If a team of astronauts had no communication with Earth, what do they do?
Asked by
Haroot (
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November 23rd, 2009
Just a scenario that popped into my mind.
So lets say there’s a team of astronauts in an orbiting space station, scheduled to return to Earth in less than 24 hours.
But for whatever reason (zombie apocalypse, terrorist attack, power outage,) there’s no contact from Earth. They do everything they can to try to get a hold of someone. but no luck. Eventually, their 24 hours run out.
Do they return to Earth (Not sure how the whole re-entry thing works,) or stay in orbit until they get some communication or run out of life necessities (water, food, etc..?)
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11 Answers
the will play 21 until they get bored, then, they might return…
Lurve for zombie apocalypse.
Well it just so happens that the station accidentally slipped into a worm hole that sent them traveling to another dimension without them being aware of. The currently demension they landed in happens to be after the fall of man and life on earth is practically none existent…. or is it?
Rated Mature 17+ in stores by X-mas.
Sudoku is always a great time killer.
Honestly, if I was one of them, I would be seriously freaking out.
Astronauts tend to be scientists, and space stations have equipment, and the Earth communicates and gives other evidence of what’s going on in many ways, and people in orbit have a good view of the planet. So they would tend to form as well-educated an idea of what was going on as possible, assess their own situation, and act accordingly.
If they were scheduled for a routine return in 24 hours, they would not just come anyway as scheduled if there was a communication breakdown. There are always many layers of redundancy planned into a space mission, so there would be time to wait for communication to be restored, or to understand the situation.
The “all is lost” contingency plan consists of astronauts launching the massive nuclear arsenal that is orbiting the earth at what use to be the Soviet Union. The Russians better HOPE there isn’t a zombie apocalypse cause they are gonna get it for sure.
Sounds like you have a novel in the works!
@Laina and @wildpotato You know more than you think…
@Zaku So if communication is never restored, what do they do? They can’t stay up there and starve to death.
They ask Rodney McKay, fire up their zero point module and open a hyperspace window leaving the zombies behind.
Haroot, it would depend on what information they DO have about the specific situation. A space station tends to have a wide variety of instruments as well as communication devices and signal receivers. They’d have to choose something, and it’d depend on the circumstances and their choices.
Clearly if they have no sustainable life support in space and they do have a reentry vehicle, at some point they’d form a plan to use what information they did have to choose a place to land and make the best of the situation. But it depends on the specific situation. None of the situations you listed would result in an immediate and sustained loss of all communication with the entire planet. Each of the situations you listed suggest to me different likely plans.
In the absence of specific orders, doctrine, and no communication from anyone higher in the chain of command, the station commander would make the decision.
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