What happens to an unprotected human body in space?

"...his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil."<p>Reality is so much cooler than fiction. I've read just about everything Clarke, Heinlein and Asimov have written among many other physics sci-fi authors and none of them thought of that one.

A bigger worry is the improbability of having another ship arrive to pick you up within 30 seconds.

"He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain."<p>Why was that? Does the low pressure force oxygen out of the blood in the lungs and thereby having oxygen "free" blood arriving in the brain? If you hold your breath you can easily hold it for a minute without loosing consciousness. So the low pressure must be actively taking oxygen out of the blood, otherwise I can't see that you would loose consciousness in 15 seconds.<p>How long did it take for Dave Bowman to exit the pod and pressurize the airlock? :)

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Leonov" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Leonov</a><p>&#62;<i>On March 18, 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk.</i><p>&#62;<i>At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off, and was barely able to get back inside the capsule.</i>

Why the boiling?

<a href="http://www.astronomycast.com/space-flight/ep-121-spacesuits/" rel="nofollow">http://www.astronomycast.com/space-flight/ep-121-spacesuits/</a><p>Just because it's entertaining, the presenters are awesome, and you get to learn a lot of cool stuff (and they cite the link in question, too).

This article just leaves me wanting to ask more questions...

Sounds like your lacrimal fluid would boil off, but maybe if you keep blinking you might be able to operate the airlock handle when jumping between airlocks?

Just like in Event Horizon (really)

Going from 1 ATM to 0 doesn't kill you but going from 9 ATM to 1 will<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_accident" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_acci...</a>

My guess is the parachute record still stands. 19.5 miles is not quite 10% the minimum altitude of the space shuttle.<p>Then you jump and wait for the feeling to come back in your right arm.

"and animal experiments confirm"<p>bastards...