Re: frozen xenonauts

From: Doug Jones (djones@xcor.com)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 11:55:22 MDT


Spike Jones wrote:
>
> Nowthen, hows about thinking this over: if a body were to be
> frozen verrrry slowly it would need to hover at 0 degrees for a long
> time, a temperature at which there is still a lot of cell degeneration.
> But what if the corpse is at enormous pressure, reducing the
> temperature at which freezing takes place? Would that help
> slow the degeneration? Could we use the old rule of thumb
> of half the reaction rate for each 10 degrees?
>
> Someone said something about the body may not be able to
> withstand enormous pressures. Perhaps bones would break, etc.
> Recall that the volume of a bone does not actually decrease when
> broken, so I wouldnt think the bone would care what pressure
> the body was seeing. Same with the heart.

Extreme pressure kills things, although it takes really really extreme
pressure- 3000 to 7000 atmospheres. Point google at "high pressure
sterilization" for details.

--
Doug Jones, Rocket Engineer
XCOR Aerospace



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