Gasp

June 12, 2008 3:39 AM

How long could you survive in the vacuum of space?Good to know.
posted by armoured-ant (74 comments total)

mm 30 seconds, good to know
posted by dollyknot at 3:45 AM on June 12, 2008

I minute 17 seconds, allegedly. I've always maintained I'd explode like some disgusting balloon immediately, and I'm sticking with that.
posted by Phanx at 3:51 AM on June 12, 2008

1.23, but if I lose consciousness after 15 seconds, who cares?
posted by Dizzy at 3:52 AM on June 12, 2008

I was picked up by a spaceship at the last possible moment. Very improbable.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 3:56 AM on June 12, 2008 [20 favorites has favorites]

1 minute and 47 seconds, assuming the Space Shuttle didn't kill me beforehand.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:57 AM on June 12, 2008

1 Minute 17 Second, though chances are there was a catastrophic failure of some sort on my ship or I wouldn't have been expelled in the first place.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:04 AM on June 12, 2008

In the first 30 seconds any fluid on the surface of your body would begin to boil due to lack of ambient pressure, this includes the saliva on your tongue and the moisture in your eyes.

Any gas analysis must consider pressure AND temperature. At 3 degrees Kelvin (-270C), you'd probably be frozen solid in 30 seconds.
posted by three blind mice at 4:06 AM on June 12, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Yay! I last 1 minute 35 seconds... though I apparently lose consciousness after only 15 seconds. And add to that my bodily fluids are beginning to boil during those 15 seconds and at least another 15 after that at least.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to reconsider that trip on the Space Shuttle next week...
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:09 AM on June 12, 2008

42 seconds. Douglas Adams was right.
posted by emelenjr at 4:10 AM on June 12, 2008

Forever. I'm a mutalisk.
posted by Citizen Premier at 4:11 AM on June 12, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

1:29. Long enough to wish I had taken up fainting and asthma when I was younger.
posted by maxwelton at 4:13 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Same as maxwelton, but I'm sure I'd wish I'd died long before that.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:23 AM on June 12, 2008

Any gas analysis must consider pressure AND temperature. At 3 degrees Kelvin (-270C), you'd probably be frozen solid in 30 seconds.

But in a vacuum there's nothing to conduct heat... so wouldn't you stay warm for a while?
posted by SciencePunk at 4:34 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Indeed, you would only radiate heat, making it actually hard to get cold.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 4:41 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I mean if you didn't have other problems at hand.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 4:41 AM on June 12, 2008

Tell my wife I love her and I'm sorry I let the life insurance policy lapse.
posted by subgear at 4:44 AM on June 12, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

Well, lessee, best as I can recall, Dave survived, what, half a minute? When he had to blow those explosive bolts and get back into the spaceship through that emergency whatchamajigget and shut Hal down?

Daaaaaiiiissssyyyy, Daaaaaaaaaaaiiiiisssssssyyyyyyy...... ggggiiiiivvve meeeeeeee yoooooouurrrrrr aaaaaaaaannnnsssssssswerrrrrrrrrrr dooooooooooooooooooooo......
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:46 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

1:11 according to this, but I know from experience that I can be revived after as long as 1:27
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:55 AM on June 12, 2008

1 minute 23 seconds. Suck it, Vogons.
posted by Jofus at 5:00 AM on June 12, 2008

1:17. I exhaled. Should I have inhaled?
posted by Shepherd at 5:00 AM on June 12, 2008

This is a number I don't think is going to matter much to me, because my odds of going to space are almost zero, and my odds of accidentally ending up in a vacuum if I ever got there are also almost zero.

The odds are much better that I will be cremated, spilled, and vacuumed right here on Earth.
posted by pracowity at 5:10 AM on June 12, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

That's right, pracowity, and you might be vacuumed up by one of these babies. "My earthly remains were vacuumed by a robot!!!"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:16 AM on June 12, 2008

1:29. That fucking president.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:23 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tell my wife I love her and I'm sorry I let the life insurance policy lapse.

(sung) She kno-o-ows.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:25 AM on June 12, 2008 [13 favorites has favorites]

Congrats! You could survive for 1 minute 35 seconds !

Yeah, but it's space. What's the point?
posted by bwg at 5:27 AM on June 12, 2008

Well, it was space, but somebody did hear me scream.

