Astronauts can get the bends.

[SoggyShoes]

It’s interesting and I never thought about it before, but astronauts can get the bends when they go for a space walk. I was reading an article about the crew that is currently adding on to the ISS and it mentioned that they are on 100% Oxygen the day before the walk so they don’t get bent. (http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=966216). Apparently the space station is kept very close to Earth’s condition at 1 ATM with 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen. When they go “outside” the space suits are at 1/4 ATM with 100% Oxygen. Here is a great article about what is takes to prep for a spacewalk: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles14.html . I guess my rituals for getting ready for a dive aren’t so bad compared to what these people have to go through. Pre-purging nitrogen alone would be a pain. Plus it’s all solo diving up there!

Soggy

 

[herman]

Duke Uni/DAN does a lot of research on this subject. Matter of fact they are (were?) looking for local divers to do some studies. Fighter pilots are also subject to the bends if they do fast climbs to high altitudes.

 

[Charlie99]

Dr Deco did many studies on astronauts and offgassing for EVA when he worked at NASA.

I believe the specific stationary bicyle exercise regimen while on 100% O2 referred to in the article was developed and tested by him while working at NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=1563748&postcount=9

 

[Ed Palma]

Wow. You learn something new everyday!

 

[Charlie99]

Wow. You learn something new everyday!

Altitude DCS was also sometimes seen in bomber crews during WWII --- the planes were not pressurized and could fly above 20,000'.

HALO skydivers also need to prebreathe O2 to avoid DCS at altitude. http://halojumper.com/halobriefing.html has some interesting info. For jumps above 22,000' they do about 30-45 minutes prebreathing O2 on the ground, in addition to breathing O2 during the ascent.