After diving underwater at higher than surface air pressure, you come up to the lower pressure of the surface. Depending on how much inert gas dissolved in your body at the higher pressure, you decompress in various schedules. When astronauts go outside of a spacecraft for tasks, they go from higher atmospheric pressure in the station or spacecraft to lower pressure outside. Even though they wear a pressure suit, astronauts must follow decompression procedures before each trip outside to prevent decompression sickness. Why? Suit pressure can’t be as high as vehicle cabin pressure and still be a workable suit (at least for now). Even this lower pressure stiffens the suit, making it hard to bend limbs and fingers easily for long.
Going outside the ship is called extravehicular activity (EVA).…
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