Question: How long can a person survive in outer space unprotected?


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Answer #1:

not long enough to time.

Answer #2:

A tiny fraction of a second.

Answer #3:

You are correct that instant death is not possible, but the pressure in outer space is so low because there is nothing there, that the pressure in your body will try to become the pressure in outer space. Your inside organs and bones with try to come out anyway that they can, which means every hole in your body. This happens so quickly that it is called instant death. At the maximum time of possible survival, it has been guessed at 1 second.

Answer #4:

Actually you can survive for up to 1.1/2 minutes.
NASA did tests and one chap had an accident in his space suite in a vacuum chamber.
Another in space had a leak, but was okay.
XX

Answer #5:

All of the air in your lungs would be sucked out of you, you would probably start to bleed from all orifices...so your lungs would collapse, that would probably do it in a second or so.

Answer #6:

I read this. You should too. Click Here

Here's a quotation from it:
"The exact limits are unknown, but death is believed to be unavoidable after two to four minutes of exposure. Contrary to depictions in many other popular movies, a person exposed to the vacuum of space does not instantly pass out or freeze to death, the body does not explode, and blood does not boil. "

Answer #7:

You would indeed last more than a second. You could last several minutes.

Although radiation and freezing temperatures would kill you eventually, they take a while. Space is cold, but it's also an excellent insulator, so it would actually take quite a while for you to freeze. The low pressure is also not immediately lethal, just uncomfortable.

The main thing you need to worry about is the lack of oxygen, so it basically depends on how long you can hold your breath.

Answer #8:

That person would die Instantly.
He won't even make it past one second.

Answer #9:

Despite most of the movies and myths, it would not be very fast.
Luckily, we don't know for sure.
HOWEVER
You would not freeze to death very quickly, because there is nothing to take the heat from your body. The only way you would lose it is radiation, not induction, and human bodies don't radiate heat very fast.
You would most likely not decompress, like most people say. The human body is amazingly resilient, and the pressure difference isn't that big.
Most likely, the first way you'd die would be asphyxiation, which would take about five minutes if you take a deep breath first.
Still, I would not recommend it, as you would be exposed to radiation, the pressure difference would at least injure you, and oxygen deficiency can cause brain damage.
I hope you never have to find out the hard way.

Answer #10:

less than a second

Answer #11:

If a healthy human is exposed to a vacuum, the most important thing for survival is to let the air out of their lungs. This might sound silly, but if you try to hold your breath in a vacuum you can rupture your lungs and cause severe damage. Provided they let their breath out, a person gets about 10 seconds in a vacuum during which they remain conscious. After about 10 seconds, the pressure affects their circulation and causes the brain to shut down, causing them to fall unconscious. After that they have up to another minute or so during which, if they are repressurized, they can make more or less a full recovery. However, soon after that the pressure difference and oxygen deprivation quickly start damaging tissue, and past about two minutes, survival becomes highly unlikely even with immediate medical attention.





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