Stormlight in space

[PinkPlasma]

Could stormlight sustain a radiant in space? we know that a radiant does not need to breathe when holding stormlight, and there is no atmoshpere, so I genuinly cannot decide if the radiant will lose stormlight faster, slower, the same or not at all. would lashings even work if you aren't experiencing gravity?

[StanLemon]

Considering that Voidlight can sustain a Heavenly One in space, it's certainly safe to say that Stormlight would sustain you in space. I'd imagine that you would burn through the Stormlight a lot faster though as it would need to constantly heal you from the vacuum and radiation. However, because Shardplate can become airtight and Windrunners especially can manipulate air pressure, the vacuum and radiation problems won't be an issue. 

I'd assume Lashings would work fine, they seem to create a virtual gravitational attraction

[alder24]

Yes it can. It would still evaporate from their body, so perfect gemstones would be handy. They would use their Stormlight to provide oxygen for their cells, heal injuries caused by no pressure and radiation. But radiation injuries won't be severe, or won't drain a lot of Stormlight, as radiation poisoning is dangerous in the long term, not immediately after being irradiated. So Stromlight would heal broken DNA chains caused by radiation, not much to heal tbf. Oxygen and pressure will be far bigger drainage of Stormlight, And as proven by Fused, they won’t be able to use this way to go to another planet, even in their star system.

Having a plate would help a lot, as it will hold a little bit of air in it, and protect him from pressure causing injuries and maybe even some radiation. Not enough air to breath however. Windrunners can manipulate pressure, and can bring with them a bubble of air around them. But here is a problem - that would have to be a big bubble to provide enough oxygen to sustain them in the journey. 

I think someone made calculations here on the forum on how fast can Windrunner travel between planets of the Solar System. And with a lot of lashings he can easily travel between planets within hours or days. Can’t remember now, it was a few months ago, but Windrunner can make that trip quite fast.

But using lashings to go to another star system is a no-no. On Earth it would still take 4.25 light years for a Windrunner, moving at the speed of light, to get to Proxima Centauri,  the closeststar to the Sun.

[therunner]

24 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Yes it can. It would still evaporate from their body, so perfect gemstones would be handy. They would use their Stormlight to provide oxygen for their cells, heal injuries caused by no pressure and radiation. But radiation injuries won't be severe, or won't drain a lot of Stormlight, as radiation poisoning is dangerous in the long term, not immediately after being irradiated. So Stromlight would heal broken DNA chains caused by radiation, not much to heal tbf. Oxygen and pressure will be far bigger drainage of Stormlight, And as proven by Fused, they won’t be able to use this way to go to another planet, even in their star system.

Windrunner could actually travel to other planets per Brandon (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/450/#e14436). Fused are most likely bound to Braize via Oathpact, so until that is broken, even this avenue is closed to them.

25 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I think someone made calculations here on the forum on how fast can Windrunner travel between planets of the Solar System. And with a lot of lashings he can easily travel between planets within hours or days. Can’t remember now, it was a few months ago, but Windrunner can make that trip quite fast.

But using lashings to go to another star system is a no-no. On Earth it would still take 4.25 light years for a Windrunner, moving at the speed of light, to get to Proxima Centauri,  the closeststar to the Sun.

Small correction, light year is measure of distance not time

And while yes, from earth frame of reference it would take Windrunner more then 4.25 years to get to Proxima Centaury, in their own it would be far shorter trip thanks to time dilation.
There is a handy wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_travel_under_constant_acceleration) with math for this kind of movement, and with a chart for how long it would take to travel to various celestial objects under 1G acceleration (time both from the frame of reference of travel, and of stationary frame of reference of earth).



So for Proxima centaury it would take ~8 years traveler time under 1G, and over 10 years earth time. And yet to get to center of Milky way it would take only around ~30 years for the traveler, but externally it would take nearly 10000 years.
Of course, more G's would shorten the trip.

Special relativity is fun

 

[alder24]

11 minutes ago, therunner said:

Fused are most likely bound to Braize via Oathpact, so until that is broken, even this avenue is closed to them.

They tried this during Desolation, and traveled from Roshar to Braize.

11 minutes ago, therunner said:

Small correction, light year is measure of distance not time

Yeah, that's what I get when I write faster than I think  

12 minutes ago, therunner said:

And while yes, from earth frame of reference it would take Windrunner more then 4.25 years to get to Proxima Centaury, in their own it would be far shorter trip thanks to time dilation.

Yes, That's why I wrote "on Earth'', but I should write "from Earth's point of view" to make it clear. But Windrunner can't reach speed of light, he can only approach it  

15 minutes ago, therunner said:

Special relativity is fun

It's so fun to go on a short trip to another star and return just to see graves of your loved ones  

[therunner]

8 minutes ago, alder24 said:

They tried this during Desolation, and traveled from Roshar to Braize.

Really? Huh, must have missed that. Cool.

