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Heat transfer with space and a human body?

An astronaut in a black space suit is in open space on the shadow side of the Earth

when the heating system of his space suit fails. Estimate how much time he has before his

body temperature drops by 10 °C. Neglect the heat capacity of the space suit. You can

introduce your own parameters but be sure to justify their values.

2 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    It all depends upon the thermal resistance (isotropic) of his space suit, and hence the rate at which heat is lost. This is a different matter to the heat capacity of the suit. Even without a suit the heat will not be lost instantaneously because the bodies' layers of fat act as a heat insulator.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Why post the SAME question twice? The answer will NOT change... Maybe... it depends on how elastic your skin is. Your skin is in effect, a balloon. If suddenly in a vacuum, the first thing is the air leaves your lungs. Next, you start losing heat by radiation. The internal heat of your body will cause water in your body to "boil", vaporize because of the heat and lack of pressure. Water will boil at room temperature if the atmospheric pressure is lowered to 1 PSI from the normal 15 PSI. If you tried to hold your breath, then it is possible you would rupture your lungs, but if you did not, the air would leave and then the internal heat of your body would start to boil the water, from the surface first, progressing inwards. So, if your skin is strong enough and elastic enough, you would bloat, but not explode. You won't pop like a balloon with a pin, but your skin could rip apart because of the internal vapor pressure. You would be dead long before any water starts to boil from lack of oxygen. In the movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey, Dave, the main character enters a space pod and leaves the Discovery. He has his space suit but not the helmet. HAL refuses to let him back inside when he returns. So, Dave decides to enter manually. He opens an air lock and turns the pod around so the escape hatch faces the open airlock. He then "blows" the hatch. The outrush of air propels him into the airlock where he grabs an emergency lever to close and pressurize the airlock. NASA went on record as saying this maneuver was completely realistic and possible. The entire amount of time under vacuum in the scene was about 15 seconds from the time the hatch blew until the airlock was shut and air was flooding the space.

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