human reaction to decompression
Romain Kang
> When someone makes a Momsen-lung ascent from a submarine (which is
> effectively identical to the Boyant Ascent story, and has been around
> since WWII -- sometimes SF is behind fact!) they need to let air out of
> their lungs continuously for just that reason.
> ...
> People make rapid ascents of 33 feet in water every day:
> SCUBA divers do it all the time. If they have not been
> down long enough to get a lot of extra dissolved N_2, they
> don't even particularly notice, much less explode.
I believe the standard escape procedure from submarines trapped in
sufficently shallow water is "blow-and-go": the Momsen lung requires a
slow ascent, which is difficult given the body's natural buoyancy.
Blow-and-go is supposed to be safer; you just have to remember to keep
continually exhaling through your nose, or your lungs will rupture. If
your sub is trapped too deep for blow-and-go, then the Navy has to
borrow a C-141 from the Military Airlift Command to fly a DSRV to the
nearest USN sub that can piggyback it to you and rescue you and your
buddies; in the event of war, you probably get all sorts of posthumous
honors. But I digress. (I read this as an 11-year-old in some book
about submarine service training, but I imagine the procedures haven't
changed since then.) At any rate, I think the Momsen lung is obsolete.
Can anyone in net.rec.scuba verify this?
--
Romain Kang, Pyramid Technology Corporation
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