Space Is Cold: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the [[In the Original Klingon|old Klingon proverb]] that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space.''|'''Khan Noonien Singh''', ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''}}

An inversion of [[Convection, Schmonvection]], [['''Space Is Cold]]''' is the widely held misconception that space is in itself "cold." We hear [[Speculative Fiction]] writers blather about "the cold depths of space" or "the freezing void." If you get [[Thrown Out the Airlock|thrown into space]], you're going to freeze straight away, assuming you don't [[Explosive Decompression|explode]].

== Comic booksBooks ==

* Averted in [[Avatar (film)|Avatar]] -- if—if you pay close attention as the ship arrives, you'll see heat sinks glowing red hot. It is also mentioned in the background that the first ISV, needing to use cold superconductors, was over 3 times the size due to the extra thermal load of the cooling systems for the engines, requiring much larger radiators.

* ''[[Dragonriders of Pern|All The Weyrs Of Pern]]'' has dragons {{smallcapssmall-caps|[[Recycled in Space|In Space]]}} with their riders, having to work on the spaceships quickly before they freeze to death. However, it's actually a very nice aversion. Dragons can survive without air for about 15 minutes. The temperature problem comes from the spaceships having been powered down for 2500 years, plenty of time for them to reach equilibrium with the environment, and the dragons are equipped with special gloves to insulate their paws.

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] ''[[Blood Angels|Deus Sanguinius]]'', when Rafen gets to the spaceship on the outside of a shuttle, he, despite his gear having its vacuum seals intact, suffers from the "incredible cold" and is stiff afterward.

* In an episode of ''[[Farscape]]'', Crichton jumps between a spaceship that is about to explode and one that isn't. He doesn't have a spacesuit, and he prepares himself by hyperventilating to oxygenate his blood. He jumps, closes his eyes, and adds additional propulsive force by firing a blast rifle. He survives with little more than skin capillary damage, but it's not a pleasant trip--thetrip—the first thing he does upon arriving safely is start screaming in pain.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. One episode had O'Neill and Teal'c exposed to space for several seconds so they could be rescued from a stray fighter craft--Cartercraft—Carter even instructs them to do some heavy breathing first, then exhale as much as possible. Once they're rescued, O'Neill is visibly shaking, but whether it's due to cold or just good old-fashioned near-death trauma isn't really specified. In any case, nobody ever flash-froze.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' ("The Plan"). A Cylon who commits suicide by airlocking himself is seen with frozen skin, though it's not clearly how long afterward this is.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'', with its excellent research and hard sci-fi approach, nailed their aversion of this trope. The [[All There in the Manual|Codex]] goes quite in-depth about heat management. Ships have many ways of dumping heat, from radiative stripes on the hull (oft called tiger-stripes or war paint due to the way they light up on thermal imaging), to a liquid-droplet heat exchange system used in extreme battle conditions. It is also noted that heat is the predominant concern in an engagement, and that ships ''must'' disengage when the build-up is too great. Battles near a planet are brief and frantic because the star's radiative heat causes the ships to overheat faster. It is also noted as the reason why ''Normandy'' cannot use the stealth system for too long: heat is stored in special sinks within the ship ,<ref>thermal imaging is the easiest way to detect ships, especially powerhouse warships</ref>, but if left operating for too long it would eventually bake the crew. In fact that is the ''only'' way to have [[Stealth in Space]].