A nudist astronaut ate way too much taco bell before his launching. Therefore he is filled with gas. If he farts really hard… could he propel himself inside his ship?
I’m glad you specified “inside his ship”.
As long as he isn’t wearing any pants, or he has a propulsion vent fitted to his pants that can be opened at the appropriate time, bonus points for a thrust vectoring mechanism.
No it is not an effective means of movement. The force is just too tiny … The force of the air movement caused by the air conditioner will create more force on the body.
I think the general assumption of your reply is correct but the force of the gas would propel somebody if only very very slowly. I don’t disagree that there are probably other actions with a ship which have more influence.
You’ve never been to Taco Bell have you?
I would think pissing would be a more effective means of propulsion.
Every breath you take is probably more significant than a fart. Of course inhaling and exhaling may cancel each other out, but you can easily make it asymmetric by turning your head or blowing (i.e. puckering your lips) when exhaling.
It will be somewhat asymmetric anyway - when you inhale, the air will be drawn in from (approximately) a hemisphere of directions in front of your face - if you exhale through pursed lips, a jet of air can be exhaled in a very specific direction - pulse jets can achieve forward propulsion for the same reason.
alright a midget astronaut who has been on a diet after a big bean down from Taco Bell.
could urine be a reverse thruster?
You’re going to want to use the same bodily fluid, whichever one turns out to be most efficient, for both your forward and reverse thrust. It’s not hard to change the direction you’re aiming.
I have a hunch, though, that air-swimming will turn out to be more effective than any sort of jet propulsion.
It is a propulsive force for sure, but I’d imagine the mass and velocity of your average fart aren’t very big, therefore not much momentum would be transferred.
The vacuum of space will kill a human being rather quickly after exposure to such low pressure. In a protective spacesuit, even a tear-ass fart strong enough to open a strategically placed anal check valve (flow in one direction only)will not provide ample thrust beyond a gentle push in a direction 180° from the fart vector.
I think if it did provide any propulsion, it would be more likely to make him turn a somersault than propel him forward.
The OP did specify that the astronaut was within his ship and not outside in space.
During the Apollo missions, the water created by the fuel cells was sort of high in hydrogen, so they did fart a lot. And I’ve read the rescue divers who helped recover the command modules were often almost knocked back by the stench that was released when they opened the command module hatch.
I’m just a layman with a high school knowledge of chemistry, but how can water be high in hydrogen? I know that a water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom, but that’s about it. Is there hydrogen gas dissolved in the water? Is the hydrogen bonded with the water molecules in some way? I’m a little confused. I know that water is the byproduct of a fuel cell, but where does the extra hydrogen come from? And please remember, I didn’t study chemistry beyond the twelfth grade.
Yeah, I’m not buying the “hydrogen-rich water”, either. And a stench when the capsule is opened could easily be explained by body odor.