newman@fortune.UUCP (Steven Newman) (10/19/83)
As has already been mentioned, people (vertebrates in general) can survive *moderatly* long exposure to hard vaccumm. A surprisingly good coverage of this topic is in the unlikly source of a novel entitled "Space Doctor"(author unknown) where the term "vac-bite" is coined. Seems that the sub-cutanious oedema, and rupturing of the cappilaries causes a condition similar to frostbite! Steve Newman
decot@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dave Decot) (10/21/83)
How about the multiple occurences of messy exploding people in Outland? "Yep, they blowed up REAL good!" ---------------------------------------- Dave Decot ..!decvax!cwruecmp!decot
okie@ihuxs.UUCP (10/26/83)
While we're on the subjects of people exploding in vacuum *and* *2001*... In *2001*, there's a sequence where astronaut Bowman is unable to get back into the ship; HAL won't open the pod bay doors (#*$% AI machines!). Well, there's an airlock nearby, but in his rush to get outdoors, Bowman forgot his helmet (#*$% actors!). So this is the end, right? WRONG! Our Hero knows (he being an astronaut and all) that you can survive a short exposure to vacuum. So he manages to blow his way into the open airlock, get the door closed, and fill it with air before he does a good imitation of a puffer fish. In all, he was in vacuum for about 15 or 20 seconds -- but it seemed much longer (did any of you hold your breaths during that sequence?). It was a good tension-building scene. BThis was no accident; Clarke knew his stuff. In one of his earlier novels (*Earthlight*), he has a good treatment of this same subject. The crew of a crippled spaceship has to be taken onto another ship before its pile blows; but there aren't enough suits to go around. So the rest have to go over lines to the other ship (no hard-docking is possible)... B.K. (can I breathe now?) Cobb BTL Indian Hill Naperville, IL
speaker@umcp-cs.UUCP (11/14/83)
pressure of the inside of this astronauts body is 10 ^ 5 newtons / square meter, which nicely balances that of the atmosphere so that there is no net pressure. The pressure of space pressing inwards is about 0. Certainly his skin cannot withstand such a pressure gradient. He would explode. Not necessarily so. The body is not like a gas-bag. it can be compressed. This doesn't mean that it will exert pressure in the absence of pressure exerted in. Besides, they've already exposed test subjects to raw vacum. -- - Speaker-To-Stuffed-Animals speaker@umcp-cs speaker.umcp-cs@CSnet-Relay
judd@umcp-cs.UUCP (11/16/83)
p NO, is no pressure internal to human body compensating for 15Lb/sq in. atmosphere. Human made up of cells which are largly water which is largley incompressable. So when take pressure off skin nothing nasty happens. Of course will dry out as water boils at low temp in vaccumm.
eich@uiuccsb.UUCP (11/20/83)
#R:umcp-cs:-377100:uiuccsb:10000029:000:315 uiuccsb!eich Nov 17 11:32:00 1983 Didn't somebody already point out that test animals subjected to reasonably hard vacuums didn't explode? Common sense indicates that the skin is a little tougher than that. People in Hollywood (like Peter Hyams, whose `Outland' perpetrated this myth in ridiculously gory fashion) seem to like the idea, though.