How long could you survive in Space without a Spacesuit?
Answers
Contrary to popular belief, and numerous Hollywood movies, you could survive unprotected in space for over a minute - provided you could get back to medical care immediately after. There are one or two things you need to think about if you found yourself in this situation:
Breathe out: Just like an ascending scuba diver, if you hold your breath, the gas expanding in your lungs due to reduced pressure would cause them to rupture.
Stay out of the sun: without protection, serious sunburn can ensue.
You are going to swell up: In the vacuum of space, your body fluids will vaporise, causing tissues to swell up.
You have ten seconds: Of useful consciousness that is. Due to oxygen depletion, you will also start to lose your vision after this time
NASA has limited experience of this phenomenon, but experience from training accidents suggests that injuries can be reversed. if astronauts are returned into a pressurized oxygen environment within 90 seconds.
Fast Fact: 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the few films to deal with vacuum exposure correctly. The film's human protagonist, Dave, jumps out of a space pod to re-enter his spacecraft. At no point does his head explode.
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Oxygen in the rest of your body will also expand. You'll balloon up to twice your normal size, but you won't explode. Your skin is elastic enough to hold you together.
Any exposed liquid on your body will begin to vaporize. So the surfaces of your tongue and eyes will boil. Without air in your lungs, blood will stop sending oxygen to your brain.
You'll pass out after about 15 seconds. 90 seconds after exposure, you'll die from asphyxiation. It's also very cold in space. You'll eventually freeze solid.
Depending on where you are in space, this will take 12-26 hours, but if you're close to a star, you'll be burnt to a crisp instead. Either way, your body will remain that way for a long time.
Gut bacteria will start to eat you from the inside out, but not for long, so you will decompose very slowly. You could be floating in space, unchanged, for millions of years. Who knows, maybe an advanced alien race will discover you!