Re: Could a human walk on Titan's surface?
From: Brian Tung (brian_at_isi.edu)
Date: 01/18/05
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Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:27:10 +0000 (UTC)
Allison Kirkpatrick wrote:
> What about on Mars, without a spacesuit?
>
> Warmest temperatures on Mars are something like +40F (+4C) as I recall.
> Could a human at one of these warm locations take a big gulp of air
> inside the spaceship and run outside holding his breath for a few
> seconds, then run back inside, without getting killed? Assuming no dust
> storms, volcanoes, etc. are in progress at the time, of course. What
> would kill him, if anything?
For a few seconds, probably. The atmospheric pressure, even down in
the canyons, is pretty low--on the order of 10 or 20 millibars, as I
recall. But even so, it doesn't seem that it could be worse than
exposure to space in LEO. While I wouldn't risk it with any other
alternative, it seems likely that if need be, a human could withstand
several seconds of exposure to such conditions.
The things I'd be worried about would be lack of atmospheric pressure
and oxygen, rather than temperature. Obviously, a human being could
withstand 40 F temperatures for a long time, even clothed ordinarily.
Brian Tung <brian@isi.edu>
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