What If Space Was Breathable? | Unveiled

What If Space Was Breathable?

Space travel is hard. Part of the problem is that outer space is a vacuum, lacking pressure and oxygen. Humans exposed to this vacuum find themselves unconscious in seconds, and dead within minutes. Because we can’t breathe in space, even the smallest problems can cause disaster. But what if space wasn’t so uninhabitable?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question: What If Space Was Breathable?

Of all the basic necessities that we require to live, breathing is by far the most urgent. We can survive a few weeks without food, a few days without water, but only a few minutes without air. The key component that makes our air breathable is of course oxygen. Having said that, it’s not the biggest component. Our air is only 21% oxygen, with the rest being mostly nitrogen. In fact, breathing 100% oxygen would cause a multitude of problems like chest pain and nausea.

The reason we can’t breathe in space is because it’s a vacuum, devoid of matter. It may seem like the Earth’s atmosphere is empty as well when you look up at the open sky, but that’s not the case. There are countless particles of nitrogen and oxygen and other elements floating around. Space however is very different. It’s a hard vacuum, although not a PERFECT one - even space has a few hydrogen and helium atoms floating around. But that makes no difference for our breathing capabilities. Astronauts without their helmets on would find themselves unconscious in about 15 seconds as deoxygenated blood reached their brain. Meanwhile, the air in their lungs would expand, tearing through tissue, and their blood and saliva would start to boil due to the low pressure. After just a few minutes, they’d be dead.

But what if space was breathable, filled with the very air we breathe on Earth? For one, it would make space travel much easier. In real life, astronaut suits and space shuttles have to be sealed and stocked with oxygen. But astronaut suits are bulky and oxygen supplies are limited - hence the need for precision on spacewalks. A leak in either a suit or space shuttle can be disastrous. If space were breathable, however, a lot of this equipment could be abandoned, or at least simplified, making space travel more accessible. This would allow more missions, stocked with more supplies. Space shuttles could have open, unsealed areas for taking in the views and fresh air. Astronauts’ only time limits in space would be food and water, which could be manufactured on board given enough time. On the downside, due to friction, we’d have to travel at much slower speeds, and use a lot more fuel.

It’s also important to keep in mind that we’d still need to wear some sort of suit. Along with oxygen, space suits provide much needed protection from the radiation coursing through space. We’re protected on Earth by our magnetic field and atmosphere. This radiation comes from cosmic rays, solar winds, and the Van Allen Belt - a zone of charged particles around Earth that traps much of the radiation from space. The good news is that, like our atmosphere, the presence of oxygen and nitrogen atoms in space would knock some of the radiation askew. But we would still likely have to wear a spacesuit to be safe.

Still, on the whole, space travel would be safer, and require less training. This means that more people would be willing to venture into space, whether for tourism, colonization, or scientific research. We’d be able to establish settlements on the Moon and Mars much more easily, and set our feet down on the other terrestrial planets and moons. Voyages might last lifetimes, or even generations, but we’d get there in the end. We would become a space-faring people, spreading out slowly across the solar system, living in a multitude of colonies, both on other planets and moons and in space stations. We’d sail the seas of space much as we once did the seas of Earth.

That all sounds great, but there are other repercussions that aren’t so thrilling. If space were filled with air, there’d be a medium for sound to travel through, as on Earth. Your screams in space would now be heard, but so would everything else. And space would be LOUD. Stars are basically massive fusion reactors constantly exploding in violent reactions, and our own sun is no exception. The Sun’s noise is equivalent to about 10 million notes on a piano, about 290 decibels - enough to deafen anyone who hears it. And even though we’re on Earth, 93 millions miles away, we would still get about 125 decibels worth. Imagine walking outside and hearing a train horn blasting like it were right next to you everywhere all the time. That’s how loud Earth would suddenly be. On top of being extremely annoying, it’s also enough to cause hearing loss after prolonged exposure.

Maybe that’s a price we’d be willing to pay. But other side effects would be even worse. As is, planets and stars move through space unopposed because it’s a vacuum. If there were air, there’d also be friction. Friction is the main reason that space shuttles burst into flames upon re-entering our atmosphere. Now picture a rocket the size of our Earth travelling through space at a rate of 18.50 miles per second - the speed of our orbit. At that speed, friction would strip Earth of its atmosphere as it caught fire.
Since space is breathable, we might be able to survive if it weren’t for the fact that Earth would also lose its kinetic energy, coming to a standstill in space the same way bullets do as they eventually fall back to Earth. Except the Earth would fall back to what’s pulling hardest on it - the Sun. The same fate would await other planets. Meanwhile, pockets of oxygen would condense, forming stars, some of which would collapse into black holes all over the universe. We might find it easier to survive in space, but on the whole, the universe would become a much more dangerous place.

And that’s what would happen if Space was breathable.