One of my greatest fears is drowning. I know there are worse ways to die: burning to death is certainly more painful. Due to an incident during my first scuba diving trip, however, I know what it feels like to drown. I know the awful panic, the unbidden desire to take a breath, because you can’t hold it any longer and when you do breath, it’s choking water, cold and terrifying. I survived that experience, of course, and I didn’t let it mark the end of my scuba diving. But that memory does mean that when I consider all the different ways I might meet the reaper, drowning is one of the most terrifying.
Here’s an account of an astronaut who, due to water leaking into his helmet and thanks to the peculiar nature of how water functions in zero-g, nearly ended up drowning inside his space suit. Here’s an excerpt, although the entire entry is worth a read:
As I move back along my route towards the airlock, I become more and more certain that the water is increasing. I feel it covering the sponge on my earphones and I wonder whether I’ll lose audio contact. The water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision. I realise that to get over one of the antennae on my route I will have to move my body into a vertical position, also in order for my safety cable to rewind normally. At that moment, as I turn ‘upside-down’, two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see – already compromised by the water – completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose – a really awful sensation that I make worse by my vain attempts to move the water by shaking my head. By now, the upper part of the helmet is full of water and I can’t even be sure that the next time I breathe I will fill my lungs with air and not liquid. To make matters worse, I realise that I can’t even understand which direction I should head in to get back to the airlock. I can’t see more than a few centimetres in front of me, not even enough to make out the handles we use to move around the Station.
Yeah, I’ll probably have nightmares about that one. Seriously, to not panic and end up dead? Astronauts have nerves of titanium.
Cynical Idealism 