What physically would happen if I went into space with no space suit on?

Question

I know I would die, but what would happen to my body...Would it be like Arnold Swchaneggar in Total Recall? What would happen to my body physically and would I be able to inhale? I knows theres no oxygen to breathe but would it be possible to inhale?

Answer 1

You would pass out in about 10 seconds. You would suffocate in about two minutes. Your body would freeze-dry in a couple of weeks time. End of story.

If they could pull you back into a pressurized are within a minute or so, you would have a good chance of recovering within a few hours to days without ill effect. After two minutes the heart does not seem to restart, no matter what is done to help.

There are no exploding body parts. It does not even seem to be overly painful. Nothing of the stuff you see in FX movies.

In any case, hard shelled animals and especially plants and microorganisms that can deal with drought or can survive being frozen seem to live fine in vacuum for extended times. It really just depends on how long the organism can be without oxygen (or CO2) atmosphere. Humans die rapidly because our CNS shuts down and we are gone when our brain is gone. I would bet that if one puts a human body in the same cryo-stasis as doctors do to prevent nerve damage during long operations e.g. when they replace organs, before exposing them to vacuum, they could probably be fine for maybe hours.

PS: You can see with this question that most answers here come from people who get their "knowledge" from the movie industry rather than school or even a cursory search on Google. And who do you trust more about this... an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where they blow up a balloon that is sculpted like a human face and shake the fake eyeballs like crazy or NASA? They actually have been to space, you know...

Try Google with "human body space exposure" and the first answer leads to NASA (and they KNOW about that problem!)

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

No big deal to find this stuff, is it?

Answer 2

Well, there are few things that will happen to you if you suddenly enter a vaccum enviroment:

- you will heat up, since there's no more air around you to absorb your heat.

- the air inside you will find any way to go out outside, but you wouldn't suddenly explode since your body got lots of tiny small holes around you. The air in your lung though will definetly suddenly leave your lung through your mouth and nose, no matter on how hard you try to keep it in.

- your body reaction will cause your mind to want to inhale air, since there's no air. The diaphragm you use to inhale will still work though, but your lung will not be filled with anything.

- your entire body will be in shock, but can still roughly function at a lower capacity.

Answer 3

The link below is from a NASA website. Here's a quote:

"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."

Answer 4

Your blood and other bodily fluids would boil, and you would also die of suffocation at the same time. It would be very painful because of the formation of gas bubbles in your tissues like a diver suffering from the Bends. Within seconds you''d lose consciousness and after death you'll become mummified. As for inhaling, that would be impossible. During inhalation, the air pressure in the lungs is lowered compared to outside of the body, allowing air to enter. In space, with no air around you, the air in your lungs will rush out, not in. So you'll exhale, but you will be unable to inhale even if exposure to vacuum wouldn't kill you horribly. Ghastly proof of this came during an ill fated Russian Soyuz mission. During re-entry, a valve opened at the wrong time and the spacecraft completely de-pressurized with 20 seconds. After landing, the three cosmonauts were found dead in their seats. They died of suffocation and their blood boiling at the same time, and were found lying in their craft like waxworks figures.

Answer 5

Well, let's imagine that we just HAPPEN to suddenly pop you into some region in deep space. The moment you appear, your body with burst open.

Reason = Pressure inside the body is MUCH greater than the pressure outside (as its practically vaccuum), The pressure from all the fluids in your body will pretty much overcome all resistance provided by your skin and come splurging out (NOT a pretty sight.. :P) Moreover, there is no question of exhaling and inhaling as for one thing, there is nothing to inhale or exhale and even ASSUMING that you go there full of breath, you can only exhale as the pressure would have to decrease inside your body (inhaling would increase the pressure) :)

P.S If you ever make it to space, take a pet hamster for kicks :D (j/k)

Answer 6

your body would be pulled apart from the vacuum of space. you would also freeze of course. and no you would not be able to inhale because even though there are air molecules in space they are very far apart and every time you take a breath you inhale something but if there is nothing to inhale not even molecules it would be kind of like trying to inhale water except there is absolutely nothing to inhale

Answer 7

It's only a myth that you would explode. But you would freeze to death in a vey short period of time.

Answer 8

I've heard a theory that since there is no pressure in space, the internal pressure of your body (i.e. the pressure that keeps your body from collapsing while on earth) would cause your body to explode. It makes perfect since.

Answer 9

you would explode

Answer 10

You would blow up.