What will it like when a man is losing blood in vacuum?

[Cesrate]

Will blood like mist spray?

[WestAir]

Fluid filled bubbles id assume? Or would it just boil?

[Kryten]

This has happened, STS-37. An astronaut on EVA punctured their glove, blood coagulated very rapidly and sealed the hole; they didn't even notice at the time.

[Stochasty]

It would probably hurt a lot, and very likely he would also be having trouble breathing, and there would be a great deal of noise, likely quite a bit of dust, and a rather oversized logo reading "Kirby" nearby. (IT would have to be oversized, otherwise the man wouldn't be able to fit inside.)

This has happened, STS-37. An astronaut on EVA punctured their glove, blood coagulated very rapidly and sealed the hole; they didn't even notice at the time.

Or this.

[Cesrate]

This has happened, STS-37. An astronaut on EVA punctured their glove, blood coagulated very rapidly and sealed the hole; they didn't even notice at the time.

Why blood coagulated in vacuum? Some kind of biophysics question?

[Kryten]

If the water's evaporating off, obviously what you end up with is going to be very thick.

[Cesrate]

If the water's evaporating off, obviously what you end up with is going to be very thick.

Ohh, get it, so cells and other things aren't easy to evaporate in vacuum.

What if a very large wound?

[Stochasty]

If the water's evaporating off, obviously what you end up with is going to be very thick.

I'm not sure this is strictly the reason. The coagulation of blood is due to the polymerization of fibrin fibers; I'm not entirely certain that rapid evaporation of volatiles would have any direct effect on this process (and I could foresee it hindering things).

It's nice to have empirical evidence that vacuum does aid coagulation, but I wouldn't be so quick as to say that evaporation was the reason why.

[SuperFastJellyfish]

Ohh, get it, so cells and other things aren't easy to evaporate in vacuum.

What if a very large wound?

I'm not sure about wounds so much, but I read something not too long ago about tests of actual humans in a vacuum chamber(with pressure helmets). I recall they bloated in size about 2x. This was for short periods of vacuum, as I remember. I haven't reread it but this was the article:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

An interesting read, at least.

Edit: I reread it, and there must have been another article I read as well. Disregard the blathering wino for the moment.

Edited June 5, 2013 by SuperFastJellyfish

[DisarmingBaton5]

If it happened in a pressurized container, (ISS, por ejemplo) I think it would spread and cover the wounded body part, which would be awesome and horrible to watch.

[Kerbface]

I know it's not remotely realistic, but I have this funny cartoony image in my head of

*Needle pierces spacesuit and skin*

*Whole body gets sucked through hole and turns inside out*

[Henri von Braun]

Will blood like mist spray?

What kind of question is that?

Naaah, but anyway, I think the blood would do strange things if you released a bucketload of it in space: It would maybe evaporate because of the Sun, and maybe solidify because of the freezing temperatures. So, in an orbit, it would go from a chunk of blood to gas, and then a chunk of blood, and so on and so on.

[The Stinger]

No atmosphere means that the blood will instantaneously boil when it comes in contact with the vacuum of space and the blood vapor turns into a cloud of tiny frozen crystals as it looses it's heat.