
Survival in Space Unprotected Is Possible, Briefly (2008) - Thevet
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/survival-in-space-unprotected-possible/
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HCIdivision17
This kind of illustrates that it's not that your blood boils or anything crazy
like that, but rather that without external pressure, your body relies on your
squishy flesh to hold the internal pressures in check. So you'll get a full-
body hickey/swelling and the bends (though deep sea divers can, of course,
suffer far worse since their internal pressure can be multiple atmospheres).
If you've any exposed mucus membranes, expect them to off-gas and to start to
freeze on the surface.

But all that takes time to really set in, so you've got a minute or so before
you're really hurt. By that time, your real problem is simply that you've
stopped breathing, which turns out to be a big deal.

Remember: vacuum is first and foremost an asphyxiant!

(Re asphyxiant, here's my favorite story on the topic:
[http://www.sciforums.com/threads/vacuum-pockets-and-
safety-n...](http://www.sciforums.com/threads/vacuum-pockets-and-safety-
nazis.41446/) )

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RogtamBar
>By that time, your real problem is simply that you've stopped breathing,
which turns out to be a big deal.

With some training holding your breath for 3 minutes is doable for anyone, and
the record is something like 8-9 minutes..

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HCIdivision17
You're right, but one of the main issues is that you probably don't have
enough strength in your lip muscles and throat to keep the air in without
outside pressure. A single ATM of pressure is easy to leak, and your body is
undergoing some real nasty expansion problems; As the sibling commenter notes,
too, holding your breath is likely dangerous, as your internal chest cavity
may not be able to apply enough compressive force to hold the air in. (And
microscopically your lung will try to inflate excessively, leading to internal
bleeding, I think.)

There's a really cool idea for a spacesuit that's basically just a fabric wet
suit that's just _really_ compressive (via electromuscles or cinched bands or
w/e). That way your body gets the ability to hold onto the gas in your lungs
without the risk of your lungs attempting to expand out your gut and throat.

It's an interesting idea though: what if you could train your abdomen and
chest to compress a lung full of air in a vacuum? Then you just gotta keep
your mouth and nose shut somehow. (It'd be really difficult - it'd take a
force like trying to inflate a car tire with your mouth. Possible, but seems
hard.)

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curtis
There was a notable incident in the 1960s where a NASA spacesuit technician
named Jim LeBlanc survived an accidental (but brief) depressurization. There's
a YouTube video describing the accident which includes film of the accident
itself:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8L9tKR4CY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8L9tKR4CY).

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Domenic_S
What a great video, thanks for the link.

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civilian
I remember reading an Arthur C. Clarke book where a space liner has lost their
engines and their airlocks. The protagonist on the military rescue ship
decides to do something drastic: blow up the space liner.

They seal the people into groups of 20 in separate cabins, and then they
detonate small charges to puncture each cabin at a time. Their ship is
positioned right next to the liner, with utility cords leading straight to the
airlock. Clarke took this opportunity to explain that you don't freeze and
explode in space, losing oxygen is the main problem. But also for that
reason--- don't hold your breath when you're about to be exposed to vacuum,
that's just a good way to rupture your lungs from the pressure.

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curtis
This sounds like the end of Earthlight [1] (the novel, not the short story).
However, it was the space liner rescuing the crew of the military ship in this
case. The ability to evacuate the crew of the military ship without spacesuits
is an important plot point, or at least a dramatic one.

Anyway, Clarke was apparently convinced that humans could survive a brief
exposure to vacuum at least as early as 1955.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthlight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthlight)

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mrfusion
Does this mean we might be ok on a 70 degree f [1] Mars with just a breathing
mask? Especially if you're covering the mucus membranes.

1
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mars)

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Oxydepth
I think the movie Event Horizon got it right. For anybody who hasn't seen it,
someone is ejected out into Space. He's saved within about a minute. Though,
he definitely suffers internal bleeding and other damages, he survives.

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TeMPOraL
Caution: Event Horizon is also one hell of a mind-fucking horror movie. It's
not for the weak-minded. _Liberate tuteme ex inferis_. You have been warned.

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to3m
I went to see Event Horizon in the cinema when it first came out, with a
couple of schoolfriends. There was an oldish couple in front of us, maybe in
their 50s, possibly expecting a repeat of 2001.

Eventually the film finished, and we all got up, slightly dazed - couple
included. The woman said to the man, with pursed lips - "Next time, _I 'm_
picking the film" :)

The drive home was about 40 minutes, and my friends and I were silent the
whole way. But I'm sure if I saw it again, it would seem adorably tame.

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TeMPOraL
I watched it on TV, late at night, as a kid. I remember barely being able to
fall asleep out of fear, and I think it took a week for the effects of this
movie to wear off. I'm older now and I've seen enough sad, scary and
disrupting movies that it doesn't affect me anymore, but I'm pretty sure that
if I tried to show it to my SO, I'd have my own Event Horizon right there in
the apartment.

EDIT: I also had the "next time I'm picking the movie" moment after I took my
then-girlfriend to see Prometheus. The TED2023 trailer looked _so cool_ and I
didn't realize it's a prequel to Alien...

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chromaton
This is how the astronaut in 2001: A Space Odyssey manages to get back on
board the main ship.

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rrss1122
To offer another sci-fi example, it's how two pilots of an experimental
spacecraft in the TV series Stargate SG-1 were rescued when the spacecraft
rapidly traveled away from Earth and locked them out of pretty much everything
except ejecting from the craft. Their rescuers were waiting in a nearby
spaceship to scoop them out of the vacuum of space.

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Houshalter
Im really disturbed by the scientists that tortured dozens of dogs and chimps
in vacuums.

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seangrant
It's definitely a touchy subject and disturbing to the general populace, but
such experiments are necessary for the advancement of the human race.

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Pinatubo
I for one am glad to know that dogs in a vacuum spontaneously deficate. I
suspect there is a vacuum that develops overnight in the corner of my living
room.

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davesque
Yeah. Now you don't have to blame the dog! :)

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untilHellbanned
The header takes up half of the page.

