to stop the vessel from continuing outward from the Sun. Once in orbit around Mars, the crew would then have to wait for the Earth and Mars to get into the proper "alignment" before beginning the journey back to Earth.

Answer 3

If this happened 2 months into a three year round trip to Mars, the body would no doubt be case off or "buried" in space. NASA is thinking about medical emergencies and are considering whether a doctor should be sent with such an exhibition or there is some sort of set up for remote robotic surgery in case of emergency.
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Answer 4

They could NOT jettison the body because the mass difference would throw out the trajectory programming.
They cannot return to Earth because they are in a coasting trajectory and need the gravity well of Mars to slow down and would therefore not have enough fuel to return.
When they landed on Mars the body would be left there and his weight in extra specimens brought back on the return trip.

Answer 5

Actually, that possibility is being looked at. On such long-duration missions, the possibility of illness or death is being addressed by cross-training all the astronauts.

A death is actually somewhat 'minor', when compared to the possibility of an illness - cancer, appendix, nerve disorders, even cateracts - conditions that, on Earth, are treatable with drugs, therapy, or operations - but in space pose a real threat. Not only will the other astronauts need to fill in for the one who's sick, but they may have to devote time and resources to keeping him/her alive, when it wasn't originally accounted for. Remember - what they pack on a mission is what they have... there's no 7/11 or clinic on Mars or an asteroid to get supplies they need.

Answer 6

That's highly unlikely. The astronauts are physically tested and probably the healthiest people alive. NASA does try to have a plan in place for just about anything that could go wrong and I am sure that there is something in place for just this kind of thing. It would depend on who the person is that dies wheather the mission is recalled or not.

Answer 7

They either store the remains or jettison it, and continue on to mars, since they can not go back to Earth for another 1.5 years I believe till the orbits line up in such a way that they can make the trip back.

Answer 8

there is obviously more than one person.
the deceased will be put into a fridge, not joking, they will put him into a fridge.

then, mission control will decide weather to continue or return to earth. many factors may prevent their return. they might not be able to calculate a correct trajectory directly to earth from their present path.
most likely, they'll have to swing themselves from the grav field of mars like planned.

if so, the body will be put into freeze in a special fridge if equipped(usually they use it to keep seeds from germinating there and store harmful biological cultures) and if not equipped, they will perform a burial at space and jettison the body trough an air sas.

Answer 9

NASA has started to develop plans for just such a possibility. It will not be nice though. If someone got really sick, there is almost nothing that could be done to help them. If someone died, they would almost certainly have to jettison the body out into space.

Answer 10

Park the body outside the ship where it is both cold and no air. Send it back with the first repair crew if that's possible.