It is a sad thing when someone is so desperate that they will attempt this. Its a stupid thing when someone who watched a movie thinks this is actually possible and tries to re-create it on a lark. Maybe a message that said "Be sure to clean off the dead people who try to stow away here." So that people attempting it would realize they were in fact already dead.
Even with a canister of oxygen, at 35,000 feet you can't breath if you aren't in a pressure suit. Just doesn't work that way.
The OP said you needed a pressure suit, and that an O2 canister wouldn't help. Since the pressure of the O2 cannister will be down regulated to 1ATM, I can breath 1ATM air, no matter where I am, including 35,000 feet.
Is there, perhaps, some reason why I can't? Lungs exploding because of the 1ATM pressure differential, for instance? It seems that 1ATM is not that much, but perhaps it is... That's what I'm curious about.
You can breath pressurized air directly from an air mask without wearing a pressurized suit. Many military aircraft use this system (the air mask is strapped tightly to the face to maintain pressure).
I'm sure at some point you need a pressurized suit to make breathing possible, but it likely has more to do with preventing decompression sickness and protecting against the cold (at very low pressure the moisture from your skin will rapidly boil, cooling off your skin).
That's a great link. Here is another http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/87912main_H-1093.pdf both of which say that if you have an air tight mask correctly valved you can breath at 40,000' on stored oxygen. (in the NASA case they were interested in getting between really high altitude and then down to 40K' in the event of a loss of cabin pressure)
The summary then would be that you aren't going to survive in a wheel well of an air craft above 35,000 without carrying both oxygen and a delivery system that is capable of maintaining an adequate partial pressure in your lungs.
Now when I visited NASA AMES during one of their many open houses we got to look at one of their U2 research planes and either I or one of my kids asked the pilot why they wore a 'spacesuit' and their response was "Because oxygen masks don't work above 35,000 feet." which, more accurately it would seem its harder and harder to make a working system as you go above 35,000'.
Very cool discussion btw, clearly its a very nuanced kind of thing.
Sea level is not the minimum oxygen levels tolerable by your body. Why, just a month or two ago I climbed to 14,000ft. Made me dizzy and nauseous , but the partial pressure was somewhere around 80mmHg.
This is true and something I should have mentioned.
Humans can function to varying degrees at lower partial pressures of O2 than you experience at sea level (obviously, since people live at altitudes of up to 12K ft).
If you have not adapted to high altitude, you will experience cognitive decline at altitudes much higher than 10K ft, although they can be imperceptible. You can also go up to 30K ft, lose consciousness, but experience no long term harm as long as it's not for extended periods of time.
There have been glider pilots who have been caught in massive up drafts, climbed to 30K ft or higher, lost consciousness, then regained consciousness when they descended and safely landed their planes.
The OED attests that silverstorm's usage is the older one, predating yours by 8 years (1604 vs 1612).
Regardless (and I feel like such a broken record saying this), meaning in language is determined by consensus, not dictum, and at least for me (a 21 year old who grew up in the United States), "nauseous" can have no meaning but "sickened". "Nauseating" is what I would use for your meaning.
Your lungs need a minimum density of air in order for the gas to pass into your blood. If you can't maintain that air density you 'outgas' only. It won't kill you immediately (you can actually survive in a complete vacuum for example) until the existing oxygen in your system runs out, then its game over.
"At 18,000ft (5,490m), experts say, hypoxia will set in, causing weakness, tremors, light-headedness and visual impairment...Above 33,000ft (10,065m) the lungs require artificial pressure to function normally."
Above 33,000ft (10,065m) the lungs require artificial
pressure to function normally.
So, you don't know either. Why did you respond then? The pressure from an oxygen canister can be down regulated to anything you choose, including 1ATM.
I doubt that human lungs can withstand this much difference between inside and outside pressure. I haven't found the maximum non-harmful difference but a quick google found that maximum expiratory pressure in men is 97 cmH2O. This is only about 0.08 atm.
So I wouldn't count on the canister alone, unless it is connected to a full-body suit.
It seems to be that above 40,000 feet that the oxygen you're taking in can't be absorbed if the air you're breathing isn't sufficiently pressurized. Decompression sickness will be your biggest problem.
I was watching a documentary about a group of doctors doing high altitude research while climbing Mt Everest. It was claimed in that documentary that breathing pure oxygen only increases actual oxygen intake by 5% at those sort of altitudes.
Presumably they were talking about conventional oxygen masks and not the tight fitting, high pressure masks that pilots use.
In any case I was fairly shocked that breathing pure oxygen made such a small difference at altitude, but the difference it does make can be critical at the limits of human endurance.
Even with a canister of oxygen, at 35,000 feet you can't breath if you aren't in a pressure suit. Just doesn't work that way.