Okay, you guys are smart. You know everything. Well, you know a lot more than I do. For years, I have wondered whether Dave could enter the airlock as he does in the movie 2001. It seems impossible to me. What do you think?

It's not me! - This Dave is not me.

You are refering to the Dave Bowman character in the movie 2001 who travels through a vacuum without the benefit of a spacesuit. That is, he exposes himself to a vacuum.

Go read these two web pages for the answer:

http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/vacuum.html

http://www.treitel.org/Richard/rass/invacuo.html

And my answer is: Most likely he can survive the exposure because he is the hero of the movie. It's plausible.

There is a similar scene in the 1997 movie Event Horizon with a big, long psuedo-science explanation.

Ah, thank you!

Hi guys,,

Adding to the informationat the web site, blood does not exactly 'boil', but it does have gas in it.

Ever heard of the bends? Well, the change from 1 atm. to 0 atm (or significantly lower pressure) would most likely burst his eardrums unless it was slow enough to allow for pressure equalization to his middle ears.

Then, all the nitrogen in his blood held in place by the atmosphere of pressure would bubble out creating nitrogen emboli in his bloodstream which would kill him, unless he went back into one atmosphere of pressure pretty quickly before the tissues and organs in the body were deprived of blood long enough to do damage.

Really , though, if there was air present there would have to be some sort of pressure, or the air, which is a gas, could not be there.

PV=nRT

Pressure X Volume = n (#moles of gas) X R (a constant) X Temperature.

So, if pressure goes to zero the gas has to dissipate, the temperature goes down and the # of moles of gas (per unit volume) has to decrease.

Ya gotta watch Hollywood. It is full of pseudo-science and people who hang x-rays sideways and upside down on television shows like E.R.

Not to mention LOUD explosions in movies like Star Wars in outer space where there is no air to carry the sound. You'd see the flash all right, because light is a field disturbance phenomenon among other things, but you can't HEAR anything because there is no medium for the sound waves to travel in.

They are all stupid enough in HOLLYWOOD to be dangerous.

I just wonder how in the fuck they get all of that money with all of that crap that they put out. They really need to hire some science consultants.

Sheeese!

A-1

StanleyKubrick seemed careful about science. There are small glitches in the film. However, I wonder whether he would base something as central as this scene on bad science. I think that he had some notion of pushing a physical condition.

That is why I have wondered about this crucial scene in the movie. I wonder how quickly the atmosphere inside the small craft would disperse if it were projected into the airlock.

Kubrick hired top consultants. He consulted top people about computer science. One of the intriguing aspects of the film is tha HAL seems to be a person when Kubrick never really makes that claim. To me the film is as much about computer technology as about space science.

Old Softee,

Perhaps I am being a little harsh, but bad science is bad science.

However, artistic license allows some wiggle room to make a point. 2001 had a point and the makers of the film had the best of intentions in my opinion.

However, you cannot say that about all Hollywood and television productions which just try to exploit our violent tendancies and impulsiveness in America to make a fast buck. They are not much better than Drug Dealers when they do that.

A-1

To me 2001: A Space Odyssey is exceptional. I am not certain that MGM thought the flick would sell.. There a few close runners to Kubrick's movie. Science fiction movies declined with those dreadful Star Wars flicks. Those are awful. .

One thing that should be considered is that in any long-term space stay, the people would be working, most likely, with a non-standard mix of gasses. The overall pressure would be less, and have a much higher oxygen content than "Earth normal."

There have been many well researched profiles of the results of short-term exposure to low/zero pressure, and with the proper mix of gasses this can be done with little chance of permanent or serious damage.

Just as divers working in seriously deep (high pressure) environments use special mixes, so do the folks working at high altitudes and in space (low to zero pressure).

(This is one reason, for example, we had LOX tanks in the B-52's I flew in.)

Would it be possible for dave to survive a short duration zero-pressure jaunt? Yes, especially if he were on a mix intended to reduce the negative effects - and this would be the expected mix carried on-board any long voyage ship.

To start with he'd probably not be running more than about five to seven pounds of pressure in his shipboard environment, and so long as he didn't do something stupid like trying to hold his breath or not fart (equalize pressures!!!) his greatest risk might be sunburn - though at that distance, even that would be unlikely.

IIRC, Clarke was once asked about this in an interview, and, remembering that he is a scientist, he defended it quite handily. He's always done excellent research for facts he used.

Take care,

Tom

Gosh, I knew that you guys would know. Tomas raises points that I had not considered (with my limited point-of-view). Clarke was sharp. Thanks for sharing your insight.

Just for the heck of it I did a quick search for info from NASA on normal pressures in spacecraft/suits, and came up with the following information:

"On Earth, air is a mixture of nitrogen (79%), oxygen (20%), carbon dioxide (about 0.04%), and trace amounts of other gases at a pressure of 760 mm Hg. This gives a partial pressure of oxygen of about 152 mm Hg (20% of 760) (3.06 PSI). On Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, the atmospheric pressure in U.S. space vehicles decreased from 14.7 PSI to 5 PSI during liftoff, then maintained 5 PSI of pure oxygen for the duration of the flight. Since the percentage of oxygen was 100%, the partial pressure of oxygen was 5 PSI -- more than what is needed for human survival... The life support system in the Space Shuttle spacesuits maintains 4.3 PSI of pure oxygen."

(Another nice touch with Kubrick/Clark was that THEIR vacuum (as opposed to Star Trek/Star Wars/etc.) didn't conduct sound - all you can hear is the person's breathing, contact noises, and radio transmissions - no swoopy 'space' sounds in suits or craft. )