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Asked by ryanmccabe to Sara, Kimberley, Julia, Drew, Amy on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by iluvskittles, bubblez13.
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Drew Rae answered on 13 Jun 2011:
There have only been two times we’ve seen anything like this:
Once, when NASA was testing space suits in a special chamber on earth, one of the suits starting leaking. The man went unconscious, and afterwards said that he could feel the water on his tongue boiling first.
A high-altitude balloonist also had the hand on his suit loose pressure. The hand went numb, but after he got back to earth it was okay.
Your skin is actually pretty good at holding you together in space. You won’t blow up, or boil, but you will go unconscious from the lack of oxygen. You might get “the bends” too, like deep sea divers do, from the gas in your blood turning into gas bubbles.
The important thing is not to hold your breath. If you hold your breath, there will be a lot of pressure on your lungs from the gas inside and the vacuum outside.
So remember, if you ever fall out of a space ship, breath out slowly.
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Julia Griffen answered on 13 Jun 2011:
So drew’s covered the pressure issues.. space is also pretty cold -230 DegC!
Space is empty and cold. You need a super warm and secure space suit to keep you safe!
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Sara Imari Walker answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Hi ryanmccabe! I would definitely take Drew’s advice – when in space, breath slowly! I think his examples are really cool, I hadn’t heard of those before so that is really interesting to learn. I agree that the primary concern is the pressure covered by Drew and the waaay below freezing temperatures described by Julia. However there is another danger lurking in the shadows! Bwwaaahaha. Ok I may be getting carried away, but really there is another issue humans in space face that is a real concern – cosmic radiation. Highly radiated particles permeate outer space. We are protected here on Earth by our atmosphere, and space ships, satellites, and even spacesuits actually protect from radiation with dense layers of shielding (including the tiling on the space shuttle). So if you leave your ship without a suit and you manage to get back in time to not die of loss of air, no pressure, or freezing, you could still face the aftereffects of radiation damage (which causes ailments like cancer). To get an idea of how much radiation there is out there – even with the thick layers of projection on the outside of space ships, astronauts have still report seeing constant flashes of light on their eyelids when their eyes are closed! That is the cosmic radiation particles interacting in their eyelids! wow! So, my advice – when in space, stay in your ship or where a suit!!
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Kimberley Bryon answered on 14 Jun 2011:
I think that Drew and Sara have given really good answers to this question. If I am ever in space I shall try not fall out a space ship
Comments
Drew commented on :
Good points added by Julia and Sara. I was so caught up in thinking about pressure that I forgot about cold and radiation. Do you know that when you fly in an airplane, you’re up so high that the atmosphere stops protecting you as much from radiation? They have to worry about the electronics on the planes because the radiation can make it do funny things.
Here’s another scary thought – if you let go of the spaceship, how are you going to get back? Even if you have a suit to protect you, you can’t swim through a vacuum. Unless you have things to throw in the opposite direction, you’re just going to drift forever.
Sara’s right – I think on balance, if you’ve got a good space ship, stay in it.