What would happen if an astronaut on a space walk had an empty rubber ballon and filled it with air? Would it just take less air to fill or would it pop with just adding the slightest amount of air?
In: Planetary Science
The balloon would behave exactly the same, just at much lower pressure.
Normal atmosphere is about 100 kPa. You can use your lungs to pump the balloon up to 101 kPa, which pushes against the rubber and makes it get bigger. So you have 100 kPa of air outside, balkanced against 101 kPa inside, with the rubber holding back the extra 1kPa. If you keep pushing air into the balloon until it gets to 102 kPa, it will get VERY big, the rubber wont be strong enough, and it will explode.
In space, there is no air, so pressure is 0 kPa. You can use a gas valve to put 1 kPA into the balloon, which makes it get bigger to normal balloon size. The rubber is still holding back 1 kPa. If you try to pump it up to 2kPa, it will explode, as before.
You should do this quickly. If you leave your balloon out in space for too long, the radiation will make the latex brittle. You should also be careful about using room temperature air – air coming from tanks can sometimes be ultracold, and low temperatures are another thing that will make a latex balloon brittle.
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