This first thing that Kills a human in Space?

[DaveC426913]

Was Dave's reentry to the station in the movie 2001 possible?

I tried to find a clip but the only one spotted ends right at the critical scene. Basically what happens is that Dave just holds his breath.

Two things wrong with the scene:

1] The pod should have rocketed away in the oppoisite direction.
2] If he actually held his breath (as opposed to letting it all out), then he would have died within the hour from ruptured pleura and alveoli.

 

[mheslep]

Two things wrong with the scene:

1] The pod should have rocketed away in the oppoisite direction.

IIRC he used the pod arms to lock onto some part of the spacecraft .[/QUOTE]

 

[Mk]

*sigh*
Where's Evo? I swear she posts this link in every one of these threads:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

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.

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.

 

[mgb_phys]

You are though likely to be unconscious in seconds. In a vacuum your lungs work very efficiently in reverse and suck oxygen out of your blood stream.
At 35,000ft (typical altitude for a passenger plane) you have 5-10seconds of consciousness which is why the FAA require pilots to wear oxygen masks above 25,000ft if they are the alone on the flight deck.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

2] If he actually held his breath (as opposed to letting it all out), then he would have died within the hour from ruptured pleura and alveoli.

I was suprised once when watching a terribly cheesy unrealistic scifi cartoon that they actually got this bit right.

 

[lisab]

But what about the last thing that will kill you in space? I'm guessing...polonium poisoning.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

But what about the last thing that will kill you in space? I'm guessing...polonium poisoning.

A shark maybe? ;-p

 

[EvanWhaha]

The things that could "Kill Humans In Space" are
1 lack of oxygen or no oxygen
2 blood boiling
3 maybe falling into the sun and you burn up into tiny bits of ashes
4 a alien

 

[Zdenka]

Thanks for the responses, guys! they have been a delightful read. I think an Alien would be one of the last things to be worried about when floating in space! What about getting cancer from the sun's radiation? I think I'd be bringing sunblock on my next trip to the ISS! ;D

 

[sylas]

Also interesting... a few bloggers had fun with this a while back... there is a quiz which let's you calculate how long YOU would live in the vacuum of space.

Warning. This quiz is apparently sponsored by people who want you to read their advertisements, and so you may have to look at an ad of some kind before going to your quiz results. After submitting my quiz answers, I was sent to a page soliciting signups for some social network. Simply clicked on "proceed to quiz results", and I get the answer. Seems harmless, but there you go. If you don't mind such ads, the quiz is at http://www.oneplusyou.com/q/v/space_vacuum.

I'd live, apparently, for 1 minute 23 seconds. The answer comes with an encouraging description of how you can expect to experience those last seconds, according to the quiz author.