The second fastest man made object in history

You guys remember when the Hubble aimed it’s lens at a point in the universe. The visual is you pointing a straw and look through it.
The image over a period required to show hundreds of galaxies similar to our own Milky Way swirl. This image is just now reaching us at a distance light travels over ten billion years.
When I think of this image and what it represents, It makes my complaint about a few weeds in the lawn or that part I just over cut by .001” seem insignificant some how.
I grew up in the sixties, what can I say.
I love everything space related.
It blows my mind.
 
rwm said:
Just to head further off course...if you were decompressed in an airliner you would not even feel short of breath before passing out. Low oxygen does not make humans have air hunger. Air hunger is caused by falling blood pH (acidic) which it usually related to rising CO2 levels.
I have tested this by breathing a bag of argon from my TIG torch. You feel perfectly fine and then you just black out. (Disclaimer- very dangerous do not try this!) Alternatively you could breath from a bag of 50% CO2. (Also very dangerous) You will immediately feel like you are going to die and start hyperventilating like you just ran 100 yards (meters.)
Unfortunately, these kind of events sometimes happen in industry when workers clean tanks. They may enter a tank of nitrogen or some other inert gas with no oxygen available. They proceed to pass out and die without feeling any air hunger or symptoms.
Robert
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It is freaking amazing how fast you pass out too. 10-15 seconds or so and it is lights out. Thus why they tell you when the oxygen masks drop from the ceiling of the plane to put it on no questions asked and do your own first then anyone else who didn't listen to the safety briefing can be helped. Way back in the day, we had a guy doing a tank entry. The tank had been opened and vented but it was hot and the fuel left in the tank had vaporized and displaced the oxygen. Everything was good until his SCBA failed and he got no air from it. He pulled it off, turned around hollered he was coming out and took 2 steps and went down. The backup went in and pulled him out or he and probably others would have died trying to get him out.
7milesup said:
Hypoxia is what you are referring to RWM. I actually went through a hypoxia simulation event sponsored by Mayo Clinic. They had us perform normal cockpit duties (in a simulator) while breathing a mixture of gasses to simulate lack of oxygen. Everyone responds differently. My response was it felt that the upper lobes of my lungs were hot. But the scary part is you also have a sense of euphoria and therefore the onset of hypoxia is insidious. The crew of Payne Stewart found that out.
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Diving is the same way only backwards. Nitrogen will make you loopy when it is under pressure and air is mostly nitrogen. And then below a certain depth the pressure makes the oxygen toxic. I never did get into any of the mixed gas stuff but did spend some time around the saturation divers breathing helium and oxygen. Everyone had to take a hit of it for the Donald Duck voice but that was as far as I got into it. Did get to do a cycle in the decompression chamber down to depth of 180 feet and then back up to see what it was like.

And then on the fire dept in training you go until the mask sucks to your face when you inhale with everyone watching of course. Just to see what it is like.
 
Last year I was investigating a situation where two workers passed out from H2S exposure in a confined space. I know H2S, its chemistry, and its hazards, but I had never experienced unconsciousness from it. I expected it to be a slow onset. I was taking measurements near the opening and dropped to my hands and knees in an instant. Turns out I was breathing about 150 PPM of the gas, which is 5x higher than what is considered immediately dangerous to life and health. I didn't taste it, I didn't feel it, I was just dropped! Be careful out there.
 
I believe the plate will turn up in somebody's back yard in Tonopah.
 
Statistically it would land in the water and would not be detected!
Robert
 
7milesup said:
Hypoxia is what you are referring to RWM. I actually went through a hypoxia simulation event sponsored by Mayo Clinic. They had us perform normal cockpit duties (in a simulator) while breathing a mixture of gasses to simulate lack of oxygen. Everyone responds differently. My response was it felt that the upper lobes of my lungs were hot. But the scary part is you also have a sense of euphoria and therefore the onset of hypoxia is insidious. The crew of Payne Stewart found that out.
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I knew Payne Stewart would come up in this conversation......
 
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