What happens if you fart in space

If an astronaut in space farted every day, it would take 10, years for him to get up to a normal highway speed. VeryLittle's analysis does seem to dash one's hopes for a "natural" anal jetpack. However, as a great many match-wielding high school boys have discovered, there's a simple way to get more energy out of one's flatulence.

VeryLittle continues:. Just spewing the gas backwards to get a push forward would be like putting your SUV in neutral and trying to propel it forward with a supersoaker that sprays gasoline backwards. Instead of throwing it backwards, you can explode it backwards to generate thrust, like a real rocket. If we had one of those fancy gas backpacks that they put on cows to harvest the methane from their farts and a jetpack to burn it, then this gas would be enough to get a particularly flatulent astronaut up to highway speed in a day.

That's on paper, at least. But how would it work in practice? The study analysed the farts from a group who were put on a space diet with a group who were fed bland foods. What they found is that those who were fed the space diet produced gasses that were more flammable than the control group.

According to Discover Magazine , "intestinal bacteria form two gases, hydrogen H2 and methane CH4 , that could constitute a fire hazard in a closed chamber. Anderson told an interesting story that will probably stick with you next time you open an email. Posting on Quora , he noted:. So much so, that one of my spacewalking EVA partners --who shall remain nameless-- often gave me clear verbal indications that my gas was aromatic and not in a good way.

Follow us. Terms Privacy Policy. Assuming you've put your sandwich down, here are five fart facts:. In living beings, intestinal gas occurs as part of the digestion process. Food gets broken down into its primary components by bacteria in the colon.

A by-product of digestion, this intestinal gas is called endogenous gas by scientists. While most of it is odorless, sometimes a little methane or hydrogen sulfide is released during digestion, giving farts that unique tangy smell. And while that generally isn't a problem here on earth, besides causing some mild embarrassment, methane and hydrogen are highly flammable and that can be a very real danger in tiny, confined spaces.

To minimize the amount of gas astronauts release, NASA early on in space flight banned foods that were known to cause gas. According to NPR , foods like beans, cabbage, and broccoli were banned for a long time.