Space

[AyashiKaibutsu]

If you go into space, will you flash freeze? Someone told me you do, but there is very little in space to tranfer heat to so it doesn't seem possible. What happens to living beings when exposed to space? Did they ever send a monkey up expose him and bring him back down to look at the corpse?

 

[f95toli]

Space is cold but nothing will ever "flash freeze", simply because it always takes time to cool something down.
Besides, in space the only cooling mechanism is radiation cooling which is fairly slow.

Your main problem in space is that your blood will start to boil because of the low pressure, but you would probably be able to survive for a few seconds which might be enought for a rescue operation.

 

[PsharkJF]

You'd actually explode, too.

 

[L00PY]

"You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness."

First google hit on space+human+vacuum.

If you go unprotected into space, you'll probably lose consciousness after around 15 seconds. Exposure of around 30s or so probably won't do you any permanent harm. Beyond a minute or two, the damage from the "extreme case of the bends" you suffer probably inflicts enough damage to kill you.

 

[Baric]

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
You'd actually explode, too.

I'd don't think you'd explode, exactly, but there would be severe effects from the lack of pressure from a severe case of the bends (ie. gases in the blood boiling out) to aneurisms to smalls cuts or weaknesses in the skin erupting to major organ and tissue damage due to massive but constricted swelling (like inside the rib cage and in the skull). All in all, very unpleasent. Very brief exposure would probably be survivable. Anything more than a few seconds and your chances of survival go way, way down, if not immediately, then from the long term effects of the exposure.

What an odd topic to find on a board devoted to computer hardware.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Baric

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
You'd actually explode, too.

I'd don't think you'd explode, exactly, but there would be severe effects from the lack of pressure from a severe case of the bends (ie. gases in the blood boiling out) to aneurisms to smalls cuts or weaknesses in the skin erupting to major organ and tissue damage due to massive but constricted swelling (like inside the rib cage and in the skull). All in all, very unpleasent. Very brief exposure would probably be survivable. Anything more than a few seconds and your chances of survival go way, way down, if not immediately, then from the long term effects of the exposure.

What an odd topic to find on a board devoted to computer hardware.

What an inaccurate opinion from someone who didn't check the links provided above
Welcome to anandtech.

Anyway, to summarize the link, it's been done to a human on accident. He survived. Lost consciousness. But,

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.

That would feel sooooo weird!

 

[kcthomas]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
there is very little in space to tranfer heat to so it doesn't seem possible

maybe its because there is nothing in space that holds heat, therefore there is a complete lack of heat which is the definition of cold i guess.

 

[Baric]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
What an inaccurate opinion from someone who didn't check the links provided above
Welcome to anandtech.

Anyway, to summarize the link, it's been done to a human on accident. He survived. Lost consciousness. But,

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.

That would feel sooooo weird!

Oh please, That's one example and it's harldy representative since there have been so few occurances of this. Now if you want to debate how long it would take for some of these effects to happen, great.

 

[f95toli]

I read the link and I was a bit surprised that the skin can "contain" the liquids in the body well enough to prevent them from boiling (with "boiling" I mean a rapid expansion).

Regarding the cooling mechism: It is just standard radiation cooling (aka the T^5 law ) which is pretty inefficient compared to convection/conduction (which is why you use vacuum for thermal insulation), so yes this is not a big problem.

I should also point out that you do not really "freeze" in the ordinary sense (at least not at first), the wounds you get from for example a very cold gas look like burns and your skin effectecly dries out pretty quickly (I know this for a fact, I have had parts of my hand in 70-80K gas for a second or two a few times, it hurts a lot) so there is no ice forming on your skin or anything like that.

 

[Cogman]

this should clear things up. This is made possible by bad astronomy.com, under the mission to mars review.

Bad: It becomes clear that Blake will die, and no one can save him. He knows his wife will try, even though it might kill her too. To save her, he kills himself by taking his helmet off. Instantly, he freezes, and his face becomes distorted and icky.

Good: Again, he wouldn't freeze that fast. The human body holds a lot of heat, and it would take a long time to freeze. Have you ever found yourself literally freezing solid when you go outside on a winter's day? No, of course not. Yet losing heat by transferring it to cold air is far faster than doing so by simply radiating it away, as you would in space. If it takes a long time in frigid air, it would take even longer in frigid space.

His face would not get icky, either; at least, not right away. There is no air in space. Despite what movies like ``Outland'' would have you believe, you wouldn't explode if exposed to space. The air would rush out of your lungs explosively, which could damage your lungs and throat. But your skin and vascular system would contain your blood fairly well, protecting it against the vacuum, so your blood would not boil. After a long time, the cells would freeze, and the expanding ice crystals (water expands when it freezes) would rupture the cells, making you look a pretty good mess. But that would take hours, or longer, not seconds. Oddly though, a human can survive several seconds of pure vacuum. ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' had a scene like this; the astronaut had to go from his pod to the airlock without his helmet. I don't think he would look as nicely coiffed after the incident as he did in the movie, but the scene was largely accurate. Ironically, as Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out, in Earth orbit, your biggest problem is sunburn! Exposure to the UV light of the Sun would fry your skin in minutes, giving you a very bad sunburn. I'd be satisfied to live with that, given the alternative! For more info about what happens when a human is exposed to a vacuum, read the Imagine the Universe! website. They have real-life examples discussed too. Very cool.
Note (April 11, 2000): Shame on me. I originally said your blood would boil on this page. I was confused about something I had read quite some time ago. Several Bad Readers wrote in saying I was a wrong, and they were right! I also wasn't clear on why your cells would rupture, so I made that more specific in the text above. Also (added June 6, 2001) I said originally that the Sun would give you sunburn in seconds, but I think that is too fast; it would take a few minutes. I have no references for this, just a logical guess. If anyone knows any better, let me know!

 

[effee]

If anyone has seen the movie Event Horizon, the scene where the boy opens the airlock and walks out into space..and his eyes just start bleeding away..would that happen?

 

[dkozloski]

Years ago during the pre Mercury days of the space program some experimentation was done with monkeys and explosive decompression in vacuum chambers. The monkeys were fitted with a suit that looked like long underwear made out of about 1/4 inch mesh material. The idea of the suit was to provide a little support for the skin and be a starting place for some kind of emergency protection for astronauts. The monkeys survived the explosive decompression but there was no way in hell to get them back into the chamber for another test. From this it was inferred that it was probably a pretty uncomfortable experience.

 

[Calin]

The temperature is a measure of molecular movements (speed of movement). This movement is called Brownian.
In space, where there are no molecules, the temperature cease to exist. Also, small concentrations (sub-1mm Hg) of extremely fast moving molecules will give a temperature unbelievably high in a place that could not warm significantly a gram of water.
In space the temperature is computed more as a measure of the incoming and outgoing radiation. This is the reason why satelites and space stations rotate (otherwise the part exposed to Sun would reach temperatures of hudreds of *C, and those exposed to void would cool at sub -100 *C.

Calin