Meteoroids are mostly tiny rocks and dust that travel through space. They travel at tremendous speeds. There is a high chance that the Astronauts working in space may get hit by such meteoroid. It can cause severe damage to the spacesuit, or even suddent death by the impact.
In this small blog, we will quickly see what happens when there is a leak in the Spacesuit !
A spacesuit is specially designed to maintain the air pressure inside it. This pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure on the Earth, so that human blood pressure and this atmospheric pressure balance each other.
What is Blood Pressure?
When your heart beats, it pumps the blood round your body to give it the energy and oxygen it needs. As the blood moves, it pushes against the sides of the blood vessels.
The strength of this pushing is known as your blood pressure.
It is little higher than the atmospheric pressure.
Air is pushing us from all the sides, the blood flowing in our body provides counter-pressure. The skeleton and skin also prevents the body from collapsing.
If the surrounding pressure is too high (like in deep sea) or too low (like in space), then the forces acting on your skin from inside and outside will not be in balanced state, and your skin will be ruptured, often leading to death.
Imagine your hand stuck in a suction pump. As the pump starts sucking in the air, reducing the pressure, the arteries inside your hand carrying blood will burst, skin will tear off and blood will come out.
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.
Hope you are enjoying the blog series. Let us know your feedback by leaving a comment below.
Amateur Astronomers Group