HOW TO BREATHE IN SPACE
Space is an airless vacuum, but thanks to technology, astronauts can breathe as easily as they do on Earth
WORDS ANDREW MAY
© Alamy
DID YOU KNOW?
Early space missions were so brief they could carry all the oxygen they needed in storage tanks
rom the perspective of humans, space is an extremely hostile environment, with hazards ranging from deadly radiation to a lack of gravity. But perhaps the most obvious problem of all is the fact that space is a vacuum. On Earth, we take breathing for granted. We’re immersed in an atmosphere that gives us the essential gas – oxygen – that we need to stay alive. In fact, Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of gases, containing around 21 per cent oxygen and 78 per cent nitrogen, with the remaining one per cent made up of various other gases. From our point of view, however, oxygen is the thing that really matters. Although we’re constantly absorbing it, along with other animals, it’s continuously replenished thanks to plants, which produce oxygen through photosynthesis.