My kid has been asking me what happens to austronauts if they take their suits off in space. I cant explain it properly since I’m not entirely sure too.
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Our lungs can’t operate in zero pressure, it is why you need pressurized air in planes over 12,000 feet above the ground. There is plenty of oxygen to sustain human life, the problem is our lungs don’t have the ability to get a large enough volume of gas when the pressure is low. It is the same reason why engines work poorly in high altitudes. Your lungs operate by changing their volume. If you breath in, your lungs expand which creates a low pressure area, high pressure is attracted to low pressure, therefore air gets into your lungs. Breathing out is the opposite, the lungs contract and then the air outside becomes the low pressure area.
If you are in space there will never be enough pressure, even if you have lots of oxygen atoms floating around, for your lungs to function. A spacesuit pressurizes (very similar to an airplane except only around your body) your body so it can function properly. It is, as other posters said, like a balloon. Except, in space, the low pressure area outside of the suit is *really* low pressure, so the air in the suit really wants to get out to equalize. The suit is designed to deal with that, but it is still a very dangerous thing to do, a spacewalk.
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