How long astronauts can live on ISS if humanity perishes on Earth
How long astronauts could live on the ISS if humanity were to disappear (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
Imagine this scenario: a team of astronauts is aboard the ISS, while humanity has disappeared - either an asteroid hit, everyone perished after a pandemic, or nuclear weapons wiped out all life. How long could the astronauts survive on the ISS without support from Earth?
Lad Bible explains how long astronauts could live on the ISS if humanity ceased to exist.
How quickly will food and oxygen run out
A educator and host of his channel under the pseudonym Vsauce explained that in the event of humanity’s disappearance, astronauts would be able to survive on the ISS for quite a long time.
Oxygen needed for breathing is processed on the station itself through electrolysis. Standardized food supplies would last for about two years, after which starvation would begin. Of course, this depends on when the last supply ship arrived.
NASA has stated that all food sent to space must have a shelf life of at least one year. However, in the scenario of humanity’s extinction, expired food would be the least of the astronauts' worries.
By the way, the astronauts aboard the ISS once had to manage for 8 months without replenishing food, water, and other supplies after three consecutive supply missions failed. This was a real situation where astronauts had to go without resupplies from Earth for an extended period.
What else threatens astronauts
But food and air are not the most pressing problems. Sooner than hunger and lack of oxygen, astronauts could be killed by something else - orbital decay.
According to Vsauce, the ISS with astronauts onboard will likely be able to survive for about 15 months before crashing into Earth. He said that the first thing to run out will be altitude.
The ISS orbits at an altitude of about 418 kilometers, but it gradually descends closer to the planet due to the combined effects of Earth's gravity and low oxygen levels, which slow the spacecraft's movement. However, the ISS’s orbit is usually restored through resupply spacecraft.
NASA has cited another reason - according to reports, the ISS would operate for 1-2 years without resupply before it burns up in Earth's atmosphere.
And one more question - would the astronauts want to survive that long on the ISS, knowing what awaits them? Considering the research on the effects of space on astronauts’ bodies, it's likely that they would not.
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