Space Is Cold: Difference between revisions

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{{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]].

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]].

Despite all this, "Cold Space" is a near-universal trope in [[Speculative Fiction]], to the point that [[The Coconut Effect|aversions are met with disbelief]].

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* ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'' also carried this trope to an extreme; when performing a dangerous jump across space from one spaceship to another, crew members wrapped themselves in the ship's insulation. All were shivering and one had developed frostbite from the time in space (which appeared to be thirty seconds, at most). There was also a guy whose [[Literally Shattered Lives|body shattered]] when he struck a part of the ship. Made even sillier since they don't follow their own Movie Physics: The crew states that space is -272 degrees Celsius, just above absolute zero. If space really was that cold and it had enough particles to freeze a bare person so quickly, a few sheets of insulation aren't going to protect you from instantaneously turning into a block of ice when they blow the airlock. Keep in mind the actual temperature of space could easily be 3 degrees Kelvin, -270 degrees Celsius.

* In the space film ''[[Mission to Mars]]'', Tim Robbins plays an astronaut who finds out at one point during the film (an escape sequence) that he is drifting off into space, and voluntarily elects to remove his helmet (to avoid smashing into Mars at terminal velocity, and to prevent his wife from mounting a futile rescue attempt). The moment he removes his helmet, his face instantaneously freezes (we see from behind his head) and he goes floating away, dead.

* Averted in [[Avatar (film)|Avatar]] ~~-- 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.

* Averted in [[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]—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.

* In a story explaining the making of ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', [[Arthur C. Clarke]] notes that the ''Discovery One'' spaceship should have had large radiating surfaces to dissipate the heat from the reactors powering it. They were not put in because they didn't want to have to spend the time explaining why a ship that never enters an atmosphere has "wings".

* Probably the first-ever appearance of this was in the 1954 SF movie ''Riders to the Stars'', in which this happens to one of the titular astronauts. He drifts for a moment right in front of the camera view, so that we can see that he's been turned into an Instant Mummy.

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** More importantly, the ship would be designed to radiate all their excess heat - which at the very least would be waste heat of stuff like life support systems and the engines. It's much easier to heat things than to cool them when you can only radiate energy away; this is the same reason the Apollo 13 module got cold - it was designed to radiate more heat than strictly necessary and to make up for the difference from waste heat from the electronics. The same way, when Serenity's life support died, they lost the heating - while their ship continued to radiate as if the ship was fully functional.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': "Four To Doomsday." Wearing just an air-helmet, the Doctor explains that he can survive about five minutes in open space. Vacuum is apparently not a problem for his exposed skin; the time-limiting factor is explicitly named as the intense ''cold''.

* 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--the~~ first thing he does upon arriving safely is start screaming in pain.

* 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—the first thing he does upon arriving safely is start screaming in pain.

** Spacing characters appears to be something of a running gag on ''Farscape'' as most of the ongoing characters have at one point found themselves exposed to vacuum, with D'Argo holding the record for most (accidental and intentional) spacings. [[Good Thing You Can Heal|Fortunately]], thanks to his [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] he's alright as long as he's recovered within about 15 minutes.

* ''[[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--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.

* ''[[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—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.

** At that point they'd been drifting for at least twelve hours with the heating turned to the minimum possible level in order to preserve their compromised life support power. Jack even says that he's "done the freezing to death thing before" when trying to convince Teal'c to turn the heating back up a little bit.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' ("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.

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* Used several times in the ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' series of video games, where battles in space or on planets with no atmosphere allowed your Mech to cool off much faster than normal. Mechs and aerospace fighters are described as using ''heat sinks'' to vent heat, which are sometimes described as being specialized to work in a vacuum.

* ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' averts this. Any area exposed to space shows no signs of freezing. One oxygen-deprived area is frozen over, but the announcement system mentions that the area has both life support and climate control malfunctions.

* ''[[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]].

* ''[[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]].

* The intro to ''[[Sword of the Stars]] II: Lords of Winter'' shows a [[Eldritch Abomination|Suul'ka]] teleporting into space from an ocean, appearing to be encased in a shell of water which has flash-frozen in space. The Suul'ka then breaks the icy shell, signifying its "birth".

* In ''[[X 3 Albion Prelude]]'', the achievement for forcing another pilot to eject is titled "It's Cold Outside". This may be a ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' reference.