TransWikia.com

If an astronaut got stuck in the middle of a space station, can he propel himself towards a wall by blowing air out of his mouth?

Physics Asked by Adriel Mattheuz Estolano on January 13, 2021

Consider the astronaut as floating in the middle of the "Kibo" (ISS module) without him having any initial motion. The module has a diameter of 4.2 m (inner), and the goal is to reach any of the module’s walls by only blowing air through his mouth. Is it possible for him to reach any wall? If it is, how long would it take him to do it, given that he inhales for about 4-8 seconds and exhales it fully for nearly half a second?

One Answer

Just a naive and very approximate calculation:

If you neglect friction, google that human lung capacity is around $6text{l}$, air density around $1text{kg m}^{-3}$, take the inhalation time $6text{s}$ and approximate that the nostrils have area around $1text{cm}^2$, then the velocity of inhaled air will be $frac{6text{l}=6000text{cm}^3}{6text{s}cdot 1text{cm}^2}=10text{m s}^{-1}.$ The momentum transferred on inhalation is thus around $10text{ m s}^{-1}cdot 0.006text{m}^3cdot 1text{kg m}^{-3}=0.06text{kg m s}^{-1}.$

The same computation on exhalation with duration $0.5s$ gives $0.72text{kg m s}^{-1}$. The momentum gained is thus $0.66text{kg m s}^{-1}$, which for man of weight $66text{kg}$ gives you velocity $0.01text{m s}^{-1}$.

So on one breath you would reach the wall (assuming you are in the middle and have a distance around $2text{m}$ to go) in $200text{s}=3text{min}20text{s}$.

Now, you can make a breath each $7text{s}$, which adds another $0.01text{m s}^{-1}$ to your velocity. Thus the distance traveled is $$7text{s}Rightarrow 7text{cm}$$ $$14text{s}Rightarrow 7text{cm}+14text{cm}$$ $$21text{s}Rightarrow 7text{cm}+14text{cm}+21text{cm}$$ And so on. From this the time for traveling distance $2text{m}$ is around $50text{s}$.

Answered by Umaxo on January 13, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP