Halloween Spooktacular - Death in Space! w/ Kevin Heath, Founder of Space Crystals!

Happy Halloween!For our Spppooooky Halloween episode of The Cosmic Companion, we’re going to look at Death in Space! Nearly 600 people have launched into space since Yuri Gagarin’s first journey beyond our planetary birthplace. During that time, 19 people, so far, have perished during training or flights. 14 of these were accounted for by the pair of space shuttle tragedies. But, beyond accidents, death is one of the great certainties of life — or something like that. To paraphrase Will Shakespeare, “…[A]ll that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity, even in space.”One gruesome reality is that human bodies may need to be recycled — perhaps even becoming the basis of food. We will likely not be seeing Soylent Space anytime, but nothing can go to waste in space stations and habitats — astronauts aboard the ISS, for instance, are required to finish all their food for instance, and even human urine is recycled into water…  Listen to our podcast here or watch the video version of this episode!We have the second edition of the newly-revamped VIP newsletter coming out this weekend full of extras, and…Join us 3 November for Ryugu and the Giant Laser! We will talk with Esen Ercan Alp of Argonne National Laboratory and Barbara Levine from the University of Chicago about their work examining samples from the asteroid Ryugu! Happy Halloween and, as always….Clear skies! James This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecosmiccompanion.substack.com/subscribe