Life in a Vacuum
Ok … don’t ask me why, but I was wondering the other day what would happen to the human body if it was exposed to the vacuum of outer space. You know, without a space suit and all that jazz.
Now, I’m not a big fan of NASA and all of their wasteful shenanigans … but according to this website, it actually happened once in one of their tests:
At NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center), we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in ‘65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for oxygen-deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain.
The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began re-pressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil.
Yikes! I think I’ll keep my day job …
November 9th, 2007 at 9:01 am EST
i read somewhere that you implode and flip inside out, but thats if you are exposed immediately.
boiling alive i didn’t read about, but i suppose it has to happen sometime.
it can happen underwater too! reallly realllllly deep…