Re: Sci-Fi Films

"MagentaStudios" <nick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1124501561.975034.140950@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Firefly is in reruns now on the SciFi channel, and a feature film
> continuing the storyline named "Serenity" will be out soon.
>
> I've noticed how much movies vary on what happens to a guy who gets
> spaced- do they implode, explode, freeze-dry like beef jerkey or
> crystalize?
>
> Has NASA ever thrown a mouse out of the shuttle to check for sure? :)

Explosive decompression as in Outland or Total Recall is mostly a myth, but
Total Recall was somewhat better than Outland in this regard.

http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/vacuum.html

A frequently asked question is: how realistic is the scene in 2001: A Space
Odyssey where astronaut Bowman makes a space-walk without a helmet? How long
could a human survive if exposed to vacuum? Would you explode? Would you
survive? How long would you remain conscious?

The quick answers to these questions are: Clarke got it about right in 2001.
You would survive about a ninety seconds, you wouldn't explode, you would
remain conscious for about ten seconds.

Could You Survive?

The best data I have comes from the chapter on the effects of Barometric
pressure in Bioastronautics Data Book, Second edition, NASA SP-3006. This
chapter discusses animal studies of decompression to vacuum. It does not
mention any human studies.

page 5, (following a general discussion of low pressures and ebullism), the
author gives an account of what is to be the expected result of vacuum
exposure:
"Some degree of consciousness will probably be retained for 9 to 11 seconds
(see chapter 2 under Hypoxia). In rapid sequence thereafter, paralysis will
be followed by generalized convulsions and paralysis once again. During this
time, water vapor will form rapidly in the soft tissues and somewhat less
rapidly in the venous blood. This evolution of water vapor will cause marked
swelling of the body to perhaps twice its normal volume unless it is
restrained by a pressure suit.

.

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