the random thought thread

[desert]

I'm pretty sure you die within 1 minute (at most) from lack of air. And wouldn't you either freeze solid instantly or be flash-fried by heat from the sun?

[InsaneApache]

I'm pretty sure you die within 1 minute (at most) from lack of air. And wouldn't you either freeze solid instantly or be flash-fried by heat from the sun?

That's what I thought but interestingly because space is a vacuum there is no medium to radiate away your body heat. Also your body is robust enough to prevent your lungs from being sucked out, so to speak.

So that scene in 2001 where Dave Bowman blows his pods explosive bolts to re-enter the air lock is
plausible.

[desert]

That's strange. Why would you need a medium? The sun's heat travels fine without one.

Hypothetically, let's say you don't freeze or burn. It all comes down to how long you can hold your breath, which is probably around a minute. Maybe two if you are good.

[InsaneApache]

How long can a human live unprotected in space?

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts -- and animal experiments confirm -- that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.

Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.

At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in '65. 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. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil.

Aviation Week and Space Technology (02/13/95) printed a letter by Leonard Gordon which reported another vacuum-packed anecdote:

"The experiment of exposing an unpressurized hand to near vacuum for a significant time while the pilot went about his business occurred in real life on Aug. 16, 1960. Joe Kittinger, during his ascent to 102,800 ft (19.5 miles) in an open gondola, lost pressurization of his right hand. He decided to continue the mission, and the hand became painful and useless as you would expect. However, once back to lower altitudes following his record-breaking parachute jump, the hand returned to normal."

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...rs/970603.html

Dunno if it's true but it sounds it.

[Hooahguy]

can you guys take it to a diferent thread please?

[Aemilius Paulus]

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...rs/970603.html

Dunno if it's true but it sounds it.

Well, you should have trouble with your lungs if you keep them filled with air. Your inner pressure will be too high. Of course, YOU will not pop, but there is a good chance your lungs will. That is what I have read. Zubrin.

@Hooah: isn't this random thought thread ? This is random. That is why threads have topic to prevent them from going off track. I will stop now, but this thread is bound to find something else specific to discuss. Ahh, I miss not posting this in the EB Tavern... You can talk about anything that comes onto your mind there. Oh, and the group just went public!!

[InsaneApache]

Why is a Bombay duck not a duck?

[A Very Super Market]

I forgot the rest of the joke, but your mother's a harlot! [/SeanConnery]