Why is Space a Vacuum

Baron Munchausen · #1 January 28th, 2004, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Atrocities:

Nebula's are basically gasses being held in place by a gravitational force or other. These nebula can be pretty much any gas combination. So to turn this toward an SEIV topic, would it be possible to make a component that could use the inherent gasses of a nebula and convert them into energy for a ship or say stationary Starbase where a Q-reactor was not present?

I don't know why not, and I've been requesting this since before the official release of SE IV.

Feel free to email MM and ask for it again. He might be press^H^H^H^H^ersuraded to add it into the final patch.

Baron Munchausen · #2 January 28th, 2004, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Actually you can survive in a vacuum about as long as you can survive under water. A couple minutes, or more if you have decent lung capacity and can fight the natural urge to gasp for breath. The idea that you would blow up if pushed out an airlock is false. You can hold your breath. You will have damage from the extreme cold though. That alone would kill you eventually, but it would take a little longer then the lack of oxygen.

You won't 'blow up' like a frog with an M80 in his mouth, but you will suffer damage from the pressure differential. Crew escaping from submarines are taught to exhale as they ascend or else their lungs will burst -- not 'explode' with a boom, but yes, actually burst from the excess pressure. The damage can be fatal even if they survive the ascent. I can't believe that someone tossed out of a spaecraft into hard vacuum wouldn't suffer similar damage. There is or was a special 'breathing device' issued to submarine crews to let them exhale & inhale while they ascend. It's just a pLastic thingy which can fit over your mouth & nose so you can breath into it. I suppose something like that would be impossible with space, since the pressure differential is far to great. You'd need a pressurized suit to be able to breath at all.

[ January 28, 2004, 17:45: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

geoschmo · #3 January 28th, 2004, 07:43 PM

You can mod it so you can get resources from a nebulae instead of supply. You could setup the quadrant types so that it places asteroids in every sector of the nebula system. You can then remote mine the asteroids, even though you can't see them.

This wont work for nebulae created during the game though.

geoschmo · #4 January 28th, 2004, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
You won't 'blow up' like a frog with an M80 in his mouth, but you will suffer damage from the pressure differential. Crew escaping from submarines are taught to exhale as they ascend or else their lungs will burst -- not 'explode' with a boom, but yes, actually burst from the excess pressure.

Actually from what sites I could google the damage from the pressure difference is slight. Although I was apparently incorrect about holding your breath. They say that might cause some lung tissue damage. I'm not sure how severe though. It might be worth losing some lung cells to hold your breath. If you can't hold your breath then you are looking at just a few seconds before unconciousness, although brain death will still take a couple minutes.

I was also wrong about freezing, since I forgot that vacuum is a very poor heat conductor.

In fact if exposed to sunlight you'd get a pretty bad sunburn in a relativly short amount of time. But if you are unconcious, and if noone was around to pull you in you'd stay that way permenantly, the burn wouldn't have much effect.

Fyron · #5 January 28th, 2004, 08:15 PM

Being in a vacuum makes the gasses and liquids diffuse through your skin rather rapidly. They do have a massive number of pores, which are just holes, after all.

You will not explode or anything, but you will not Last as long as just being under water.

geoschmo · #6 January 28th, 2004, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Being in a vacuum makes the gasses and liquids diffuse through your skin rather rapidly. They do have a massive number of pores, which are just holes, after all. You will not explode or anything, but you will not Last as long as just being under water.

No, that's simply not true. Going from normal pressure to zero pressure is not as bad as going from very high pressure to normal pressure. You will experience some slight effects, but not the debilitating conditions that a diver coming straight up will.

Your skin doesn't difuse liquids very rapidly at all. And your pores aren't simply holes in the skin. They are the external openings of your sweat glands. They don't diffuse any liquids under normal circumstances expect what is in your sweat glands. The vacuum of space isn't normal circumstances, but it's not going to suck your blood out your pores or anything like that.

narf poit chez BOOM · #7 January 28th, 2004, 09:12 PM

in one of the short stories i read, people evacuated from one ship in space to another after expelling air from their lungs. no-one was in space more than 30 seconds. feasible?

side note: the book mentioned a technique where you breath heavily a few times then expell the air from your lungs. i tried this and was able to hold my breath for 20 seconds at the start and after some practice, 35 seconds. it really is easier, despite sounding counter-productive.