Send ’em off in a blaze of glory: point them towards the Sun.

Astronauts who die during Mars mission could be buried on the Red Planet, sent into eternal orbit around its atmosphere – or EATEN by other crew members
dailymail.co.uk | April 17, 2021 | Stacy Liberatore

Experts have suggested a number of ways to dispose the body, including ‘jettison’ it into the dark abyss or burying the person on Mars – but the remains would first need to be burned to not contaminate the surface.

However, a worst case scenario has been presented where the space fairing heroes run out of food and the only thing edible is the dead body of their fallen crew mate.

NASA does not have set protocols for dealing with death in space, but researchers around the world have put the work in to respectfully dispose of a fallen astronaut, as reported on by Popular Science.

If a crew member dies while making the more than 170-million-mile journey to Mars, the body can be placed in the cold storage or freeze dried until the craft touches down.

Releasing the body into space seems like the easiest option, it would become trapped in the path of the craft and linger exactly where it was let go.

And if numerous missions choose this method, future rockets heading to Mars will soar through a sea of dead bodies.

NASA has strict laws about contaminating other planets with Earth microbes.

‘Regarding the disposal of organic material (including bodies) on Mars,’ NASA’s Conley told Popular Science, ‘we impose no restrictions so long as all Earth microbes have been killed―so cremation would be necessary.’

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