2001 - A Hyperbaric Odyssey?

[dogjones]

Was thinking about that wonderful scene in 2001 when Dave Bowman blasts himself into an airlock with no helmet on.

Then I started thinking... if you go from say normal atmospheric pressure, to vacuum, to normal atmospheric pressure again, even in a short space of time like 10 seconds, wouldn't you get the bends?

 

[casebro]

Bends requires that first you live under so much pressure that you get nitrogen dissolved into you blood. Only then will a drop in pressure allow the nitrogen to evaporate into gas bubbles in your tissues.

 

[TX50]

As an astronaut you apparently won't get bent in 10 seconds or so of
vacuum exposure. There is a lot of material on this on the intartubes.
Good places to start might be:
here
or
here

 

[TX50]

Bends requires that first you live under so much pressure that you get nitrogen dissolved into you blood. Only then will a drop in pressure allow the nitrogen to evaporate into gas bubbles in your tissues.

Nitrogen is still dissolved in your tissues even at 1 bar.

 

[Buckaroo]

He may not get the bends after such a short exposure, but I bet that ten seconds would hurt. A lot.

It's amusing to me that what most people find unbelievable about this scene is that Bowman's head doesn't explode when he enters vacuum. Outland set a bad example, and so many movies have followed suit that it's become conventional wisdom that the human body pops like a balloon in space.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

In the Real World (TM) he would probably be OK as long as he did not hold his breath. Proof of this I leave to the reader's Googling skills.

 

[Cudachaser]

The bends effects are very varied and yes the Bowman would have experienced the bends...It would have most likely be a muscle or skin hit...rapid expansion

 

[BenBurch]

But it would have gone away quickly once pressure was restored.

What he did was just barely do-able, which is plenty for the story.

 

[Walrus32]

As they say, don't try this at home...