🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <720796989snx@osea.demon.co.uk>, andy@osea.demon.co.uk (Andrew Haveland-Robinson) writes:
> 
> In article <13335@ecs.soton.ac.uk> nf@ecs.soton.ac.uk writes:
>>   What will happen if the space suite of an austronaut gets ripped in space ?
> 
> Well Nick, my feeling is that he would nearly explode.  

*Bzzt* Wrong, but thank you for playing.  I append Henry Spencer's
summary of this every-so-Frequently Asked Question from the FAQ files
(as if they hadn't been posted just days ago!).

Ever put your hand up against the nozzle of vacuum cleaner? Your skin
will hold about 1 atmosphere pressure nicely.

The reason I'm writing, instead of just allowing the discussion to
peter out, is to mention that a suggestion of Hermann Oberth's:
Astronauts might wear spacesuits without gloves for delicate work!

He reasoned that your skin can stand up to low pressure without major
medical problems, so maybe you could work without pressure gloves in
space.  You'd have to wear thin gloves for thermal and UV protection,
and making a good wrist seal on your spacesuit might be tough-- but
maybe not as hard as the problem of making a really flexible pressure
glove! I think this was in his Fifties book *Man in Space*.

Now, here's Henry...
==================

    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.

    References:

    _The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum_,
    Alfred G. Koestler ed., NASA CR-329 (Nov 1965).

    _Experimental Animal Decompression to a Near Vacuum Environment_, R.W.
    Bancroft, J.E. Dunn, eds, Report SAM-TR-65-48 (June 1965), USAF School
    of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas.

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