Re: cheap lunar gear & base (spin-off of superhero flight)

In article <1208202191.900080@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Michael Ash <mike@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > You're unlikely to get the bends from a 0.8-atmosphere drop in
pressure. 
> > That's the equivalent of coming up from a dive of 26 feet depth.
Digging 
> > around a bit, I found a website suggesting that divers don't need to 
> > bother with decompression unless they go under 130 feet down.
> 
> It is not uncommon for pilots to go to pretty extreme altitudes with 
> nothing but an oxygen mask. The only limit is when the air pressure is
no 
> longer enough to push sufficient oxygen into the blood when breathing
100% 
> O2. (The limit is actually slightly higher than this, because there are 
> systems which give you a bit higher pressure in the lungs than outside, 
> but it's not a big difference in the end.)

Those systems tend to be exhausting to use.

> These altitudes are attained pretty quickly and unless you've recently
gone 
> diving there are no problems with decompression.

And if you have, you can be in a world of hurt. I recall reading about a 
Navy pilot who went flying too soon after a weekend diving/fi****ng party 
in the Gulf of Mexico. Hadn't been diving all that deeply or long, but 
the next morning shortly after takeoff he started getting symptoms of 
serious bends, and getting him down and into the nearest hyperbaric 
chamber wasn't enough to save him.