Three astronauts died because of a lack of an impulse to breath? How did that manifest itself? Just marked lightheadness followed by death?
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
Three astronauts died because of a lack of an impulse to breath? How did that manifest itself? Just marked lightheadness followed by death?
Sorry for the mistake, but two astronauts died as a result (I have now corrected this) and three others passed out. The chambers they used contained a the same amount of oxygen as air and nitrogen, but no carbon dioxide. Since the brain can only detect changes in carbon dioxide and not a lack of oxygen there was no stimulus that would force their bodies to breathe. Instead they remained in the chamber feeling as though they were breathing normally, yet unaware of the continually decreasing oxygen levels. Like you say, I think there would be lightheadedness until the astronauts lost consciousness. Remaining in the chamber then caused them to die, as oxygen partial pressures were extremely low.
That is absolutely bonkers. What a strange and quirk of human biology.