Quote

Yeah, that's what I get when I write faster than I think  

Thought so, just want to correct just in case.

Quote

Yes, That's why I wrote "on Earth'', but I should write "from Earth's point of view" to make it clear. But Windrunner can't reach speed of light, he can only approach it  

Ah, yeah I misunderstood that, that's what I get for reading too fast.

Quote

It's so fun to go on a short trip to another star and return just to see graves of your loved ones  

Yep, and you get all that inheritance

[HSuperLee]

Didn't they say that the Heavenly Ones attempted to go to space and that the damage the vacuum did to them outpaced their healing? The quote I'm finding is in RoW chapter 87, and I'm seeing,

Quote

You can't travel to Braize in the Physical Realm. That would take. . .well, I have no idea how long. Plus there's no air in the space between planets. We sent Heavenly Ones to try once. No air, and worse, the strange pressures required them to carry a large supply of Voidlight for healing. Even so prepared, they died within hours.

Its specifically the "died within hours" that makes me think this isn't as easy as I've seen people imply on this forum. I know people think radiation damage would be easy to heal, but this quote makes it seem like the Fused were prepared for pressure and asphyxiation, and yet something unexpected killed them, which I suspect may have been the radiation. Now, I do believe that Shardplate would mitigate or eliminate many of the issues, assuming an abundance of Stormlight, so a Windrunner would probably do better than the Fused did.

[Frustration]

56 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

Didn't they say that the Heavenly Ones attempted to go to space and that the damage the vacuum did to them outpaced their healing? The quote I'm finding is in RoW chapter 87, and I'm seeing,

Its specifically the "died within hours" that makes me think this isn't as easy as I've seen people imply on this forum. I know people think radiation damage would be easy to heal, but this quote makes it seem like the Fused were prepared for pressure and asphyxiation, and yet something unexpected killed them, which I suspect may have been the radiation. Now, I do believe that Shardplate would mitigate or eliminate many of the issues, assuming an abundance of Stormlight, so a Windrunner would probably do better than the Fused did.

Fused also don't cary a lot of gems, and their healing seems significantly weaker than Radiants.

[StanLemon]

34 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Fused also don't cary a lot of gems, and their healing seems significantly weaker than Radiants.

Do they heal slower? I'm legitimately asking as I don't recall any indication that they have inferior healing

[Frustration]

32 minutes ago, StanLemon said:

Do they heal slower? I'm legitimately asking as I don't recall any indication that they have inferior healing

It's not stated, but you can see when Kaladin is fighting Fused in Hearthstone, they have wounds open for longer than he does, I think they heal about as fast as Szeth did with the Honorblade.

[HSuperLee]

A question that occurs to me is this, can a Radiant (not in Shardplate) actually breathe in stormlight in space? Isn't the biological mechanism that allows us to inhale dependent on air pressure, and thus a Radiant in a vacuum would find themself incapable of refreshing their stormlight, kind of like how Lopen found he couldn't take in more storemlight while underwater? I get that there's a question in the case of a submerged Radiant, where they might be able to force themself to inhale water and trust the stormlight will fix it, but is it even possible to force yourself to inhale in a vacuum? I will acknowledge, on the other side of things, that this wouldn't be an issue for a Windrunner. They can use adhesion and gravitation to create a bubble of atmosphere around them and take it to space, maintaining pressure even without Shardplate. In a different vein, Bondsmiths appear to act as sources of Light, so they'd probably be fine as well.

[alder24]

15 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

Its specifically the "died within hours" that makes me think this isn't as easy as I've seen people imply on this forum. I know people think radiation damage would be easy to heal, but this quote makes it seem like the Fused were prepared for pressure and asphyxiation, and yet something unexpected killed them, which I suspect may have been the radiation. Now, I do believe that Shardplate would mitigate or eliminate many of the issues, assuming an abundance of Stormlight, so a Windrunner would probably do better than the Fused did.

It's hard to keep healing when all liquids in your body want to boil, because of no pressure. So it was lack of pressure that killed them. Radiation kills in weeks/months, not hours.

1 hour ago, HSuperLee said:

A question that occurs to me is this, can a Radiant (not in Shardplate) actually breathe in stormlight in space?

Breathing Stormlight in isn't a physical thing, it's a mental one. They don't need to literally breathe it in.

What's preventing you from taking a breath under water is water pressure, which is greater than your muscle can expand. It's your muscles that do the breathing. If there is no pressure preventing lungs from expanding, like in space, you can take a breath, even an empty one. But you don't need this  to breathe in Stormlight.

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by alder24

[Heilven]

On 3/16/2023 at 11:09 AM, alder24 said:

They tried this during Desolation, and traveled from Roshar to Braize

As other people have said I believe the opposite is true. They specifically mention trying and failing. This could easily be explained by:

1. Heavenly ones tend not to perform more than 1 lashing, limiting their speed

2. Healing is weaker, and without adhesion you are taking constant damage due to pressure

3. They aren't inventive. I believe they say that they took a bag of gemstones and attempted to travel to braize, thinking it could be a possibility for escaping between desolations. They likely didn't bring enough voidlight, and died on the way. They then assumed it was impossible, and never tried again.

