May 21, 17 / Can 01, 01 22:16 UTC
Graves ¶
what are they going to do when people die? prob shoot them out into space......
May 21, 17 / Can 01, 01 22:16 UTC
what are they going to do when people die? prob shoot them out into space......
May 21, 17 / Can 01, 01 22:25 UTC
I would assume cremation or repatriation to earth would also be options.
May 21, 17 / Can 01, 01 22:29 UTC
Comment deleted
Jun 6, 17 / Can 17, 01 20:12 UTC
From a long-term perspective, allowing the body to leave the station will result in an overall reduction of organic mass. Thus, 'shooting a body into the sun' would not only require that fuel be used to maintain a stable orbit, it would also, over time, require that organic matter be injected back into the system from outside. This would jeopardize the whole 'self-sufficiency' thing.
So, allowing a body to be rendered back down into water and biological matter would be more sensible. A process similar to what they use in the Dune series to reclaim the water of the dead. The then-mummified remains of the body could then be retained for a time for societal and, perhaps, legal reasons (if the death was suspicious). After the corpse's time for usefulness is at an end, it would then be reclaimed like all other organic matter.
PGT
Jun 6, 17 / Can 17, 01 20:57 UTC
I actually was thinking a little about this a while back. I think there needs to be a separate decision based on space-based versus land-based colonies.
For space-based, I agree with @Phicksur, the bodies need to be allowed to be reduced into the biological components needed for the space colony.
For land-based, I had an idea that I find quite compelling: the first person in the family lineage is buried with a tree sprout and their body is used to nourish that tree. The second parent to die also gets buried with a random tree. However, the children could then be buried with a sprout that was spliced between the two parent trees. This not only allows the world to help bury their loved ones and help the environment at the same time, but it can also produce, quite literally, a family tree.
BloodyClean