Killer in space...

This was inspired by the "Do astronauts carry weapons?" thread.

What if a Canadian, for example, got aboard the ISS with a gun/knife in their luggage and killed the American and Russian astro/cosmonauts?...

Or taken hostage?

Would military personnel be dispatched?..

How?..

Would an "ordinary" astronaut be given a gun to go on a "rescue mission"?...

Would the "rescuer" be killed as soon as they attempted to enter the ISS?..

Would they jeopordize the whole ISS and leave the killer their until they die?...

Always wondered how the world would encounter/react to a true space threat, as such!!

reply to post by CanadianDream420


The dark marines will assist............... Their energy gets around from what has been observed.

A Canadian? Wouldn't they just be happy to be there? You could probably just cut off life support from groundside and let them expire...

reply to post by CanadianDream420


While it would be upsetting and a horrible event. I don't know that they would send someone up there.. I mean what can the ISS do? How is it a threat? There are no weapons on the space station. It is a research facility. About the only thing that could be done would be setting it for re-entry to crash into a city or something, and if that occurred the space weapons that all the countries don't have would be used.

Was watching the movie sunshine last night and my girlfriend said "Why do the even bother with space rescue missions? They are always too late". Kind of a shi^e thing to say but. I could very well see this being the case.

Crazed astronaut gets on board kills other nauts and is then killed by remote as the oxygen to the base is cut off from a command center on earth. Cover up ensues official story of a "space virus" killing everyone one board is concocted making them modern day martyrs and us none the wiser

Or at least that's what I think they would do.

That is all

Trowa

How about they just let the Canadian stay up there until food, water or oxygen run out. The Canadian would be on a suicide mission any way you look at it.

Sunshine is a GREAT movie. :0)

I think they would attempt a rescue if hostages were taken. Still don't know we would tackle a rescue mission tho..

The chaos space marines have always been up to pasky little tricks as to Hijacing the ISS however! The Blood Angels shall not falter!

It's an extremely good and difficult question, I couldn't find anything pertaining to NASA's specific procedures for this sort of thing. I doubt they even expect that it could happen, given the amount of work they do, but they can't catch everything.

If anything, it's quite likely that it would set legal precedent in that NASA and perhaps the US Government would petition a court to conduct a trial by video link. It's a very very unlikely possibility, but they could get permission to carry out a death sentence by asphyxiation.

Now, this is entirely speculation as this would pretty much be an unexplored area of international law, and given the safety equipment available on the ISS it's likely that the astronaut would have to be starved to death, rather than killed humanely, which would not be permissible.

Congratulations on one of the most interesting topics on ATS in some time.

reply to post by Phantom28804


Kinetic weapons. Usually a Titanium spear. Of course nobody would equip a space station with that. Course the whole honking thing would make a nice dent somewhere.

Originally posted by exponent
Itbut they can't catch everything.

Remember that NASA three-way relationship drama?... They caught the woman/astronaut in a diaper?...
lol

They are human like any/all of us and could snap anytime.

Originally posted by exponentIt's a very very unlikely possibility, but they could get permission to carry out a death sentence by asphyxiation.

If they can control Oxygen release from Houston then this is a VERY likely solution...
Dangerous tho? What if there were hostages?

Originally posted by exponentCongratulations on one of the most interesting topics on ATS in some time.

Originally posted by CanadianDream420
Remember that NASA three-way relationship drama?... They caught the woman/astronaut in a diaper?...
lol

They are human like any/all of us and could snap anytime.

Oh certainly, I was just saying that they may not have come up with sufficient procedures as they never expected it.

If they can control Oxygen release from Houston then this is a VERY likely solution...
Dangerous tho? What if there were hostages?

If there were hostages then yeah they definitely wouldn't be able to get permission. I don't know about controlling oxygen as I very much doubt this sort of scenario was factored in with the system design.

Hopefully Phage or someone more knowledgeable on space procedures will drop by.

You could possibly send them up some tainted food something to put them asleep for awhile and then send someone to bring them back for trial... They should get spaced though it's the scifi way...

reply to post by CanadianDream420


This is actualy a very interesting scenario. Some space terrorist decides he wants to wreck the whole ISS. what could the Gov do about it.

It would probaly start with negotiations. Even if he/she has already killed the rest of the crew they could easily wreck the rest of the project.

If the person is not open to negotiation then thats where the problems start. They could just leave them alone to get on with it. Do what they will untill they run out of supplies and die. This could be as long as six weeks though. They could wreck a whole lot in that time scale.

I wreckon they'd keep them talking wjile they got a rocket preped. Then they'd send a heavily armed unit up to dock with the station and take them out. Faced with the cost of rebuilding or at least re refiting of the ISS this would seem like the best option.

reply to post by CanadianDream420


My take on this scenario. Not to sure, but I would assume that the X-37 can be outfitted with a habitable module in the cargo bay. Most Astronauts are by nature Military, so they have basic weapons knowledge as well as knowing whether or not to shoot, depends upon oxygen, how thin the skin of the ISS is at the point of shooting. Of course they would be using Hydra-Shok bullets as these enter but rarely exit soft skin targets.

There are sensors throughout the ISS, so it would be a simple matter of separating the the Hostage(s) from the idiot. (I say idiot, because are you really going to get away with this?) They can seal off individual sections from Mission Control and bleed the air. Once unconscious or dead, the X-37 crew enters, Bags ‘em, tags ‘em and takes them home.

And I am positive that news of this incident would never see the light of day.

reply to post by TDawgRex


How sure are you that they can control parts of the ISS from Earth?

reply to post by CanadianDream420


Have you seen Airplane? Ground control pushes a button and several of those inflatable chaps pop up all over the ISS and remove all threats.

reply to post by CanadianDream420


What a profound question...


And the obvious answer - send in the Pros:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fd7b84e0d49e.jpg[/atsimg]

Ground control would have to have access to systems in space, purely for the sake of redundancy. If it was a hostage situation, it would be a little trickier, but if someone just went bat crap insane and killed the rest of the crew on the ISS, I would think just opening a hatch or two and spacing the entire facility would certainly be an option.

Anyone who goes into space goes through far too much testing before ever being considered for an actual mission. This makes the possibility of this happening a virtual impossibility...