Lack of Oxygen in Space

The human body reacts in direct and indirect ways when it is bombarded with or deprived of certain things. Space is a good example of somewhere where both of those things can happen concurrently. Indeed, the radiation that is prevalent throughout space is one example. However, the general lack of oxygen is perhaps a bigger issue. Oxygen is one of the core parts of the water molecule. It is also a primary component of the air that humans breathe, along with nitrogen and a few other atoms types. Because of this, it is wise to know what happens to the human body in an area that is devoid of oxygen. The astronauts that have gone up there have worn special suits while doing so for a reason. Even with the protective measures that have been and continue to be taken, it is still true that the lack of atmosphere and oxygen that is present in space has seemingly affected astronauts in negative ways.

Even though there have not been a lot of man-hours logged in space relative to what has happened with other paradigms and fields of study, there is little doubt that the body is most certainly affected in numerous, and often negative, ways when it is in an area that has no oxygen. This has been studied and verified to a good degree by government agencies like NASA as well as many colleges and other scholarly institutes, agencies and groups. This report shall explore and summarize what is currently known about the topic. While there are worse scenarios and situations that a body can be subjected to, an oxygen-void area is not a place someone should want to be for very long without protection and preparation.

One scholarly institution that has studied the affects of lack of oxygen in space on the human body is the University of California at Santa Barbara, or UCSB. Even with the fact that protective suits are worn whenever humans are in safe, the obvious question is what would happen if those suits were not present. The answer, of course, is as obvious as the question. Any unprotected human in space would die and they would die quickly. Even if that were not true, something else that would surely kill any person floating in space is the temperature. Indeed, the space that exists around the Earth and the Moon is very cold. The human body would not be handle that, at least not for long. Just how long this torture would last would depend on the precise situation. This would include where precisely around the moon or the Earth and its atmospheres the person is, whether there is direct sunlight and a few other things. To help prove the point about lack of air, one should think about airplanes. Of course, airplanes have emergency oxygen masks that drop out of the top compartments should there be a depressurization or some other event. This is mainly due to the fact that planes fly rather high and the air in these higher altitudes is rather thin as compared to when is lower. Even people on the ground in mountainous regions like Denver metro and other places can clearly notice that the air is thinner than in places that are lower from a sea level/elevation standpoint. Since the difference in oxygen presence is so much more dramatic in space as compared to different levels of elevation on the Earth or the moon, what would actually happen is that the air in the human’s lungs would be sucked out and the human would start suffocating almost immediately. It would certainly kill the human much faster than the cold temperatures would (UCSB, 2018).

An organization known as IFL Science is a little more explicit and specific when it comes to what would happen to a human floating in space without a spacesuit. Even with the fact that the atmosphere of the Earth is not impervious to the Sun, to space and so forth, a lot of protection is offered. A lot of the ultraviolet (UV) rays and so forth that fly throughout space are mitigated greatly, if not eliminated, by the protective atmosphere of the Earth. This would not be present at all if a person was in space. One thing that would happen pre-death to someone that is exposed to the oxygen-less void of space is known as ebullism. This is the technical term for when there is the formation of bubbles of body fluids due to the unequal pressure that exists between a human body and the void of space. It is along the same lines of the air immediately being sucked out of one’s lungs. The different with ebullism is that there is no pathway for the pressure to equalize in certain parts of the body. The air on one’s lungs will go up the trachea, the esophagus and out the mouth. Fluids in the blood, organs and so forth have a much less clear path. However, the pressure is still exerted and thus wreaks havoc on the body. The lungs themselves would be ripped to shreds even if someone were to hold their breath and try to prevent what will eventually happen anyway, one way or another. In terms of time frame, someone that is in space without air would probably last one to two minutes at the most. Other factors such as ultraviolet, gamma rays and much lower temperatures would certainly be issues. However, suffocation would almost certainly be the cause of death before anything else has the time to do its work (IFL Science, 2018).

Some work that appears on the Scientific American website yields some more details and clues that are mundane to the overall question of this report. Not unlike what is seen in many movies and other sources of entertainment, being ejected into space and/or away from a craft or space station is deemed to be impending or certain death. This is largely because that is precisely what would happen. If this were to happen absent a breathing apparatus, death would come quick. However, going unconscious would come even quicker. The over/under as to how long this would take is about fifteen seconds according to Anna Gosline. Actual death, however, probably comes after a few minutes. Indeed, the human body can go without oxygen for a time. However, brain damage and death are sure to follow unless oxygen is restored rather quickly. Not unlike what is seen when there is any sort of cardiac or stroke episode and the flow of oxygen to the brain is stopped, the person who is facing death is going to be brain dead in fairly short order even if they are revived. The chances of this happening in suffocation-related situations makes these chances higher. This would obviously include people in space (Gosline, 2008).

Movies and such like to show people’s bodies exploding, in whole or in part. Whether it be the chest/lungs, the eyes or other parts, that seems to be a common movie trope when it comes to space. While that is not technically true in real practice, the outcomes are surely grim. The lung shredding that occurs when holding one’s breath for too long is one example. Another example would be when water and dissolved gas mobilize in a way that leads to the circulatory system coming to a grinding halt within a minute. This is precisely why someone would go unconscious in less than fifteen seconds. However, this is not the “point of no return” when it comes to potentially surviving. If oxygen is restored within 90 seconds, there is a very high likelihood that the person will survive. This can be proven by looking at a 1965 study where precisely this was done with dogs. Dogs, like humans, surely went unconscious after a short time without oxygen. However, the people doing the study were able to revive the dogs after 90 seconds, a factor of 6 beyond the fifteen seconds that cause loss of consciousness. A similar experiment was done with chimpanzees in 1965 and 1967. With them, they were able to go up to three and a half minutes without air and they did so without suffering any apparent or obvious cognitive damage after being brought back onto oxygen and normal atmospheric conditions. A human example of this occurred in 1965. It was actually not space. Rather, it was in a vacuum chamber. A technician was wearing a suit in one of those chambers. A hose became disconnected and the man lost consciousness somewhere between 12 and 15 seconds. Pressure was apparently restored somehow and the man came back to awareness just short of half a minute later. The man lesser taste sensation for a few days. However, he was otherwise fine after recovering from the fainting spell. In short, losing consciousness does not mean certain death. However, someone or something will need to intervene for survival to be possible (Gosline, 2008).