6
$\begingroup$

When I have asked, every commercial ocean-going vessel I’ve been on has provision for a refrigerated morgue. In the good old days, it was a cannon ball at your feet and six feet of sail cloth with the last stitch through your nose. Nowadays there are forms to be filled out and a coroner in the next port to demand habeas corpus.

What provision does NASA have for a morgue on ISS? According to astronaut Hatfield, there are no body bags and protocols leave a lot room for appropriate creativity. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-if-someone-dies-in-space-2015-4

Correctness would demand return to Earth and a hero’s funeral. What to do with Frank Poole until the hearse arrives? Cold is good. Vacuum is good. Keep Frank outside the ISS? Inside? Where?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ Frank Poole still is orbiting the Sun with an aphelion somewhere around 5AU and a perihelion somewhere around 1AU. $\endgroup$
    – Solomon Slow
    Commented Oct 28, 2021 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ I thought he was released after orbital capture by Jupiter (the movie) or was is Saturn (the book). But if Hal had opened the pod bay doors.... $\endgroup$
    – Woody
    Commented Oct 28, 2021 at 20:15
  • $\begingroup$ I was thinking of the movie, but the movie didn't go into a lot of technical detail... I can't even guess his fate if they already were in Jupiter space when the "accident" happened. All those moons, perturbing everything... $\endgroup$
    – Solomon Slow
    Commented Oct 29, 2021 at 2:06
  • $\begingroup$ I remember the book took them to Saturn. I could be wrong because I read it a long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away. $\endgroup$
    – Woody
    Commented Oct 29, 2021 at 3:17
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ In the film Bowman was forced to abandon Poole's body so he could get back aboard Discovery through the emergency airlock, so it would have followed a similar course until the ship went into Jupiter orbit. In the book Bowman never got the chance to recover the body as he had to take shelter when Hal opened the pod bay doors and depressurised the entire ship, so Poole would have been dragged away by the space pod, accelerating until it ran out of fuel and possibly have missed Saturn entirely. $\endgroup$
    – GordonD
    Commented Oct 29, 2021 at 9:27

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.