How would humans decompose on Mars?

Mummies on Mars

That’s why Connor and Passalacqua agree: a body on Mars, if left outside or even buried in loose Martian soil, would likely dry out and mummify.

The first stages – algor mortis, livor mortis, and rigor mortis – would still take place, says Connor. But there might be almost no other overt signs of decomposition, she adds. Autolysis and putrefaction would continue until the body freezes, with one important caveat: Most bacteria in our bodies are aerobic, which means they need oxygen to function. On Mars, only anaerobic bacteria that do not require oxygen could proliferate until freezing, which means that putrefaction would be severely limited.

After freezing, the body dried out as its moisture sublimated, leaving behind a well-preserved natural mummy, which could have made the ancient Egyptians jealous. “The desiccated tissue would likely be very stable for an indefinite period of time,” Connor said.

“If you think of those bog bodies from the medieval period, I guess it would be a bit like that,” Passalacqua says. These bodies – also remarkably well preserved – are mummified in part because bogs are low oxygen environments, again limiting the body’s own decomposition and preventing most organisms from entering and completing the job.

“If you think of a body going from something that looks like a person to something that looks like a skeleton, I don’t think you’re really going to understand it. [the martian] environment. [Bodies] might dry out and mummify, but I don’t think much else would change, ”Passalacqua said.

Dust to dust?

Exceptionally preserved Martian mummies may seem like a good idea. And the simplest and most direct option is, indeed, to bury the deceased. However, if human settlements on Mars really take off, cemeteries may require a bit of zoning and forethought planning, as the bodies they contain would not decompose, preventing plots from being reused.

Cremation, while a popular – and space-saving – body disposal option on Earth, is probably not the best method on Mars. This is because cremation requires keeping a chamber above 1000 F (538 C) for several hours, which in turn requires an immense input of energy. In an environment where this fuel might be limited, this is an expensive solution. “It’s a huge amount of energy that is just wasted to burn a body and not be used for anything else,” Passalacqua speculates. After all, “you are in this strange Martian environment, you probably want to be as economical as possible in all things. ”

But both burial and cremation have a significant downside: the loss of potentially valuable biomass. Remember that on Earth, decomposition is the ultimate recycling program, returning this biomass to the environment. “The environment in which we are [on Earth] always wants to exploit [biomass] as much as possible. But the Mars environment will not be able to exploit these resources at all, it will just be wasted resources for everyone, ”notes Passalacqua.

In a place where bringing your own resources comes with high monetary and physical costs, is this really ideal?

Perhaps the best choice might be to recycle this biomass, as would happen on Earth. (It should be noted, of course, that processes like embalming largely stop decomposition, so all discussion of decomposition on Earth refers to unembalmed remains.) In that case, it might be possible -be better to bury a body that is not outside in Martian soil, but instead, in an Earth-like decaying greenhouse, temperature and humidity controlled, with organisms such as insects and fungi to eventually turn that body into fertilizer or usable soil. Of course, these organisms would need alternative food sources when there is no body to consume, adds Passalacqua.

However, there is a scenario that could change all that: with our aerobic bacteria unable to function, deprived of oxygen in Mars’ atmosphere, our anaerobic bacteria could adapt to the Martian environment, which perhaps would allow for bodies to decompose after all. “The evolution is underway and can happen quickly,” Connor said, noting, for example, the rapid onset of COVID-19 variants throughout the pandemic. “And so I wouldn’t be surprised if something [that we carried from Earth] evolved quickly to take advantage of a new food source, especially if there was a settler graveyard.

Today, the only remains on Mars are those of defunct robotic missions, dotting the landscape sparingly as they accumulate layer after layer of rusty-red dust. But when the humans arrive, we will clearly have to plan a lot, including what to do with our dead.

About Johnnie Gross

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