Re: Jovian Chronicles GZG Adaptation

>>> Combat in vacuum is
>>> deadly, there is no such thing as wounded, explosive decompression
will
>>> quicly sort that out for you, even a slight nick in the suit would
remove
>>> the trooper as they will be more concerned about survival than
fighting.
>>
>>IMO, a wounded trooper is pretty much always more concerned about
>>survival than fighting. But "explosive decompression" is a myth.
>
>It is? Huh, gee, news to me. 'Explosive decompression' is when you go
from
>pressurized to vacuum (or exceedingly low pressurized) in a very short
period
>of time. No, the person themselves do not *explode*; that part is myth,
true.

When I mentioned explosive decompression I was referring to the suit the
trooper would be wearing rather than the trooper, a round makes a big
hole,
my guess is that this would be more than enough to ruin the integrity of
a
suit, unless it is compartmentalized, even then you have potential
entry/exit wounds to consider.

>
>>You can survive even hard vacuum for some time (it's not nice and may
>>result in permanent damage, but it's survivable) -- patching a suit
>>should a be routine operation for trained troops. You don't have to
take
>>my word for it, ask NASA -- they've tried it (with monkeys I hope).
>
>So, just how long is 'for some time' in a vacuum? 10 seconds, 20 on the
>outside? 15 seconds would be a long time to chew vacuum, and you're not
>going to be in very good shape to do any suit patching. You'll lose
>consciousness rather quickly.

Patching a suit to cover a small hole may be 'routine', but there is
also
the psychological aspect of having a hole in your suit to worry about,
I'm
sure anyone in vacuum with a patched suit would try to get out of the
vacuum (back to the ship of whatever), the point is, though, that they
will
no longer take part in any military action.  This doesn't consider what
it
may be like to patch a large rent in a suit caused by entry/exit wounds
or
DEW weapons, indeed caould these holes be patched in time to retain or
even
restore suit integrity ?

Stuart.

Stuart Murray

Department Of Molecular Genetics
Albert Einstein College Of Medicine
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx
New York 10461

Tel: (718) 430 4289
smurray@aecom.yu.edu