Space movies regularly dispatch characters through an explosively decompressed airlock. But how likely is such a rapid ejection, taking into account the victim’s location in the airlock and its volume? Assuming they are wearing a spacesuit, what is the best way to avoid expulsion, apart from grabbing something solid?
• By a sad coincidence, at about the time this question was published (21 April), an aircraft passenger was killed in a similar way. An engine explosion blew a piece of metal through a window and the air escaping from the plane blew (not sucked as the media put it) a…
