2001 question. How long can you survive in space without an astronaut's helmet on?

Question

Is it scientifically feasible that the guy was perfectly fine in 2001 A Space Oydssey when he was without a helmet for a few seconds in deep space?

Answer 1

Yes. Complete details at the reference.


Addendum:

Apparently some people cannot read critically. While Geoffrey A. Landis, the author of the cited source, has in fact had a novel published he is a scientist now working at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

I have added some of the sources that he cited. So it seems Mr. Landis has thoroughly researched his subject, unlike some of my critics.

Answer 2

If you shake up a coke bottle and put it on the table the gases expand out filling up the air in the room. In a vacuum, humans being made up of mostly water do a similar thing. They must have pressure to keep our bodies intact. I don't remember the part in the movie so I can't give a perfect answer but when you consider that man's anxiety levels, the loss of blood pressure, the busting of blood vessels, (even happens to pilots) and the freezing temperatures it is very unlikely that he could survive. Also I would think being directly exposed to radiation in the head would be asking for serious mid to long term health problems.

Of course human experiments (or I would hope so) have not been done so it's very hard to say one way or the other for sure.

In conclusion I assume that he chances of surviving would be extremely low, and it would take a near miracle for him to survive without proper medical treatment following the incident.

Important note concerning above source***
http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/vacuum.html

This site was written in the 1980's by a science fiction writer. You need to check your sources a little better, he makes some reasonable points but much of his data and such is flawed. He also claimed that you can't measure temperature in space?

Answer 3

It would be possible to survive, but only for a very short period.

The pressure differential (one atmosphere) isn't as large as people tend to assume, so as long as you can hold your breath and keep your eyes only partly open you should be OK. Some surface capillaries might rupture but this would not be life-threatening. Of course, once you use up the oxygen in your lungs you've had it.

Decompression wouldn't be a major problem as it is for divers, as they typically work under several atmospheres of pressure.

The 'coldness' of space wouldn't be an issue as you would not be in contact with any cold matter so you would only lose body heat due to thermal radiation, which means it would take a fairly long time for you to freeze to death - technically, reaching thermal equilibrium with your surroundings. Unless you're close to a star or other radiating object you wouldn't take much of a radiation dose in the two minutes or so you could hold your breath in.

So yes, as Dave Bowman in the film is only exposed to vacuum for about twenty seconds, it would be survivable.

Answer 4

Well upon contact of space, going into zero pressure (near perfect vacuum). First all the gases in your blood will start to boil out... This happens to deep sea divers when they come up to quick.. but not to the extent if you are in space..
Its been known that divers suffering the bends have small capillaries burst.. So most likely even larger blood vessels will burst and it wont take very long to happen .. seconds... vessels in your brain spine and around the heart...

Now.. The weather.. As you may have heard its very cold in space..Or very hot... Now in 2001 he had no direct sun light on him so most likely the temp of space was around 150 below zero F.. and it only takes a minute at the most to be frozen rock solid at that temp... So I put him living through it very very slim to none.... If by some miracle survived he would need an ICU right away..Because he'd have major internal bleeding suffering the worst case of the bends and major frost bite...
And chances are if he did get immediate medical attention and survived he most likely be comatose or major brain damage causing retardation and other major nerve damage..
And lastly some disfiguring do to frost bite.... being he was missing only helmet and gloves. Thats where most of the extreme frost bite would be..... It would be brutal death but mercifully quick one.....
To answer you question directly no he wouldn't have survived.

Answer 5

2001 is actually ok in this respect a human can survive approximatly 15 seconds and not require any medical attention.
Space itself is not cold or hot because you have to have something their for it to have a temprature your body will eventually freeze because your body is not insulated by air like on earth causing your body to radiate its heat away which would take longer than death from lack of oxygen. Human bodies won't explode nor will blood boil they are sealed from the vacum

Answer 6

Not this one again! Yes you would survive!

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.

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 O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing 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.

Aviation Week and Space Technology (02/13/95) printed a letter by Leonard Gordon which reported another vacuum-packed anecdote:

"The experiment of exposing an unpressurized hand to near vacuum for a significant time while the pilot went about his business occurred in real life on Aug. 16, 1960. Joe Kittinger, during his ascent to 102,800 ft (19.5 miles) in an open gondola, lost pressurization of his right hand. He decided to continue the mission, and the hand became painful and useless as you would expect. However, once back to lower altitudes following his record-breaking parachute jump, the hand returned to normal."

References:

Frequently Asked Questions on sci.space.*/sci.astro

The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum, Alfred G. Koestler ed., NASA CR-329 (Nov 1965).

Experimental Animal Decompression to a Near Vacuum Environment, R.W. Bancroft, J.E. Dunn, eds, Report SAM-TR-65-48 (June 1965), USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas.

Survival Under Near-Vacuum Conditions in the article "Barometric Pressure," by C.E. Billings, Chapter 1 of Bioastronautics Data Book, Second edition, NASA SP-3006, edited by James F. Parker Jr. and Vita R. West, 1973.

Personal communication, James Skipper, NASA/JSC Crew Systems Division, December 14, 1994.

Henry Spencer wrote the following for the sci.space FAQ:

You would probably pass out in around 15 seconds because your lungs are now exchanging oxygen out of the blood. The reason that a human does not burst is that our skin has some strength. For instance compressed oxygen in a steel tank may be at several hundreds times the pressure of the air outside and the strength of the steel keeps the cylinder from breaking. Although our skin is not steel, it still is strong enough to keep our bodies from bursting in space.

Also, the vapor pressure of water at 37 C is 47 mm Hg. As long as you keep your blood-pressure above that (which you will unless you go deep into shock) your blood will not boil. My guess is that the body seems to regulate blood pressure as a gauge, rather than absolute pressure (e.g. your blood vessels don't collapse when you dive 10 feet into a pool).

The saliva on your tongue might boil, however.

Answer 7

I do not think it is possible to survive in space without a helmet!

Answer 8

I agree with Uncle Joe. In addition, remember that MOST of Dave's body WAS protected by a pressure suit. So any ill effects would have occurred only to his head.

Answer 9

Wow... An awful lot of rubbish being spoken about here for a very straightforward answer. Some people obviously haven't got a clue what they're talking about.

No, you wouldn't survive taking your helmet off.

Answer 10

About thirty seconds provided you had thoroughly emptied your lungs before exposure. And KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED or they will freeze and rupture.
You would undoubtedly rupture both eardrums and surface blood capillaries.