When looking for some specific information on breathing physiology I found a forum discussion about survival possibilities in case of a space suit leakage on Mars. Most of the participants were posting just nonsense that I had to laugh at, but fortunately one of the last posters put most of the facts straight and also added a link to a page discussing the topic in details.
Explosive Decompression and Vacuum Exposure
They describe also some real-life cases when humans were accidentally exposed to near-vacuum.
Astronaut Bowman ejected into space without a helmet in the movie "A Space Odyssey" (image from SFF Net)
Since some freedivers (similarly as many participant on the above mentioned forum) might think that one could survive for the time close to an empty lung apnea, I better link the document explaining in details the problematic and showing that you won't have more than some 10s before losing conscience (if you are lucky):Explosive Decompression and Vacuum Exposure
They describe also some real-life cases when humans were accidentally exposed to near-vacuum.
