So he’s in the space station and hits the airlock door instead of the bathroom door. He’s dead with a full bladder.
Since there’re no bacteria out there, no water, real cold, not much of anything in fact, how long will his body simply stay as it was, and when it does begin to disintegrate, in what order and how will it happen?
PS: I phrased the title w/ apologies to the comics in Hamlet gravedigger scene because a) I really only noticed the topic overlap as I wrote the post, and b) wanted to show off.
You would end up with a freeze-dried mummy. There are lots of bacteria in our gut and on our skin. However, in the cold vacuum of space, a body would freeze and then dehydrate by sublimation in a few days to few weeks. The side facing the sun would warm up allowing that side to dehydrate faster.
A dried frozen corpse would probably last centuries in space. Do note that most earth orbits eventually decay. The corpse would probably re-enter and burn up at some point.
It wouldn’t be close to instantaneous at all. Studies have shown that animals can survive a short exposure to vacuum. I don’t know how long our poor astronaut would stay conscious, but I’m betting it will be a minutes or two before he passes out from oxygen deprivation. Remember, even though there is no oxygen in his lungs, there is still some in his blood.
So he’s at least got plenty of time to take a piss.
Wouldn’t a freeze dried corpse be really brittle? Could solar winds and micro particles eventually scatter his remains, perhaps creating a microscopic ring around the Earth? That would be a cool way to go: “Welcome to Virgin Galactic flight 123. If you look out your right side window you might catch a glint of sunlight reflecting off the Elmer Belt…”
The lungs act as an exchange mechanism for gases. For example, if your blood is 25% oxygen, and the air is 30% oxygen, you transfer oxygen from the air to your blood. Similarly, if your blood is 35% oxygen and the air is 30%, you lose oxygen. Since a vacuum is more or less equivalent to 0% oxygen, the oxygen in your blood should rapidly leave your body. That should render you unconscious almost instantly, although technically you may not be dead and may be able to be saved with proper treatment.
I was going by something I read quite some time ago, and while looking for a better cite I actually found some better numbers. So here’s a much more official answer:
So not quite as long as I thought, but still long enough to take a piss.
I googled up some animal studies, and you are right. Chimps had about 10 seconds of consciousness when exposed to a vacuum. Plenty of time to piss his pants.
I think you’re probably right on the dessication, but space isn’t cold. It’s a vacuum, which doesn’t have a temperature.
The side facing the sun would be quite hot, the side facing away would be able to cool via radiation, but that’s not particularly rapid. The moisture would leave via plain old evaporation/boiling, rather than sublimation of ice.
I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Doesn’t water boil at ANY temperature in a vacuum? It’s my understanding that you need energy to boil water because of the air pressure holding the water molecules together. Take away the pressure, and it reduces the amount of energy required to boil. Zero pressure would cause 0 energy boiling right?
What he means is that only “stuff” can have a temperature. Only matter can be hot or cold. The air can be hot or cold, the water can be hot or cold, your body can be hot or cold, but the vacuum itself can not be hot or cold.
Further elaboration: temperature is really a measurement of the kinetic energy of the mass. Or so my high school physics teacher told me. A “classic” vacuum has no temperature. Note the operation of a Thermos bottle. The vacuum is what gives it the magnificent insulating properties.
