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
It’d fill up more easily and be a lot easier to pop! (But wouldn’t necessarily pop instantly)
When you fill one up on earth, the air in our atmosphere pushes back against the balloon trying to expand, so you have to put more air inside it to a) fight the atmospheric pushing back and b) surpass the balloon’s limits for stretching/expanding.
In space you wouldn’t have that opposition, so the air pressure inside the balloon would have no atmosphere fighting against it as it tries to expand. Really it’d be a battle of the pressure from air inside the balloon bouncing around vs. the elasticity of the rubber.
It’s not an instant pop because the balloon has some elasticity. Same as the astronaut’s backpack with their air for breathing — it doesn’t instantly explode on the space walk because whatever material it’s made of has some integrity that can stay together despite the pressure of compressed air inside it. The rubber balloon wouldn’t be quite as tough of a material, but still wouldn’t be zero 🙂
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