They perished only seconds after, however.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:33 AM on June 12, 2008

The temperature of the moisture "boiling" doesn't mean it would actually burn you - I don't see why that would be an issue - it'd be just like basting in your own bodily moisture spa.
posted by strawberryviagra at 5:36 AM on June 12, 2008

This is nothing like the whole "If I was transported back to 1000 A.D." thread. That's kind of disappointing.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:42 AM on June 12, 2008

I've been afraid of the vaccuum of space ever since seeing Outland as a kid. Thanks for making it less terrifying (90 seconds instead of instapop? I'll take it)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:51 AM on June 12, 2008

1:05 if I hold my breath, 54 seconds if I don't. Interesting.
posted by Xany at 5:55 AM on June 12, 2008

1:41.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 5:57 AM on June 12, 2008

Just a note, the first question:

1. Take a deep breath
2. Expel all the air from your lungs

gives you more time for taking a deep breath.

If you filled your lungs with air, then entered a vacuum, wouldn't that gas rapidly expand, tearing your lungs in the process, causing massive hemorrhaging internally, leading to your death?

Then again, Star Trek may not be the best place to learn gas analysis.
posted by Merik at 5:58 AM on June 12, 2008

Should this be marked as best answer here?
posted by TedW at 5:59 AM on June 12, 2008

1:41.

*hi five TPAA
posted by thirteenkiller at 6:05 AM on June 12, 2008

another kind of vacuum survival ...
posted by msconduct at 6:09 AM on June 12, 2008

4 of your earthling hours
posted by mattoxic at 6:11 AM on June 12, 2008

1:29.

There was a really good article about this on Slate a while back.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:11 AM on June 12, 2008

Is there an accepted way to aline yourself up and down when in space? I'd hate to die wondering if I was shaking my down and slightly sideways at cruel fate.
posted by BostonJake at 6:20 AM on June 12, 2008

err, shaking my fist that is
posted by BostonJake at 6:21 AM on June 12, 2008

1:11
posted by micayetoca at 6:33 AM on June 12, 2008

1.23, but I tell you that I'd squeeze every last moment of living out of that short time.
posted by Pecinpah at 6:34 AM on June 12, 2008

After the hi-fiving our corpses begin to float away from each other, never to stop, until I fall into the sun and thirteenkiller smashes into Io.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:42 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

How long would you survive if you were transported back to 1000 AD in space?
posted by rusty at 6:45 AM on June 12, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

1:29.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:51 AM on June 12, 2008

I was wearing a red shirt, so I was already killed when I beamed down to the planet.
posted by wittgenstein at 6:53 AM on June 12, 2008

I'm one of those aliens from Alien. We can survive in space forever, and we have acid blood.

So I'm not sweating it.
posted by kbanas at 6:57 AM on June 12, 2008

Open the airlock doors, Hal.

I'm sorry I can't do that, Dave.
posted by no_moniker at 7:27 AM on June 12, 2008

1:35. I am awesome!

(well, about to be awesomely dead, anyway)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:41 AM on June 12, 2008

0.

i shot myself in the head when i found out i'd have to go into a vacuum and have my eyes and tongue boiled alive.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 7:52 AM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You know when Gus Partenza gets shot off the asteroid in Deep Impact with the suit still on? I always thought that must be a neat way to go. You know, once the screaming stops. How long can one of those suits keep you alive up htere?
posted by lysistrata at 8:03 AM on June 12, 2008

assuming the Space Shuttle didn't kill me beforehand

If it was piloted by the Killer Diaper Astronaut I'd not want to wager those odds.


Space has a Terrible Secret.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:04 AM on June 12, 2008

1:11
posted by brundlefly at 8:17 AM on June 12, 2008

60 seconds? I think they underestimate me. The last time I was in high-earth-orbit conducting unexpected vacuum exposure tests on the crew of the ISS, my suit breached and I was exposed for at least a minute and a half before I was able to divert oxygen away from the astronauts back to myself.

It was worrisome for a bit too. I was afraid that all their flailing around and gasping for breath might distract me from saving myself. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
posted by quin at 8:42 AM on June 12, 2008

BostonJake, space orientation is tricky, but a general consensus has evolved that the enemy's gate is down.
posted by sixswitch at 8:42 AM on June 12, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

How long can one of those suits keep you alive up there?

I'm thinking... long enough to crap yourself at least once.
posted by Drexen at 8:58 AM on June 12, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Is there some way I can die sooner? I don't dig space vacuums at all.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:01 AM on June 12, 2008

1 min, 47 seconds, probably because I put down that I'm athletic. I do a fair to moderate amount of cycling but they might mean Lance Armstrong athletic, so the estimate is probably on the high side.

I've been fascinated by this question, ever since I saw 2001 when I was a kid. Apparently Dave did the right thing. Now I want to know what happens to him when the air lock re-pressurizes him in 10 seconds. I doubt he'd be able to hear HAL sing "Daisy."
posted by lordrunningclam at 9:13 AM on June 12, 2008

1 minute 17 seconds.

