Apr 29, 2025
To:Mara
This is a real thing. In fact, some of the events in this story are inspired by real-life things that happened on the ISS or during the Space Shuttle program.
Decompression sickness is also sometimes called the bends. Deep sea divers have to be careful about it when coming back to the surface after a dive. Basically, the air we breathe isn't pure oxygen. There are other elements like nitrogen in the air, and our body absorbs some of them. During a sudden change in pressure, nitrogen can be released into the bloodstream, forming nitrogen bubbles in your blood. These bubbles can form anywhere in the body. When the form around your joints, it can cause joint pain. However, when they form in the brain, there are a number of very bad things that can happen, from dizziness to death.
Before spacewalks, astronauts and cosmonauts will typically hang out all night in the airlock as the pressure is slowly lowered. Not so much that it causes problems, but as low as is safe for a human. They'll also breathe pure oxygen through a mask for a while to try to purge the nitrogen from their blood, as Hina does in this chapter.
Cosmonauts don't have to be quite as careful because their suits maintain a higher internal pressure, at the cost of them being more rigid and difficult to move around in. That's why Sachiko and Yasu opt for the Russian airlock, so they can be ready to back Hina up sooner.
