Can you survive in an airplane in space?
- Thread starter Brent
- Start date
T'Girl,
I know about pressure-relief panels, but I was still under the impression that the pressure differences would be such that some part of the structure would give way first. I have seen pressurization tests done on planes prior to them entering service and in one case a door blew open. They were simulating pressures in the cabin of 8,000 feet and outside pressures at cruising altitude (I don't remember the exact altitude they were listing but it would be logical to conclude it was probably in the 30,000 - 35,000 foot range)
Regardless you wouldn't have an air conditioning system if the engines weren't working to pressurize the air. Pressure would be virtually nonexistant.
I know about pressure-relief panels, but I was still under the impression that the pressure differences would be such that some part of the structure would give way first. I have seen pressurization tests done on planes prior to them entering service and in one case a door blew open. They were simulating pressures in the cabin of 8,000 feet and outside pressures at cruising altitude (I don't remember the exact altitude they were listing but it would be logical to conclude it was probably in the 30,000 - 35,000 foot range)
Regardless you wouldn't have an air conditioning system if the engines weren't working to pressurize the air. Pressure would be virtually nonexistant.
Dear OP: After much debate, though little of it directly related to your initial question, the panel offers the following answer to your question:
NO.
Thank you,
The Giganto Project and Incredible Velocity Debunking Board
NO.
Thank you,
The Giganto Project and Incredible Velocity Debunking Board
So, I guess the scene in Superman Returns, where the commercial airliner reaches a point where they lose gravity and every thing is floating wasn't in "outer space?" Can someone explain that scene in the context of this thread?
There really isn't a point where one starts to float. Even on the ISS (200 miles up) they have about .9g. They float because they're falling at the same speed as their environment.
In Superman, the plane and it's passengers and pens and whatever were all falling at the same speed.
The same thing would happen if you were at the top of the Sears Tower and your elevator started falling. You would have the sensation of "floating" but gravity would most definitely be working...as you'd soon find out in a messy way.
Google for "Vomit Comet" and all will be revealed.
Pretty much my interpetation of it, they weren't out of gravity (they'd have to be much, much further out for that) but the plane was "falling" in a parabolic arc that made them experience "weightlessness" as the plane "fell" back Earth, the plane wasn't in orbit it was just at a very, very high FL.
Oh, I understand now. Dont need to look it up. I misunderstood the movie.
Sorta... the plane in the movie was in free fall, the Vomit Comet Does the parabolic thing to compensate for the fact that they are in controlled flight. Planes are expensive, and they want repeatable results, so they cheat slightly.
Taking the questioner to the Vomit Comit page was the quickest way to illustrate why this wasn't "outer space".
Now if the plane was on top of a giant pyramid, this would be a different discussion altogether... ;-)
The plane in "Superman Returns" was in a suborbital trajectory resembling those experienced by X-15s and Scaled composite's Spaceship One. High enough so that there wouldn't be enough air for the control surfaces to work, allowing the aircraft to tumble out of control. The X-15 and Spaceship One had relatively short wings that could withstand the high velocity air flow when they descended back into a significant amount of air. With the large wings on a wide body airliner I doubt the wings would remain attached to the fuselage, even without the efforts of a super powered alien hero.
Without sufficient air to operate the engines, replenishment of the cabin air would cease. With an economically justifiable high percentage of the seats filled carbon dioxide levels in the cabin would rise rapidly. I think automatic passenger cabin mask deployment would only occur if the cabin pressure dropped. A manual deployment would aid oxygen levels, but toxic carbon dioxide levels would remain. Don't forget how much concern such an accumulation was on Apollo 13. Several hundred people in an airliner would produce a lot of carbon dioxide.
Without sufficient air to operate the engines, replenishment of the cabin air would cease. With an economically justifiable high percentage of the seats filled carbon dioxide levels in the cabin would rise rapidly. I think automatic passenger cabin mask deployment would only occur if the cabin pressure dropped. A manual deployment would aid oxygen levels, but toxic carbon dioxide levels would remain. Don't forget how much concern such an accumulation was on Apollo 13. Several hundred people in an airliner would produce a lot of carbon dioxide.
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I'm afraid that's simply not true. You wouldn't freeze, because cooling of a body requires a method by which to transfer that heat away and to the surroundings. Since conduction and convection are out of the question, the only means by which you can lose heat is by emitting (mostly infra-red) radiation. This is a small effect compared to how quickly we can lose heat on Earth when we're in constant contact with the air and the ground. You would slowly cool, but we'd be talking hours, not minutes or seconds before your body approaches the background temperature of space.
Additionally, whilst it's true that a liquid can boil when pressure is greatly reduced, your circulatory system isn't totally lame, and would do some work containing your blood and ensuring this did not happen.
All in all, you have about a minute of useful consciousness in a vacuum, and you'd lose consciousness and suffocate before anything else (and even if they pulled you back inside the ship, permanent damage may be done to the aveoli in your lungs). The most noticable injury (if you were sucked in to space in orbit of the Earth) would be severe sunburn.
Perhaps you'd have a minute of consciousness, but I rather doubt all of it would be useful. At 60000 feet, the FAA calls the TUC for a pilot to be 6-9 seconds.
john titor
Captain
You would have 10 seconds of consciousness at the most, however you can survive for up to two minutes in the vacuum, although you would need immediate medical attention once inside. Sunburn would occur I imagine if you were in the path of the suns rays. The most common myth is that a person would explode, this is not true, the body acts as a pressure suit.
They weren't exploiding so much as over-reacting to the lower pressure and lack of air.
You're correct. I confused the figure for 'consciousness' and total 'survivability'. A few minutes at most.
And yeah, the Sun's pretty strong at this distance if you don't happen to have an atmosphere to block most of the UV and scatter a good deal of the rest between you and it.
Other serious injuries would occur, but this would be the most obvious if you managed to haul your crewmate back on board, dead or barely alive...
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