If you're that weary of a slow death, they could easily bring a weapon or kill pills just in case.

Let's assume Earth isn't safe (as they do in the show) and you already wasted one shuttle to test that, in a place with limited resources do you think they can just send shuttles randomly to Earth? They have to think about how they will get everyone back to Earth once it is "safe".

They have been in space for like 97 years, don't you think that supplies are running low?
Why waste bullets or medical supplies [making kill pills] to kill people off when it is easy to just throw them out or suffucate them to death.

If I was in their position [leaders] stuck on that vessel, I would ensure that any weapon and consumables are stored for re-establishing a society
back on earth, no need to waste supplies, on top of that, I would not like to see a wild shot crack a window in space.

They were volunteers to die, I'm sure if they were also given the option to take their chances on earth with the possibility of a slow death, they would still do it. No suicide pills needed.



They won't be able to wait until earth is safe anyways, and if they do, they will surely need to kill off more people, there would probably shuttles left over if they decrease population

This post was edited by Meatstick on Apr 19 2014 02:38pm

They need to decrease population to give them time to fix the systems. In the predicted time to return to earth(another 100 years) I am sure they will have replaced the 320 that died and 102 that were sent down.

There is a chance that the systems cannot be fixed at all though.

It will take at minimum 6 months (if it's possible), and they will have to decrease population by much more to buy that amount of time. If were to take longer, the population will need to keep being decreased

This post was edited by Meatstick on Apr 19 2014 03:40pm

According to their calculations they decreased it as much as would be needed to fix the problem.

They aren't even sure if the problems can be fixed

ok epo 5 was so ridic
dont think can watch more :\

The way I see it there are some points to consider:

1. To the best of anyone's knowledge they don't have the guaranteed expertise or technology to fix or create new life support systems (or they would have considered that option, plus they killed off one of their most experienced and trained experts)

Also, it's probable that the current life support systems will actually continue to deteriorate requiring further decreases in population

2. The previous point creates an upper limit on the population because anything above the point they are at now (after killing off 300) will drain the systems (so future generations are unlikely to need extra dropships or shuttles to account for anything above this limit, which will probably also get lower)

3. They have been there for somewhere around 100 years? They should have enough dropships and shuttles to send every single person down right? I mean I don't think they would be sitting there for so many years just to be surprised one day they actually don't have enough dropships and shuttles for somewhere around the total population (minus maybe those are too sick and elderly to survive reentry). What were they planning to just leave some people behind for funzies?

4. Therefore, I think it's at least reasonable to conclude that they should have had a shuttle/dropship available for the 300 on top of what they need for the rest of the population / new population limits

They could have given these volunteers to die an option at least, die in the room(s) or have a chance of surviving on earth

Also, there's a risk for radiation in space (so they should have equipment and technology to detect it), it's a little strange that they send people down without equipment that can monitor radiation in the environment (bracelets didn't seem intended to communicate death from radiation)

Finally, they could try dropping on different parts of Earth where chances of survival are acceptable
It seems a little silly that they can't somehow survey the planet with something from all these space stations that were combined into the Ark


I don't know just something to think about I guess :3