How long can you survive in space without a space suit ?

Question

Ok this is serious question that came to me after watching an episode of stargate (don't laugh). In this episode, O'neil and Teal'c are trapped in a ship and are rescued by another one. But to escape their ship they have to blow the top off, free float away from the ship for 5-6 sec before being transported aboard the other one.

So my question is this, can you survice in space for 5-6 seconds without a space suit ? If not, what's the main reason you would die instantly ?

Answer 1

Don't believe everything you see in the movies. Humans do NOT explode in space. NASA did extensive research on rapid decompression in the 50s and 60s. A human will typically lose consciousness after about 15 seconds of exposure, and would be expected to die after 90. As has been said above, the most hazardous condition would be holding your breath; the air (unlike the incompressible remainder of your body) will expand and tear apart your lungs.

During NASA experiments on animals, there were no cases of exploding eardrums or anything like that, and side effects of exposure were minor.

Freezing to death is not going to happen, as there is nothing to carry the heat away; it would be more likely that you would roast to death in the sunlight if you were completely without a spacesuit.

Nor is this simply all hypothetical; there have been three accidents in which astronauts have been directly exposed to vacuum. In 1965, during a test of a spacesuit, the spacesuit tore open and exposed the occupant to vacuum for 20 seconds. He passed out after 14 seconds, and reported that he felt nothing at all during the exposure except for saliva boiling on his tongue.

In another similar spacesuit testing accident, the astronaut was exposed for about two minutes. He required CPR to recover, but after that did make a full recovery.

Finally, the Soyuz 11 disaster occurred when a valve accidentally opened and vented all atmosphere to space. The capsule re-entered the atmosphere and landed under autopilot and the bodies were recovered, with merely the appearance of the cosmonauts having fallen asleep and no other bodily injuries were in evidence.

Answer 2

First of all, space is a vacum, and if you put a liquid into a vacum it will goil to a gas really fast.
To answer your question, if you were to open the door on a space craft while in space and you did not have on a space suit, you would be dead before you can step out side the space craft.
This might be a little grusom, but this is what would take place in your body.
First your blood contains liquid and gas, as the out side pressure gets less, the Oxygen and Co2 in your blood would turn into gas bubbles and expand, then the liquid that your blood is made up of will boil to a gas, then the blood vesles in your body would explode, starting with the weakest blud vesles, in a few seconds you would look like you have been beaten all over your body with the back of a meat cleaver.
Here on Earth some Vets use vicum chambers to put pets to sleep.
They put the pet into a tank, close the door, then pull a vacum on another larger tank, then when the valve between the tanks are opened fast, the pet is bead in less than a second, in other words, that is how fast a person would die in in space with out a space suit.
The reason for wearing a space suit is so the air around your body is unser pressure.
On Earth at sea level the pressure is about 14.7 psi, in space your pressure suit keeps your outside pressure about 3 to 4 psi.
Bedore the people can leave the space craft in their space suits, the have to breath 100 per cent qxygen to get all the nitrogen out of their bodies, if they did not do this, when the step out of the space craft into the 3 to 4 psi pressure of their suits, they would get the bends just like a diver coming up from depth to fast.
Don't mind some of the miss spelt words, I have little time this morning.

Answer 3

Wow, this question comes up quite a bit.

First, contrary to what you may see in some Hollywood movies, bodies do not explode when exposed to the vacuum of space. Human skin is rather elastic; it will stretch, but there will be some serious bruising. Second, you won't freeze instantly either. Space is very cold, but without atmosphere objects don't cool off by convection; radiating heat is the only way a object can cool off in space, and this is a slow process.

That said, there are many dangers to being exposed to space without a protective suit. One your eardrums will likely burst, resulting in permanent hearing loss even if you're rescued. Two, your eyes will dry out very quickly unless covered, also leading to permanent damage. (O'Neill and Teal'c did have helmets, so that would've helped.) Three, your lungs will rupture if there's any air in them -- Carter explicitly warns them to hyperventilate, then empty their lungs before releasing the canopy.

Those are the most immediate threats. If you can get past those, the next biggest threat is suffocation. Which means you survive without a suit as long as the oxygen in your blood holds out. (Remember, holding your breathe will almost certainly kill you.) Freezing will take several miniutes and is the least of your worries.

So I have no problem with O'Neill and Teal'c surviving for 6 seconds without proper protection. However, that they survived with no damage whatsoever is unrealistic.

Answer 4

I just need to reply to clarify some partially false statements made by some contributors. It seems that one fellow thinks that the pressure change is instantaneous and follows the example of what he knows from animals. As much as I understand the effects of "blood boiling" and the like, the loss of pressure wouldn't kill immediately. I will back up my statements with facts one can check on. The longest NASA test subject that accidentally was exposed to total vacuum, lasted more than 15s without any long term damage. The obvious evidence of the Russian cosmonauts showed that they survived possible up to 30s before death. So in short, the 6s is a reasonable number, as long as the exhale of course.
(The initial boiling around soft tissue and water would cause some damage and significant bloating, but it might be upwards of an entire minute before the blood itself boils--most likely causing death)

Cheers,
Jason (Ph.D.)

Answer 5

If this helps, people think I'm from outer space, and I've never had a space suit :-)

Answer 6

Maybe you can or maybe you cannot. There is no air at space, so can you really survive without space suit? I think no, but at least you can be alive for 10 seconds before the oxygen in you lungs has been fully released as CO2.

Answer 7

According to NASA you could survive for up to 30 sec as long as you expelled all of the air from your lungs, otherwise they would explode. You wouldn't blow up instantly! Your body would swell to about twice its size and you would probably feel the water in your eyes and mouth boil off. Nonetheless Your skin is strong enough that you wouldn't burst! You wouldn't freeze either. Space is a vacuum so their is no means of heat transfer.

I am willing to bet that there would be some long term side affects...I wouldn't try it.

Answer 8

30 seconds

Answer 9

the boiling point of depressurized water is at 20 degree Celsius where it was 100 degree on earth.
Now you can bet what happens.
Once depressurized your blood starts boiling immediatly and you are dead in less than 3 seconds.

so actually you do not get ripped apart for the loss of pressure, you do not die from freezing, but you might get to notice that your lungs rip, short before above effect takes part.
its a combined death from rupture and embolism.

unfortunatly 3 russian cosmonoauts onboard a capsule returning from the former saljut space station (in the 70's) already died that way for a malfunctioning pressure valve of their vehicle. It took longer, but the pressure wasn't lost at once, as far as i remember

Answer 10

Instantaneous death due to total destruction by explosive decompression of every part of the body.
Particles of frozen solid body parts would scatter over a large volume of space.