will you decompose faster, slower or not at all?
And assuming I accidentally drop my ham sandwich out of the Space Shuttle into orbit as well, will it still be edible when I come back a few months/years later?
will you decompose faster, slower or not at all?
And assuming I accidentally drop my ham sandwich out of the Space Shuttle into orbit as well, will it still be edible when I come back a few months/years later?
Decomposition, as I understand it, is the product of micro-organisms (most of which fare poorly in vacuum), and enzymes within your own cells (which also work poorly in vacuum). There’d be no decomposition at all. As for your ham sandwich - well, it wouldn’t have rotted, but it will have been exposed to real extremes of temperature that may have rendered it less than tasty.
Both the sandwich and the body will soon be freeze dried.
So both will be edible upon reconstitution?
An object in orbit in the vicinity of the Earth will have an average temperature not far different from the average temperature of the Earth, which is not cold enough for things to stay frozen. Worse, such an object would experience wider temperature swings, which are very bad for keeping things “fresh”. It is correct, though, to say that things will become dried.
So basically it’ll be human and ham jerky.
The cool kids know that vacuum food acquires the taste that is sublime mate.
groans
Ahaha, this post cracked me up. Even more so that the answer is yes.
Took me a minute…
for others who might be slower
Orson Wells portrayed a spy, in the motion picture The Third Man. During World War II, the spy was a British agent known by the code name, Harry Lime. Harry was very near-sighted and wore thick glasses. His assignment behind enemy lines, disguised, as a German Officer would have been impossible, except that the Americans had invented a new form of lens for the myopic. These contact lenses were undergoing clinical trials at the Walter Reed Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Arrangements were made to transport Harry secretly to Bethesda by submarine to be fitted by the lens crafters. Harry, among other things, had had several dalliances, and it was known that he had an old flame in nearby Washington. The authorities were afraid that Harry would use this opportunity in America to take an unauthorized vacation. They decided that they must make his instructions very explicit. Therefore, just before leaving for the ship, he was called to the control office where he was given this direct order!
“YOU ARE TO GO DIRECTLY FROM THE SUB, LIME, TO THE REED OCULIST.”
Wouldn’t one’s intestinal flora cause decomposition in the gut, and eventually in the rest of the body? (Before the body dried out, of course.)
In the Tampa Bay area, there was a fairly expensive but eclectic shop that sold, amongst other things, pastries and combustible organic mineraloids. When someone returned from a vacation there and his wife asked him what he bought he replied:
“Donut, Pasco. Donut, coal, etc. $200.”