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What happens to an unprotected human body in space?
- pclark 16y agoJust like in Event Horizon (really)
- coderdude 16y agoIn Event Horizon your eyeballs bleed. You start going into convulsions as your veins swell and everything is getting sucked out of you. That article made it sound kind of peaceful, provided you blew the air out of your lungs. Which, now that I think about it, is probably what you are referring to (exhaling all the air from your lungs).
- jarin 16y agoSounds like your lacrimal fluid would boil off, but maybe if you keep blinking you might be able to operate the airlock handle when jumping between airlocks?
- whatwhatwhat 16y agoThis article just leaves me wanting to ask more questions...
- _delirium 16y agoSame here, and oddly I seem unable to turn up a good book passage or scientific paper on the subject (maybe it's just that my Google Books and Scholar keywords are bad?). Surely someone, somewhere, must've written a review article with a title like, "The Effects of a Vacuum on the Human Body", providing a nice survey of the known facts? The closest I can find is a 1974 paper reviewing the effects of local pressure reductions, e.g. placing someone's arm in a low-pressure chamber, or applying high suction to a wound. Unfortunately, doesn't seem to be available online, but here's the first page: http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/pdf_extract/54/3/566 http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/pdf_extract/54/3/566
- whatwhatwhat 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pressure_wound_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pressure_wound_therapy
- neonak 16y agoWhy the boiling?
- spectre 16y agoAs pressure decreases boiling point also decreases, so in a vacuum it is below your body temperature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure#Boiling_point_of_water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure#Boiling_po...
- fowlerrr 16y agoIf I can remember my high school physics, basically it's because of the low pressure. Pressure x Volume = Temperature, so as the pressure decreases, so does the temperature. But Wikipedia answers it better than I can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point
- jjs 16y agoYou're looking for the Ideal Gas Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law), which is derived from Boyle's Law (relation between gas pressure and volume), and Charles's Law (expansion of gas when heated). The related concept here is that liquids remain liquid when the vapor pressure of the substance is less than the atmospheric pressure. So, by the above laws, you can make water boil by (a) heating the water to increase the vapor pressure, or (b) reducing the atmospheric pressure to less than the existing vapor pressure of the water, or (c) some combination of (a) and (b).
- mmaunder 16y agoGet a syringe. Fill it about a quarter way with water. Turn it facing up and squirt out any air bubbles. Block the end where the needle goes with your finger. Pull the plunger back hard as if you're filling it all the way up. You'll pull a hard vacuum and you'll see the water inside bubble as it boils at room temp.
- ovi256 16y ago
- Myrth 16y ago"and animal experiments confirm" bastards...
- ascuttlefish 16y agoIt does seem a bit cruel, to be honest.
- ars 16y agoNot if you anesthetize the animals first.
- petercooper 16y agohttp://www.astronomycast.com/space-flight/ep-121-spacesuits/ http://www.astronomycast.com/space-flight/ep-121-spacesuits/ Just because it's entertaining, the presenters are awesome, and you get to learn a lot of cool stuff (and they cite the link in question, too).
- mmaunder 16y ago"...his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil." Reality is so much cooler than fiction. I've read just about everything Clarke, Heinlein and Asimov have written among many other physics sci-fi authors and none of them thought of that one.
- timf 16y agoApparently this happened at Johnson Space Center in a vacuum, so the temperature would be high enough to make that happen with the reduced atmospheric pressure (see the chart at [1]). The temperature in space is far, far colder, I don't see how this could happen. [1] http://www.iapws.org/faq1/boil.htm http://www.iapws.org/faq1/boil.htm EDIT: According to the replies at [2], the retained heat of ejected astronaut urine is enough to first cause boiling but that heat runs out quickly and you get ice crystals. [2] http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01060.htm http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01060.htm
- Avshalom 16y agoWell as far as spit on the tongue goes, any water that doesn't boil off remains in contact with the tongue/cheeks, conduction being way faster that radiation at 37c any spit that did freeze due to evaporative cooling would thaw out again very quickly. It's different for urine which lacks the continual heat source. If you had a mouthful of water, instead of a thin sheet of spit, you'd likely end up with an ice cube for a while.
- bjelkeman-again 16y ago"He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain." Why was that? Does the low pressure force oxygen out of the blood in the lungs and thereby having oxygen "free" blood arriving in the brain? If you hold your breath you can easily hold it for a minute without loosing consciousness. So the low pressure must be actively taking oxygen out of the blood, otherwise I can't see that you would loose consciousness in 15 seconds. How long did it take for Dave Bowman to exit the pod and pressurize the airlock? :)
- jjs 16y agoHow long did it take for Dave Bowman to exit the pod and pressurize the airlock? :) (SPOILER if you haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92vSua8XJY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92vSua8XJY In this clip, he ejects at about 0:20 and hits the lever around 0:27. You can see him go limp just after 0:34, before the chamber has finished pressurizing. 14 seconds. So regardless of why the real-life (1965) test subject blacked out after 14 seconds, it appears that the makers of the (1968) film had done their homework!
- brazzy 16y agoIf you hold your breath, your lungs are still filled with air, which contains oxygen. So there's still some oxygen being transferred into your blood, it just gets less and less. But actually, I suspect that the far more important factor is CO2, which leaves the blood in the lungs when there is air present.
- berntb 16y ago>>If you hold your breath, your lungs are still filled with air Just let me note -- don't hold your breath when there are pressure differences between your lungs and the surroundings!! You can find that in any scuba diving manual. (Edit: I do realize the parent poster probably knows this.)
- grinich 16y ago
- RyanMcGreal 16y agoA bigger worry is the improbability of having another ship arrive to pick you up within 30 seconds.
- dhs 16y agoDon't panic, and a ship powered by an infinite improbability drive will pop up. Happens all the time...
- jrockway 16y agoSo that's what that tunnel of light is...
- rationalbeaver 16y agoDon't forget your towel.
- electromagnetic 16y agoDamn, left it in the dryer!
- sown 16y agoGoing from 1 ATM to 0 doesn't kill you but going from 9 ATM to 1 will http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_acci...
- johnohara 16y agoMy guess is the parachute record still stands. 19.5 miles is not quite 10% the minimum altitude of the space shuttle. Then you jump and wait for the feeling to come back in your right arm.
- metamemetics 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Leonov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Leonov >On March 18, 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk. >At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off, and was barely able to get back inside the capsule.