Space-walker nearly OPENED HELMET to avoid DROWNING Back in July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano went for a spacewalk from the International Space Station. The sortie broke a record for the shortest spacewalk of all time because his helmet filled with water, leading to a swift termination lest he suffer the bizarre fate of drowning in space. Parmitano's now blogged details …
I did think that. My thoughts were that he was saying could open a vent somewhere where the water had accumulated and the water would boil into the vacuum. Doing this would cause the water to drop in temperature, and probably freeze around the vent stopping further venting, and possibly locking the vent open. I then wondered if he meant that ice would sublime.
Having the helmet open a little for a short time wouldn't kill him as long as he didn't try and hold his breath which could cause lung over expansion. Mind you, it's desperate times indeed to be thinking it.
It also shows incredible presence of mind to be faced with death in several interesting ways and to think through how to deal with it. Having had a near underwater panic attack when (in training) someone turned off my air cylinder in space, alone, it would be on the next level (or ten).
"It also shows incredible presence of mind to be faced with death in several interesting ways and to think through how to deal with it."
There are a few people with that kind of psychological make-up - and no doubt it can be greatly enhanced by training and experience. No one else should even be considered for jobs such as jet fighter pilot, submariner, and above all astronaut. If in doubt, watch "Apollo 13" again and marvel that those guys stayed sane, let alone lived to tell the tale.
It seems he was documenting his thinking, rather than doing an objective post-event analysis.
You can forgive a person, even a physics PhD, for not pondering the finer points of phase change while he's <echo>DROWING IN SPAAAACCEE</echo>.
Sublimation or not, the net result would be the same: the latent heat loss would quickly cause ice formation which could make for a bad day.
Yes indeed, or solid to gas. I'm not sure it's appropriate for the simultaneous boiling and freezing which occurs when water is released into a vacuum either. I believe that in a sudden complete loss of pressure the effect is rather violent: much like the mass nucleation that occurs when you open a vigorously shaken bottle of pop. The energy carried away by the vaporising molecules reducing the temperature of the remaining H2O, just as an aerosol can cools as you use it. Water can't exist in a vacuum - only ice or free H2O molecules - molecules with sufficient energy to escape the crystal state are liberated, so all that's left by the sudden "boil" is ice. Not something one would choose to experience around one's head really.
I'm not sure English has a word for the process. Might I propose friel* as an appropriate portmanteau?
* http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/AnnaFriel.jpg
English already has words for changes between the most common states of matter:
Solid to liquid - melting
Liquid to solid - freezing
Liquid to gas - evaporation or boiling
Gas to liquid - condensing
Sold to gas - sublimation
Gas to solid - deposition
Gas to plasma - ionization
Plasma to gas - deionization
What I do not know is what changes (e.g. Bose–Einstein condensate) to and from other states are called.
And we tried recreating one of the Apollo missions. While we were building testing, (then rebuilding and testing again) and finally flying our rocket, we talked about the real life missions and all the training astronauts had to go through to not only get to the moon but to deal with almost every conceivable thing that they could think of that could possibly go wrong.
It's hard enough when the expected occurs. When the unexpected occurs, it's ingenuity and bravery like Luca Parmitanos that saves the day.
For Hollywood, this would only rank as a minor incident during a long laser powered arc of action starring a maverick, misunderstood outsider who uses unorthodox means to get what he wants while wearing an oil stained torn T-shirt who coincidentally has a ripped upper body and an unshaven face. Meanwhile his friends who don't approve of his drinking habit, but love him deep down, come to realise that only. this. one. man, can save the world. So they recruit a school of frickin' laser space sharks, who take pity on him, and start to suck all the water from his helmet. But as his O2 level counts down (close-up on) 5...4...3...2.. a micro-meteorite hits the sharks, who explode in fire ball, the hero dies and the President names a school after him.
etc.
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"Only me!
"You, don't wanna do it like tha-at.
"You don't wanna drink the water away! That gets it too close to your nose and you could breathe it in! An' drown!
"No, you wanna take yer 'elmet right off! Let the water escape and put yer 'elmet back on again!
"'Ere! I'll help!"
It's exceedingly clear that following this nearly-terrible-tragedy the entire ISS simply MUST be de-orbited and any and all space-related activities ceased for at least the next TWO DECADES (or until even the bureaucrats have forgotten why we aren't up there, whichever takes longer). I mean, isn't that how NASA generally handles any problem...?
Can you imagine what evolutionary hurdles we, as humans, had to overcome to be able to survive in such a harsh environment such as space? Took us millions of years to get to the point where bi-pedism became the main factor of enabling our brain to grow exponentially. We have only just grasped the concept of stepping out of our comfort zone and explore potentially lethal environments just for the sake of exploration.
Hats off to these pioneers! Please, please make peeing in space more safe for us mere humans.
As the Sydney Morning Herald reports:
NASA has suspended all US spacewalks* until the problem is resolved.
So, anyone else with a funny accent is OK then.
Righty-oh.
*Is there any other kind, at the moment?
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/drowning-in-space-astronaut-tells-of-spacewalk-terror-20130821-2sad0.html#ixzz2cigksQA8
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