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From: okie@ihuxs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.space
Subject: Re: Vaccumm and people exploding...
Message-ID: <417@ihuxs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Oct-83 12:30:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxs.417
Posted: Wed Oct 26 12:30:20 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Oct-83 04:52:37 EDT
References: <1623@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 27

While we're on the subjects of people exploding in vacuum *and*
*2001*...

In *2001*, there's a sequence where astronaut Bowman is unable to
get back into the ship; HAL won't open the pod bay doors (#*$% AI
machines!).  Well, there's an airlock nearby, but in his rush to get
outdoors, Bowman forgot his helmet (#*$% actors!).  So this is the
end, right?

WRONG!  Our Hero knows (he being an astronaut and all) that you can
survive a short exposure to vacuum.  So he manages to blow his way
into the open airlock, get the door closed, and fill it with air
before he does a good imitation of a puffer fish.  In all, he was
in vacuum for about 15 or 20 seconds -- but it seemed much longer
(did any of you hold your breaths during that sequence?).  It was a
good tension-building scene.

BThis was no accident; Clarke knew his stuff.  In one of his earlier
novels (*Earthlight*), he has a good treatment of this same subject.
The crew of a crippled spaceship has to be taken onto another ship
before its pile blows; but there aren't enough suits to go around.
So the rest have to go over lines to the other ship (no hard-docking
is possible)...

B.K. (can I breathe now?) Cobb
BTL Indian Hill
Naperville, IL