In Space, No One Can Hear You Whistle

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Whistle While You Work? Not in Space

Former astronaut Dan Barry has seven hours of spacewalking time to his credit. He tried whistling during his spacewalk on STS-96 in May 1999.

“It wasn’t something I hadn’t planned — I thought of it on the fly. It turned out that it didn’t work.,” he said.

Barry called down to Mission Control and said, “Houston, EV2. The science types might like to know that it is not possible to whistle during an EVA.”

3 thoughts on “In Space, No One Can Hear You Whistle”

  1. Do asstronaughts get Handicapped parking stickers when they return? What about biometric queef studies, belches, and raspberries? What about a bobby’s whistle, a slide whistle, a South Park “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” recorder, magic flutes? Finally… science is aboard International Space Station Freedom FUBAR SPACE Hole One Alpha!

    “He tried whistling during his spacewalk on STS-96 in May 1999.” Who footed the funding bill for 12 years of studies prior to publication? Tea kettle studies could explain why there is no British Gob in Space. Water boils at 69 C at 4.3 psi.

    NASA’s new heavy lifter motto, “Go whistle for it.”

  2. 4.3 psi! Wow. I had no idea the suits were kept at that low pressure. Although I guess it makes sense – the lower the pressure the easier the engineering and the easier it is to move around. Is the ISS kept at that same low pressure? If not, is there some weird pressurization cycle the spacewalkers have to go through when the enter/exit the ISS?

  3. 760 torr atmospheric pressure is 21% oxygen partial pressure or 160 torr net oxygen or 3.09 psi. Exoatmospheric, NASA leaves out the inert gases.

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