Ah, the moon.
Three nights a month, I look up into the sky longingly at my shiny round mate the moon,
when he is at his fullest and most inviting.
Humans have had their sights on our earths orbital for thousands of years, and more recently,
there has been talk of offering flights to the moon, or even starting a research colony,
but….
Could our frail human bodies survive up there?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions.
I am your host, Rebecca moon lover 4lyf Felgate and today I am asking, how long can you survive
without a space suit on the moon?
Before we launch right on into this video, I want to ask you if you would ever go to
space if you got the chance?
I certainly would!
Leave your thoughts and answers in the comments section down below !
So, the moon!
Only twelve astronauts have walked on the Moon’s surface, all wearing a space suit,
of course… so really finding yourself on the moon sans safety suit is a very unlikely
occurrence!
That being said, sketchy plans to get more humans to the moon have existed for decades.
The United States Government never carried out the 1950s and 60s Project Horizon, which
would have established a human base on the moon.
Elon musk is desperate to get us there, while Virgin Galactic is working on a flyby…either
way, civilians on the moon won’t be a thing for decades to come.
Does that mean we won’t answer the question?
Of course not.
Let’s for the purpose of this video imagine that we are out and about on the moon….
And oof….
The space suit is off!
On the last moon outing in the 1970s, pressurized space suits weighed 300lbs – so 126 kilos
or 21 and a half stone.
The first thing you would feel without the suit is light!
Lighter!
Also, gravity is 6 times less strong on the moon, so you’d feel pretty floaty indeed.
You could enjoy that for all of a split second before the temperature, brightness and vaccum
got you.
The moon orbits the earth, but doesn’t rotate on its axis like earth, meaning there is a
light side and a dark side of the moon.
Temperatures vary with the top end being 120 degrees Celsius and the low end being minus
228 celcius…neither of which are great for humans.
If you were sans space suit on the bright side of the moon, the light would really,
really hurt your eyes.
There is no atmosphere on the moon, making it super bright…retina burning bright, so
I hope you packed your sunglasses.
Not only that, even without the extreme end of the high temperature, without an atmosphere
to protect you from the UV rays, your skin would burn very very quickly and you would
likely pass out or have a heart attack in response to the seering pain.
If you were sans suit on the dark side of the moon, you would stand a slightly better
chance.
In the near-vacuum of space, your body is far slower loosing heat than here on Earth,
because there is no air to conduct heat away from your body.
That being said, anything you touched or stood on would feel extra super cold.
Without shoes, your feet would freeze.
Say you avoid an instant burn or a quick freeze without your suit on…what would the next
issue be?
Pressure and oxygen.
Again, with an earthlike atmosphere, the moon doesn’t have much in the way of breathable
air.
You would likely pass out from the lack of oxygen within about 15 seconds of standing
on the moon, then your body would asphyxiate and you would die.
If say you miraculously gained an oxygen tank extraneous to the space suit you don’t have,
and somehow avoid the freeze or burn…you may live a little longer, however the near
vaccum of the moon would have some serious pressure effects on your body.
The reason astronauts wear pressurized suits is because the pressure on the lunar surface
is very different to earth – it is exceedingly low pressure.
Some people speculate that you would explode, but that is not quite the case.
With a suit on, the low pressure of the moon would draw out the fluid from within your
body.
Over a few hours this would break some of your blood vessels, and maybe even cause your
lungs to explode, but in the short term, you would feel very puffy.
The eyes, nose and mouth especially would feel execeptionally dry and uncomfortable….
And it is possible for the eyes to dry out completely.
The only real life example we have of what life would be like without a space suit on
is the 1965 Nasa Accident in which an astronauts pressurized suit failed in a testing chamber.
Jim Le Blanc was in moon conditions in a low pressure chamber when the tube pressurizing
his suit became disconnected.
He luckily survived the incident thanks to the quick reaction of the Nasa team, but in
an interview, he said “I could feel the saliva on my tongue starting to bubble just
before I went unconscious.”
He passed out within 14 seconds of the accident and the only reason he survived represurization
was because of the very short period of time he was exposed to the conditions.
We don’t know exactly how long you would survive exposed on the lunar surface without
a space suit, but our guess is you would only have a few minutes…and you would likely
pass out from the lack of oxygen and low pressure within seconds.
In a worst case scenario, you could roast alive or freeze to death on top of that too…so
maybe pack that weighty suit after all.
So that is one question answered for you there.
Once again, I ask you, would you like to go to the moon?
Do let me know in the comments section down below.
I have decided I want to name all my kids after moons.
Baby Enceledus first!
Okay, I better get out of here before my mum and slew of lovers get worried…just joking..ish…
but do make sure you hit that thumbs up button if you like our videos and you click on that
notification bell if you want to be the first to hear big answers.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video, but until then…stay
curious…stay alert and never ever stop questioning.