JF Mezei wrote:

Pat Flannery wrote:

For once and for all, forget the bags of water. Water at cabin
temperature will boil on contact with vacuum, and the bag will explode.


Then why is it that water, flowing out of the toilet into space often
freezes up and clogs the outflow hole on the shuttle's surface ?


As the pressure drops the water boils into vapor - this causes it to
drop in temperature and freeze almost immediately:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...1/gen01060.htm
The problem that they ran into with the toilet was that the water froze
as it was coming out the outlet, and each successive "flush" of the
toilet made the icicle grow as more water stuck to its surface and
froze, just the way that water flows down a icicle's exterior and
freezes on its end.

Obviously, if you put the sun on it, it will melt and evaporate.


It will take a while; it's slowly evaporating into the vacuum, and that
evaporation will cause it to cool down yet more.
In the case of the Shuttle's toilet icicle they ended up using the
Remote Manipulator Arm to knock it off after a couple of days.


And "explode" is perhaps a strong word. The bag would burst and let
evaporated water out well before any "explosive" pressures could build
up.


I probably should have said "rupture" instead. It would be a real mess,
as whoever is holding the bag is probably going to end up with ice stuck
all over their EVA suit.
There's a graph for figuring out its boiling point at varous pressures
he
http://designer-drugs.com/pte/12.162...nomograph.html

Pat