October 18 was a momentous day for all of us! NASA’s first all women spacewalk!!
Are you curious what would happen if you were in space without a suit? Watch to find out what would happen to you and learn a bit more about spacesuits! #STEMinASL
Transcript:
Cool! Space shuttle! Yesterday, October 18th was a giant step for womenkind! Yesterday was the first ever all women spacewalk. Jessica Meir and Christina Koch ventured outside the International Space Station to repair a power system. The first woman to do the first spacewalk was back in 1984 and since then, 15 women have walked in space. Have you ever wondered why they have to wear suits?
Here on Earth, the gravitational pull of air around us puts an atmospheric pressure on us and our bodies exert pressure back. This increase in pressure allows oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in our body to remain gas and circulating. We are in equilibrium! As we get further away from earth, the pressure decreases and there is less air and molecules around. In space, without a suit, there is no pressure exerted on us and that causes the gases in our body to swell up and bubble in the blood and tissues. Yikes! Not a good thing. The same concept applies to scuba diving. Going underwater exerts a lot of pressure on your body. If you come up to the surface too quickly, the nitrogen bubbles out and causes decompression sickness, known as the bends…an extremely painful condition. Without pressure, we would not be able to survive.
At the same time, the temperature changes in space. The space station is located in the thermosphere, which means heat sphere. You can guess what that means right?! An astronaut working outside the space station in a suit, their temperature can vary depending on if they are getting sunlight or not. If they are in the sun, the suit can be as hot as 248 degrees F, if they are not getting sunlight, it can be as cold as -148 degrees F!
Astronauts require fully pressurized space suits to do spacewalks in order to protect themselves from the heat, lack of oxygen, and lack of pressure. Inside the suits, they are pressurized and given pure oxygen. So, what would happen if you were in space without a suit? Well..you would lose consciousness in about 13 seconds, your blood would immediately boil and your body would swell since the water in your body would vaporize..but you wouldn’t explode! Your skin is too strong! After 1 minute, you would die. So when you think about astronauts doing space walks, appreciate how amazing it is.
