Xref: utzoo sci.med:21693 sci.space:26419
Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!uunet!ogicse!unicorn!n9020351
From: n9020351@unicorn.cc.wwu.edu (james d. Del Vecchio)
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.space
Subject: Re: A human being in vacuum
Message-ID: <1990Dec12.205552.10405@unicorn.cc.wwu.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 90 20:55:52 GMT
References: <347.27516240@nphi.fi> <727@egrunix.UUCP> <1990Dec7.230010.11439@mtcchi.uucp> <9591@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <9693@orca.wv.tek.com> <127226@linus.mitre.org>
Organization: Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.
Lines: 21

Followups To: sci.space

Someone posted that vacuum was an isulator.

	dsr@mir.mitre.org (Douglas S. Rand) writes:

>Radiational cooling is pretty effective,  especially when
>the surrounding black body temperature is 3 or 4 degrees K.  If the
>person in the vacuum is in shadow they could probably freeze in just
>a few minutes.  If they're in direct sunlight then they might boil on
>one side and freeze on the other (lots of fun).
		--------
I don't have a clear idea of how that would work.  If the heat in your
body isn't going _into_ something (like air), then where is it going?
 
I don't understand the "3 or 4 degree K" outside temp.  How can it have 
a tempature if there's nothing there?   Do you just mean an imperfect vacuum
where the particles hitting you are at 3-4 deg K?
I always had the idea that something being cold was only relavent if it was
actualy touching you.  What's touching you in space?

		Jim Del Vecchio