Andalite Space Helmet

[NateSean]

In Andalite Chronicles, Elfangor needs to leave the ship to retrieve the Time Matrix. To survive in the vacuum of space, Andalites have developed a special helmet that contains the natural combination of gasses from the Andalite homeworld.

My question is, how does that protect the rest of their bodies?

Elfangor even describes how cold it was in space. But that's not the worse of it. There's radiation from countless sources slicing up the unprotected parts of your body. And if you're near a sun, you're guaranteed to be crispy on one side.

[yunyun]

I think it's either the helmets cover their body with a force field, or K. A. Applegate just forgot about it.

[Underseen]

Or Andalites are magic... No, I just think she didn't want to get all science-y in a book for kids, whenever that happened it confused me as a child.

[Noelle]

Even when I was a little kid I was confused by that, I was under the impression if you didn't go out into space in a space suit you'd explode (which is a myth, lol.)  But you'd still be in trouble for the amount of time he was in space, I don't think you'd have good use of your limbs unless the Andalite circulatory system is much stronger than a human's.


Edit: Here's a good link that goes into it:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

[Blazing Angel]

So long as you had a helmet you could survive for over a few minutes in space. If the radiation isn't coming directly at you, a few minutes should be just fine. Andalites are built thicker than humans, and with fur, so they could stand the cold better. Despite any myths, the deadly part of space is that it's very cold and you have no oxygen. Both of those things can be held off, and take a few minutes to kill.

Also, their totally was radiation damage. Elfangor mentioned human doctors have to cut out tumors. When did this come up? When the on board medical equipment was used to shrink his acquired tumor, and Loren asked what he was doing.

[RYTX]

Also, their totally was radiation damage. Elfangor mentioned human doctors have to cut out tumors. When did this come up? When the on board medical equipment was used to shrink his acquired tumor, and Loren asked what he was doing.

I have to ask what on earth you are talking about. The only occurrence of the word tumor in TAC is when Elfangor is criticizing Earth doctors, who have to surgically cut them out-mentioned in regards to Loren visiting a doctor.

More to the point, there is a big difference between kill and function. You can live a few minutes without air, but most things will pass out well before actually dying. Same with cold. Helmet may have held off oxygen deprivation, but near absolute zero, no you shouldn't last long, desperate the bodies heat containing capacities. Unless we assume that the other mix of chemicals does something to compensate that as well.

Finally while that may also apply to radiation, since I'd guess they were made for general emergencies, not just near black holes the hole itself may have been of benefit. Close is different in space, but the black hole was draining the closest star. Idk jack about radiation, but if you want some sort of answer, you can pretend that it was catching some of the damage, plus the helmet, and the short time span-nothing immediately fate.
Maybe

[Blazing Angel]

Radiation causes tumors doesn't it? That's the exact spot I was talking about.

[RYTX]

Sure it can, but I don't believe that scene happen in the book. Once he got the Time Matrix, they all fought to control it, there was noting about getting or shrinking a tumor obtained in the last 5 minutes

[Underseen]

Or maybe it is like the Andalite furs electromagnetism that was in the T.V. Series (which isn't canon.). It doesn't need to be explained who he survived the vacuum of space.

[Blazing Angel]

Okay, you misunderstood me. This could be considered an implied thing.

[Noelle]

The tumors wouldn't occur right away.  From my understanding, radiation would either kill cells, causing rapid replacement of tissue, which increases the  risk that a cell with mutated DNA (cancer) would grow, and then later on as that mutated cell multiplies you'd get cancer.   

Not only would the cold eventually make a person go numb, but with the absense of normal pressure on the circulatory system fluids would leak out of the vessels and cause edema that would make it hard to move.  But like I said, without knowing the specifics of Andalite biology its impossible to say whether or not the amount of time Elfangor spent in space is plausible or not.

[NateSean]

Or Andalites are magic... No, I just think she didn't want to get all science-y in a book for kids,

And yet she devotes a whole two and a half pages to the size and dimensions of the Helmacrons.

[Blazing Angel]

Wasn't that a ghost writer?

[Underseen]

It was in 42, but not 24.

[arahs22]

Huh. I hadn't really thought about it. When I was a kid it seemed perfectly normal that he would just put on a helmet and go, lol. Maybe she just didn't think that far into it.