The Perils Of Deep Space Travel

Every little boy dreams of becoming an astronaut and going to the moon. But so few children consider the consequences. No, I’m not talking about aliens blasting your head off with a ray-gun, I’m talking about being exposed to the vacuum of deep space. You’ve heard all the speculations before: That you explode…. that you freeze to death…. that your blood boils!

Well, to set the record straight, I’ve looked into what will actually happen to you if you find yourself in Frank’s situation here:

The First 10 Seconds

The first thing to immediately happen to your sorry ass when you’re caught in space is that the vacuum all around you causes all the air in your body to expand. Contrary to popular belief, trying to hold your breath will actually hurt you in this instance. Why? Oh, no reason, just that your lungs would rupture. Ouch. So first, don’t hold your breath.

Next, your blood starts to boil… Not from heat, but from the low pressure. This process is called ebullism. The vapor will actually cause the condensation in your mouth and nose to freeze, and the water in your respiratory tract to freeze.

the further expansion of water into vapor in the body will cause the organs and other body parts to expand to up to twice their normal size. They won’t however, explode, thank god… even though that would be extremely cool… but the swelling can cause some freaky temporary deformities. A man named Joseph Kittinger once experienced localized ebullism during a 31 kilometers (19 mi) ascent in a helium- driven gondola. His right-hand glove failed to pressurize and his hand expanded to roughly twice its normal volume accompanied by disabling pain. His hand took about 3 hours to recover after his return to the ground, and he and his giant hand did not suffer from any long-term effects.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, you alsp get sunburned to boot. Yes, any exposed skin will get zapped by the ultraviolet rays from the sun, but without the friendly filtering mechanism of our ozone. So now, your organs are expanding, vapor in the the body is starting to boil, and your sunburned.

Next, you can get the bends, which is something that also happens to scuba divers when they come up too fast. This is when nitrogen bubbles form in the blood, which can further lead to organ disfunction and decompression sickness. But here’s the bright side: The bends in Space is actually LESS sever than underwater! Isn’t that nice?

But oh wait. You’re still totally screwed. What happens next is the most dangerous. That’s the oxygen in the blood emptying back into the lungs and out into the vacuum. That’s right, your lungs start to work the wrong way, in reverse. Not good. The deoxygenated blood will induce a state called hypoxia.

After The First 10 Seconds

Well, now you have to deal with hypoxia. At about fourteen second, this will cause you to pretty much lose conscioussness. You’ll go blind, become disoriented, and will eventually just pass out. Though your body can still be saved from death, you will now be dependent on others for your rescue.

After the First Minute

How long due your space-traveling cohorts have to help a brotha out? Well, you’ve got about 90 seconds before you need to be re-compressed,  until you die officially.

Only a couple people have undergone such an ordeal and lived to tell about it: Two U.S. astronauts were  were decompressed accidentally during space mission training programs on the ground, but both incidents were less than 5 minutes in duration, and both victims survived.

If you do get out there and are rescued, the primary concern long-term may actually be that nasty sunburn. The exposure to the high-energy photons (ultra-violet, X-Ray, and Gamma) can permanently denature your DNA. These rays penetrating your body can cause long-term damage and perhaps cause cancer.

Conclusions

So remember, if you wind up in a situation like Frank, don’t hold your breath. Pay no attention to your boiling saliva,  and try to get back to your space station within 14 seconds, or else, hope your buddies rescue you within a minute and a half.

That’s pretty much all you can hope for.