How long could you survive exposure to space?

I’ve no idea how accurate this is, but this website purports to tell you how long you could survive the desolate emptiness of space without the comfort of a spacesuit. For the record, Frances Ashcroft describes the effects in her excellent book ‘Life At The Extremes‘:

Step into the vacuum of space and you would perish in a few brief agonising moments. The air would rush out of your lungs; the dissolved gases in your blood and bodily fluids would vaporise, forcing apart your cells and forming bubbles in your capillaries, so that no oxygen would reach your brain; air trapped in your internal organs would expand, rupturing your gut and eardrums; and the intense cold would cause instant freezing. you would be unconscious within fifteen seconds.

Which is a relief, as I’m told I’d live for a minute longer than that.

2 comments March 23rd, 2008