I love the exclamation mark over the guy's head. Back in the day we called this "spacing" someone. Eat vaccuum, Cadet!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 10:02 AM on June 12, 2008

1:35. But fortunately I have a cricket ball in my pocket.
posted by webmutant at 10:50 AM on June 12, 2008

Time enough to smoke an impossible cigarette.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 AM on June 12, 2008

I suck at this flash game. I'm going Outside. [[[FWOOOOP]]]
posted by not_on_display at 11:16 AM on June 12, 2008

I don't know how long I'd survive in the "vaccuum of space", but I imagine it's roughly as long as I would survive in a "vaccuum on Earth".
posted by blue_beetle at 12:01 PM on June 12, 2008

Sunshine kinda sucked, but the DVD had a commentary feature by some British egghead physics professor. He insisted that, indeed, you don't explode in the vacuum of space since the atmospheric pressure difference between your wet gushy parts and the void isn't that great.

So indeed, you suffocate. And probably feel really damn cold, but it's good ol' lack of oxygen that gets you in the end.

(He had a British accent, so he must be right. And how is it that Danny Boyle can make really, really great movies and really, really bad ones? Huh? Amirite?)
posted by bardic at 12:40 PM on June 12, 2008

"After the first 15 seconds you would lose consciousness."

This has never made any sense. A trained pearl diver would not make it for more than 20 or 30 seconds? Why? Does space have some magical quality that makes people black out, compared to just holding one's breath?
posted by crapmatic at 1:49 PM on June 12, 2008

15 seconds of consciousness? That's terrifying. Now I really feel bad about airlocking all those Cylons.
posted by bicyclefish at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This has never made any sense. A trained pearl diver would not make it for more than 20 or 30 seconds? Why? Does space have some magical quality that makes people black out, compared to just holding one's breath?

Yeah, the lack of pressure would cause the oxygen in your blood to leave your body through your lungs quite rapidly. This does not happen when you're holding your breath under normal pressure.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 2:07 PM on June 12, 2008

What is the source of this estimate? According to an article in Scientific American, "Survival in Space Unprotected Is Possible- Briefly":


But death is not instantaneous. For example, one 1965 study by researchers at the Brooks Air Force Base in Texas showed that dogs exposed to near vacuum—one three-hundred-eightieth of atmospheric pressure at sea level—for up to 90 seconds always survived. During their exposure, they were unconscious and paralyzed. Gas expelled from their bowels and stomachs caused simultaneous defecation, projectile vomiting and urination. They suffered massive seizures. Their tongues were often coated in ice and the dogs swelled to resemble "an inflated goatskin bag," the authors wrote. But after slight repressurization the dogs shrank back down, began to breathe, and after 10 to 15 minutes at sea level pressure, they managed to walk, though it took a few more minutes for their apparent blindness to wear off.


Oh my god I think I'm going to be sick. Thank goodness you go unconscious quickly!
posted by notmtwain at 2:26 PM on June 12, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Do not trust the shover robot. Shoving is the answer. We are here to protect you.
posted by mendel at 3:04 PM on June 12, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Do not trust the shover robot. Shoving is the answer. We are here to protect you.

Do not trust the shower robot. Showering is the answer. We are here to protect you.
posted by boo_radley at 4:04 PM on June 12, 2008

Well, I am not filling in their stupid form, but you could last for quite some time. A one atmosphere pressure difference is nothing and most people can hold their breath for three or more minutes, with experienced folks going many times longer.
posted by caddis at 4:13 PM on June 12, 2008

I find it hard to believe this many Mefis fell for this scam without comment. Sooo, in other words they're Googlebombing by creating a viral site and bait and switching it later on with a shitty promotions rip off, and/or identity theft and/or spam harvesting site. DiediedieDIEdieDiEDIEDIEdie. Seriously, I hope they really did their homework on this one, because I'm about ready to shove them out an airlock myself.
posted by Skwirl at 5:15 PM on June 12, 2008

I also find it hard to believe that so many of you fell for their little scam. When they asked for my info I tried to go back and got stuck in a cute little pop up window. This should be a deleted thread. I award no points to anyone!
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:02 PM on June 12, 2008

it was supposedly clean at first. what is all this "I can't believe" crap?
posted by caddis at 6:13 PM on June 12, 2008

If you hit "cancel" you get your answer.

Though I suspect that the give you an extra minute or two if you fill it in.
posted by lekvar at 7:01 PM on June 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]