Ideally this would be covered in a person's will, but in the case that they didn't have one perhaps a have something that is easy to carry out in space would be my suggestion. Since we're located on Earth at the moment we should have plenty of time for discussion on this topic. Perhaps we could even create our own procedures?

While on earth it should be down to the individual as to what they want done with their remains when they die. However, we would need to be slightly more pragmatic in space as it wouldn't be a good idea to store the bodies. Maybe have a plaque of their name in a specific part of the vessel where we can honour those who have gone before us?

It could be done like it is done in the sea, you send the body off to the sea. There are lots of similarities between ships in the sea and ships in space, so we could just send coffins towards the sun (or any desired star), so every time people want to remember their loved ones they just look at the sun (not directly obviously). This will be like being cremated by space, by the sun. Alternatively, we could cremate the body on the ship and store it in a jar or a box... etc but that would waste a lot of fuel. We could also send them towards Earth (from ashes to ashes and that kind of thing) and let them burn (cremated) in the atmosphere. I guess it will always depend on the person and what they choose, personally I'd want my loved ones to have a specific grave but the best alternative would be the sun. Coffins will be just a body in a simple coffin released towards the sun (or any chosen destination) without having any engines or propellers of any kind, and the angle of the release should be calculated well to ensure it lands on the sun, otherwise we'll end up with floating mummies all over space.

As macabre as this may seem, while in space our resources will be limited. Recycling will be a high priority to avoid loss of usable materials. Our departed could serve as a fertilizer for oxygen/grow rooms. Using a fast acting decomp process and turning the bodys into nutrient rich soil for the plants we will need on board the station. I know there will be people opposed to the idea, but I am merely looking long term.

Q) what about death ceremonies in Asgardia?

A) my answer to your question Dirk in regards to the death ceremonies in Asgardia is simply we as a nation have to think practical. Now I understand that as asgardians from more than 150 countries across the globe we have different beliefs and procedures to deal with those who have died. However unfortunately being up in space ( in the near future) there will be many things we would want to do for our "fallen" love ones , but can't due to the lack of resources.

We have to think of resources to the nation...... Basically if the nation was " up and alive" with land territory on earth territory than we would do what we would do what our different cultures and procedures see fit to our departed. But as we are a planned space nation we must take in consideration of limited space and fuel used to possible burn the departed. From recycling the departed for fertiliser of the oxygen/grow rooms,nutrition for the vegetation to naturally cremations by putting the departed to the nearby sun or earth's atmosphere.

Personally I like Dommicsturt's reply (29th December 2016 12:56am ) to this post simply because I like the idea of memorial plaques in a specific part the vessel.... like a wall of remembrance.

Regards

Fpitts

As macabre as this may seem...

I think restricting impractical types of funerary types (burial/creation, e.g.) and allowing people to decide on permissible alternatives alone would be enough. Lots of people would probably be willing to have their body recycled, especially given the type of people we are actively seeking out.