How long humans could survive in space without a spacesuit (2024)

FAQs

How long humans could survive in space without a spacesuit? ›

Oxygen deprivation: The vacuum of space does not contain any oxygen, so the human body will quickly start to suffocate. Likely in less than 2 minutes you will lose consciousness and die.

Without a spacesuit in space, you would become unconscious within 15 seconds due to lack of oxygen. Your blood and body fluids would boil and then freeze because of the extremely low air pressure, and your tissues would expand from the boiling fluids.

Your body would take between 18-36 hours to freeze in space due to the radiational cooling. There are other problems when it comes to being stranded in space though. While freezing is not your most immediate concern, oxygen and extreme low pressure are things to be concerned about.

Your blood holds enough oxygen for about 15 seconds of brain activity. After that you'd black out, with complete brain death following within three minutes. But if you were rescued in the first 30 seconds, you'd probably have nothing worse than 'love bite'-type bruises over all your skin.

During the Apollo moon landings, the astronauts described the scent as gunpowder-like, while those who went to the international space station (ISS) compared it to burnt steak.

On Earth, liquids boil at a lower temperature when there's less atmospheric pressure; outer space is a vacuum, with no pressure at all; hence the blood boiling idea. But your blood is locked up in a closed circulatory system, so it's protected from the elements (or lack thereof).

Thankfully, an astronaut being irretrievably stranded away from their spacecraft has never happened before. The first astronaut to float away from the safety of their ship without a tether was Bruce McCandless, who reached 320 feet away from the Challenger space shuttle on February 7, 1984.

The short answer is, not very long. "Within a very short time, a matter of 10 to 15 seconds, you will become unconscious because of a lack of oxygen," according to Stefaan de Mey, a senior strategy officer at the European Space Agency (ESA) charged with coordinating the strategy area for human and robotic exploration.

Mars is full of deserts, it is extremely cold, and has too low gravity. Your bodily fluids, such as mucus, saliva, etc. would evaporate, making you completely parched. Without any protective suit, you would only get about 2 minutes to be on Mars.

Mars might not be somewhere we could live. We are not sure how effective Mars's atmosphere would be as a radiation shield (how will astronauts hide from radiation on Mars?) And we must remember that the explorers will have to spend a long time on the planet. There can be no quick there-and-back dash, as with the Moon.

What happens if space suit rips? ›

If a stone hits the spacesuit and punctures it, air from the suit will leak into space in no time, resulting in very very low pressure inside the suit. This will cause arteries of astronaut to burst, implying almost immediate death.

So depending on our position and speed, time can appear to move faster or slower to us relative to others in a different part of space-time. And for astronauts on the International Space Station, that means they get to age just a tiny bit slower than people on Earth. That's because of time-dilation effects.

This claim is a popular myth that has been circulating for many years, but it has no scientific basis [1]. In reality, the length of an hour remains the same whether you are in space or on Earth. The concept of time is based on the rotation of the Earth on its axis, which takes approximately 24 hours to complete [3].

According to NASA, civilian astronaut salaries are determined by the US Government's pay scales – or more specifically grades GS-13 to GS-14. As of 2022, the GS-13 pay scale ranges from $81,216 to $105,579 per annum. This is up to $8,798.25 per month or $50.59 an hour.

You would die not too long after from lack of oxygen or the adverse effects of the difference in pressure. You would also experience Pulmonary Barotrauma, from the difference in pressure, your lungs will rip themselves apart. The liquid in your eyes will boil, and your tongue will follow suit. Not fun.

Without any protective suit, you would only get about 2 minutes to be on Mars.

Bones and muscles weaken

If you stay for a long time in space, your muscles and bones will weaken, primarily in the legs and lower back. Gravity always acts on you while you're on the earth, so even if you're not really conscious of resisting gravity, you're always using the muscles of your lower body.

The two oxygen tanks allow a maximum of between 6.5 and 8.5 hours outside in space, before which astronauts will need to refill the tanks. If an astronaut was lost in space with no way to return, this would be their downfall. They would eventually die of hypoxia. Without a suit, however, death would arrive much faster.