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2 years, 8 months ago

If you fell out of a space ship and held your breath, how long would it take you to die?

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topaz5433 | 2 years, 8 months ago
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Actually, holding your breath is not a good thing to do, according to NASA. After "perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known."

Here's the whole article:
"How long can a human live unprotected in space?

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 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."

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psionandy | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

A really interesting article, and a nice find. but you might want to read the copy and paste guidelines
http://www.mahalo.com/copy-and-pasting-on-mahalo

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seanb511 | 2 years, 8 months ago
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You would die in about 15 seconds.

I have included a link that explains it very well

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albanian's Avatar
albanian | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

Your link does provide a good explanation; but, it says rather that you would lose consciousness in about 15 seconds. You would not die for several minutes, so you could still be rescued during that time.

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craigm | 2 years, 8 months ago
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I believe you would die right away. There isn't an atmosephere in outerspace and there is large amounts of radiation since the Ozone isn't blocking it.

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craigm | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

Based on this link, you would have about 10 seconds before you pass out.
http://www.damninteresting.com/outer-space-exposure

albanian's Avatar
albanian | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

The radiation is a much slower thing than suffocating. Those spacesuits don't provide much protection from radiation. You would rapidly lose consciousness but still be alive a few minutes.

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anilarora | 2 years, 8 months ago
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if u fell outta spaceship without a space suit and without any support . then it depends on how much time u can keep ur breath . Usually its 3 to 8 minutes for a normal human beings . those who practice yoga and can hold breath may vary according to their practice .
after 3-8 minutes when oxygen in your body empties and as supply to brain stops . u tend to go coma . and u die soon after 2-3 minutes .
cosidering u a normal human being u probably die in 5-11 minutes

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anilarora | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

either u can hold ur breath or u cant . worst possibility is that u hold ur breath and how much time it takes to die . so explained like that . yep i agree the fact that holding breath can injure internally . but never going to explode
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html
hope this link provide better anwer

albanian's Avatar
albanian | 2 years, 8 months ago Report

No, you couldn't try to hold your breath in space. You would explode, or at least rupture internally.
http://www.slate.com/id/2171522/

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