What would happen to a astronaut if his space suit was accidentally tore in outer space?

Question

What would happen to a astronaut if his space suit was accidentally tore in outer space?

Answer 1

These answers are all terrible... The range from just wrong to movie fiction... Close your eyes and hold your breath?? Space is nothing more than a very hostile environment and the astronaut would not implode nor would he turn to jelly... The vacuum would instantly draw the air from your lungs and with an equal negative pressure inside and outside of his diaphragm he would not be able to inhale or exhale... Soon the -455 degree Fahrenheit temp would freeze him solid and he would float endlessly preserved... If it happened in low earth orbit he would continue to orbit until we ventured out to get him...

Answer 2

In the Shuttle suit, an astronaut can survive 22 minutes with a 1/8" hole in his suit. At that point the pressure will drop to where he is likely to suffer permanent brain damage, if he survives. The Shuttle suit has a secondary oxygen pack pressurised to 5,000 psi. If the primary system cannot maintain pressure in the suit (due, for example, to a 1/8-inch hole), the secondary oxygen pack will open its valve and attempt to maintain the pressure.

If there is a large tear, the astronaut might have a few seconds to live. No matter what he does, severe vascular damage is certain, and the probability of permanent damage to the neural system (including the brain) is extremely high. However, as several notes here have pointed out, the outer layer of the space suit is very tough, and the probability of even a small puncture is low.

Even if the external pressure drops to a vacuum, blood vessels maintain a high enough pressure that the body's temperature remains below the boiling point of water and prevents blood from boiling. The body will not instantly freeze either because even though space is generally very cold, the fact that it is a vacuum means there is no medium to conduct heat away from the body and it cools rather slowly.

Answer 3

There's no air in space, so the air inside his suit would rush out. He wouldn't be able to breathe, but if he shut his eyes and held his breath he could survive for a minute or so. After that he's start to run out of breath. After 4 minutes his brain would start to be damaged by lack of oxygen.

If he opened his eyes, the vacuum would cause all the moisture on his eyes to evaporate, and his eyes would dry up, possibly damaging them.

People talk about the pressure difference in space, but it's not huge. The pressure difference between the air in the guy's lungs and the vacuum outside is only one atmosphere. He could easily stand that sort of pressure. People wouldn't explode in space - it's a myth.

Answer 4

They would suffocate probably, very quickly.

Answer 5

He (or she) would be instantly dead. Imploded. That astronaut would be nothing but jelly in the bottom of his suit.  

Answer 6

He would die of suffocation and the bends at the same time. Blood and other bodily fluids would boil in the vacuum of space so if suffocation doesn't kill him, bubbles of gases forming in his bloodstream will.  

Answer 7

The answer is mind-bogglingly obvious.  Death, and pretty quickly.  

Answer 8

Trying to hold breath will result in instant death as the lungs will explode under the pressure. An astronaut would have a minute or two to return into the spacecraft, or he will pass out without air and die. He won't freeze, because vacuum has no temperature. It's a myth that things freeze in space.  

Answer 9

Look at 2001 a Space Odyssey, the part where Hal directs a pod to tear a bit of Frank Poole's suit. Kubrick and Clarke knew what they were doing, and this is perhaps the most realistic rendition (as far as anyone knows, short of trying it one a real person) of how it would be.

No explosion of the person, no implosion. But quick suffocation.

Answer 10

He would be out of oxygen, and would lose consciousness within a few seconds.  After a few minutes, he'd die of anoxia (total lack of oxygen).

The lack of pressure would also produce air embolisms in his bloodstream and tissues, but he'd probably die of a lack of oxygen before these embolisms did any damage.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, he would not explode.  In some circumstances, if he held his breath or if there were a lot of gas in his GI tract, it could cause something to rupture, but again, he'd already by dying from the lack of oxygen by then.

A number of people have survived brief exposure to vacuum and survived without problems.  One of them remarked that the last thing he remembered before passing out was a bubbling sensation on his tongue as the water there boiled away.

Answer 11

The decompression would kill him instantly, and he would explode like a popped balloon from all pressure escaping from his body.  Even a small tear will do this because space is a vacuum and the slightest tear would rip the space suit wide open and kill the person inside.

Answer 12

All atmosphere regulator devices for use in manned space have high-flow modes or high-flow backups that can be used to maintain sufficient pressure for certain sizes of leaks for lengths of time necessary to mitigate the failure or reach safety.  This applies to space suits and space ships.

It is amazingly difficult to puncture a space suit.  It is amazingly difficult to crack a helmet visor.

Under conditions of total anoxia you have about ten seconds of useful consciousness: less if the suit decompression is explosive or if the astronaut has been exerting himself up to that point.  Depending on the subject's cardiovascular health, revival may be possible up to a minute elapsed total anoxia.

Answer 13

Space is nothing but a vacuum, so without air, the person would suffocate, then be completely "smashed" (for lack of a better word).  The person also might freeze to death before they suffocated.