Hazzards of vacuum

[Roadam]

What are the actual hazzards of vacuum? To spacecraft only of course.

[Buffy]

Just the vacuum? The only hazard I can think of is gases in enclosed spaces. If you have a sealed container of any kind of gas in it (propellant, fuel cell, human living space), then you need enough structural integrity to keep the relative gas pressure from blowing out that container.

There are lots of other hazards in "space" but many--if not most of them--have nothing to do with it being a "vacuum."

Absence of absence,
Buffy

[modest]

One hazard to spacecraft the vacuum causes is overheating. There can be no convection cooling of a spacecraft as there is no air. This is manageable in craft thus put into space usually by circulating warmed ammonia to external radiators where it is cooled. This is why the space shuttle has to open its doors when first entering orbit (the radiators are in the shuttle bay). If the shuttle were unable to open the doors for whatever reason - it would overheat forcing an emergency return. I think the space station also had some recent trouble with the cooling system forcing a space walk.

Future spacecraft with nuclear reactors or any other significant heat-producing technology will no doubt face cooling problems caused directly by the vacuum.

-modest