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I imagine that means they give up repeating, "do you copy?"

Did they have suicide pills? I don't think I'd want to suffocate.




According to this [1] they didn't need them:

> Outer space is just as effective a suicide agent as a cyanide capsule, perhaps even more so. Exposure to its empty vacuum often results in a blissful loss of consciousness in a matter of seconds. Death by asphyxiation usually follows within two minutes.

[1] http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/10/astronauts-and-...


Two minutes is a helluva long time, (But if it's true that the cyanide crunch is 4 minutes, then, point given.)


As long as blissful unconsciousness is reached within seconds I don't think the other two minutes matter a whole lot.


You know I almost didn't include the two minutes bit because I figured people would fixate on that and not realize you aren't conscious for it.


Hypercapnia is the scary part. Turning off the O2 feed and passing out should be pretty peaceful if the CO2 scrubber still works.


It is hard to imagine them just giving up. Why not try to fix the problem, even if it is a long shot.


Some problems are very clearly impossible to fix, especially without a planet of tools and resources.

Can't really synthesize fuel, can you?


The one that got to me was the Lunar Module Ascent Engine. You only get one and the fuel is so corrosive that it couldn't be test fired. It works on the first try, or it doesn't.




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