How long can a human survive in outer space?
How long can a human survive in outer space? Outer space is an extremely hostile place. If you were to step outside a spacecraft, such as the International Space Station , or on a world with little or no atmosphere such as the moon or Mars without the protection of a space suit , then the following things would happen: • You would lose consciousness because there is no oxygen. This could occur in as little as 15 seconds. • Because there is no air pressure to keep your blood and body fluids in a liquid state, the fluids would “boil.” Because the “boiling process” would cause them to lose heat energy rapidly, the fluids would freeze before they were evaporated totally (There is a cool display in San Francisco’s science museum, The Exploratorium, that demonstrates this principle!). This process could take from 30 seconds to 1 minute. So, it was possible for astronaut David Bowman in “2001: A Space Odyssey” to survive when he ejected from the space pod into the airl
