Suppose someone dies enroute to Mars

[vogon13]

Captain Mustard in the airponics bay with a carbon nanotube pipe fitting . . . . <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

I agree, but unless someone experienced in autopsies happens to be on board, I don't know that you will get any meaningful results. I wouldn't even know where to start. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[billslugg]

My wife usually starts with the wallet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Mission control can send up instructions, or have on board doctor do it. <br /><br />You're going all the way to Mars and back, there should be a doctor on board.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[scottb50]

Said as he pulls on a glove and say's: "bend over." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Ewwwwwwww.<br /><br />We are talking about a corpse here.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Having a physician on board would be the place to start. There will have to be someone who is medically trained to deal with non fatal emergencies as it is. Someone who can set broken arms/legs...be able to prescribe the right medicines and preferrably have enough training in autopsies to be able to do one.<br /><br />Murder is certainly possible, tho highly unlikely due simply to not having very many places where privacy can be maintained long enough for two people in what will probably be a 5 to 10 person crew tops, to go missing long enough for one to commit murder on the other without being very nearly caught in the act. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[no_way]

As robotic surgery is becoming more common, i suppose for a hightech martian mission you could have a robot doing autopsy as well.<br />And later cook the dinner and do the dishes.

 

[phaze]

"And to take it in a totally different directions, what if two crew members get their freak on and we wind up with a pregnant mission specialist! :0"<br /><br />Sex robots!

 

[tanstaafl76]

<br />Enter Priss, the Nexus 6 pleasure model!<br /><br />Honda has some work to do, because ASIMO is just not doing it for me.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bearack]

Nothing that a light switch won't fix <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><br /><img id="06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/14/06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Having a physician on board would be the place to start. There will have to be someone who is medically trained to deal with non fatal emergencies as it is. Someone who can set broken arms/legs...be able to prescribe the right medicines and preferrably have enough training in autopsies to be able to do one. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />All of the crew should be trained as first responders at the very least. It shouldn't be difficult to also train them in things like setting broken limbs. Agencies including NASA are researching just how much medical training ought to be provided. The idea is to have it where any of the crew can perform major surgery, with advice from medical officers in ground control. They haven't necessarily all been through medical school (though you could require that all of the crew be MDs -- there actually are enough MDs in the astronaut corps already to do that), so it's not a situation you'd want on the ground, but it would suffice for this sort of a situation.<br /><br />This isn't something nobody's considered before, nor even something unique to spaceflight. Researchers in remote locations (such as the South Pole) face this possibility every day, and so do soldiers deep behind enemy lines. Of course, the soldiers actually have it worse -- they may not be able to use radio communications for days if they need to avoid revealing their position, whereas a Mars-bound crew only has to cope with the round-trip lightspeed signal time. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Honda has some work to do, because ASIMO is just not doing it for me.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />Perhaps you would prefer one of the Cylons from the Battlestar Galatica remake. The one I saw (I don't watch the series) was female. She might murder you in your sleep, but you would die happy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[scottb50]

I would think the equivalent of burial at sea would be appropriate. Look what that did for Star Trek, it generated at least two additional movies after Spock died.<br /><br />On Mars I would be more inclined to sealed storage to lessen the possibility of environmental contamination, though I think once we set foot on Mars and even since we have landed probes on Mars, that would be a moot point. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[thereiwas]

"As robotic surgery is becoming more common..."<br /><br />Modern surgical robots like the da Vinci are not properly <i>robots</i>. They are actually waldoes that allow a sugeon to work inside the human body through very small incisions. The devices are not autonomous and would be of little use on a Mars mission. Better to have an active MD on board.

 

[qso1]

You have done a much better job of explaining the physician thing. Especially historical precedents which I'm aware of but didn't think about in my post. Another asset will be that if a mars bound MD lacks qualification in certain areas, qualified ground personnel can also guide them by uplinking the necessary data in the form of something not unlike a training vid complete with live action and computer graphical sequences. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

The biggest problem I can see with a death on a mars expedition, depending on how soon such a tragic event occurs. Death on the first or second mission would have devastating consequences for the program itself as long as we still have to deal with budget realities, a largely uninterested public and politicians looking to direct funds to other programs.<br /><br />On a first mission, death of a crewmember could cause cancellation of the program once the remainder of the crew has returned to earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Did your novel include an MD on the crew? If so, how qualified was that character? How big of a crew? I assume you can't disclose if there was a death without revealing plot elements. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[qso1]

I finished that series over a year ago and yes there is an MD among the crew but I didn't elaborate much beyond that. I cannot even recall which one it was but I think it was the exobiologist.<br /><br />No deaths occured, there was another close call which I won't elaborate on because I may have been the first to think of this. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[no_way]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Modern surgical robots like the da Vinci are not properly robots<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />You are way behind the news curve:<br />http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/autonomous_robot_does_heart_su.html<br /><br />

 

[thereiwas]

That heart-surgery robot is experimental, and I notice we haven't heard of it since. There are over 700 daVinci machines in use around the world today, licensed to be used in all sorts of procedures. (Disclosure: I own a small amount of stock in the company that makes the daVinci, <i>and</i> I have undergone surgery using one.)

 

[no_way]

Well, by the time any martian mission gets underway, they wont be experimental any more. And a first martian mission would be experimental in itself anyway.<br /><br />The most complicated piece of medical machinery that i have been under was LASIK eye correction. Went from -10 ( which is very very bad case of shortsightedness ) to near perfect vision.<br /><br />Medial robotics is obviously a future thing anyway. I'd call it a good investment ( Diclosure: i am placing my bets on new solar panels like FSLR cdTe and upcoming CIGS companies, new batteries and electric vehicles <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> )<br /><br />