jfw (11/24/82)
>From jfw Tue Nov 23 20:27:36 1982
To: David.Smith@cmu-a
Subject: Shuttle suits & 100% oxygen
Cc: jfw
The urge to breathe is caused by the presence of CO2 in the bloodstream.
When the bloodstream does not have enough CO2, the breathing reflex stops
being triggered. Hyperventilation occurs when someone realizes that they
aren't trying to breathe "fast enough", and decides to correct this (which
in a normal atmosphere makes things worse, since it removes the rest of the
CO2 in the blood). Since astronauts don't go through that, I would guess
that they simply know not to worry about it.
John Woods
jfw@MIT-Ccc@Mit-Mc, or
...!decvax!genradbo!mitccc!jfw (you are lost in a maze of twisty little uucp paths)