I think it's very possible for them to travel to Braize. Simply use transformation to make a sealed metal ball around the heavenly one, and give them a bunch of voidlight. Much more than usual. Apply a few lashings to the ball, possibly 3, then use voidlight to breath. The pressurized ball will prevent your blood from boiling, and you should absolutely have enough voidlight to make the trip. The main issue is would be bad aim, so maybe install a window or something. 

[alder24]

2 hours ago, Heilven said:

As other people have said I believe the opposite is true. They specifically mention trying and failing. This could easily be explained by:

1. Heavenly ones tend not to perform more than 1 lashing, limiting their speed

2. Healing is weaker, and without adhesion you are taking constant damage due to pressure

3. They aren't inventive. I believe they say that they took a bag of gemstones and attempted to travel to braize, thinking it could be a possibility for escaping between desolations. They likely didn't bring enough voidlight, and died on the way. They then assumed it was impossible, and never tried again.

If they tried this from Braize to Roshar, then how? They don't have a physical form there, Braize is settled fully by splinters. So how can no oxygen, no pressure or radiation kill basically what is a spren? Raboniel inventing suppression fabrial or a disease that wiped out 10% of Roshar? Not inventive?

RoW ch 89

Quote

Raboniel hummed to an amused rhythm. “No, no, Navani. You can’t travel to Braize in the Physical Realm. That would take ... well, I have no idea how long. Plus there’s no air in the space between planets. We sent Heavenly Ones to try it once. No air, and worse, the strange pressures required them to carry a large supply of Voidlight for healing. Even so prepared, they died within hours.

“One instead travels to other worlds through Shadesmar. But again, stay away from Braize. Even if you could get through the barrier storm, the place is barren, devoid of life. Merely a dark sky, endless windswept crags, and a broken landscape. And a lot of souls. A lot of not particularly sane souls.”

We sent Heavenly Ones to try traveling to Braize in PR.

No life, only souls. So why would a soul require healing from no pressure in space? 

2 hours ago, Heilven said:

I think it's very possible for them to travel to Braize. Simply use transformation to make a sealed metal ball around the heavenly one, and give them a bunch of voidlight. Much more than usual. Apply a few lashings to the ball, possibly 3, then use voidlight to breath. The pressurized ball will prevent your blood from boiling, and you should absolutely have enough voidlight to make the trip. The main issue is would be bad aim, so maybe install a window or something. 

Heavenly ones can only apply 1 lashing, no more. Fused soulcasting seems to be limited, not as free as Radiant's one, Raboniel only turned something to smoke at one point, and I don't think we saw more.

[Heilven]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Heavenly ones can only apply 1 lashing, no more.

I went the longest time misinterpreting this. I thought it was said in the books that the Fused simply choose not to lash more than once in order to better use voidlight, not that they literally couldn't, but yeah. This WoB basically confirms that:

Quote

Questioner

The Fused that wield, like--their Lashings can be a lot faster than Kaladin's are. Is it because it's based on a different planet than the Radiants?

Brandon Sanderson

Kaladin can go faster, but they are more-- they are faster over a large span. What's going on with the Fused is they have-- The way their Investiture works, it doesn't leak and they are able to use it for much longer periods of time. But they don't have access to the number of times that Kaladin can Lash himself directions and things like this, and the speed with which he can pick up speed. So in the short Kaladin is favored, in the long they're favored.

To be fair he doesn't say they only get 1 lashing, just that they are limited, but I don't think the nuance matters at all for this conversation. They cannot accelerate nearly as fast as I suggested, you are completely correct.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Fused soulcasting seems to be limited, not as free as Radiant's one, Raboniel only turned something to smoke at one point, and I don't think we saw more

I don't think this is true though. It's been a minute since I have read RoW and I don't have my copy right now but the coppermind doesn't suggest this. It says that

Quote

The Altered Ones are considered to be great builders among the Fused, responsible for the remodeling of the palace in Kholinar following its capture by the singers

Citing chapter 14 from RoW, where they meet in Kholinar. If they really are considered great builders I would assume that they are perfectly capable of making complex structures. And even if each singer can only access one essence, you could just use multiple singers. Oh this actually brings up a completely different tangent, do the singers recognize the 10 essences? Or do they forgo one (likely ishi)? Anyway I think they could make a ball.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

If they tried this from Braize to Roshar, then how? They don't have a physical form there, Braize is settled fully by splinters. So how can no oxygen, no pressure or radiation kill basically what is a spren? Raboniel inventing suppression fabrial or a disease that wiped out 10% of Roshar? Not inventive?

I don't understand what you mean by this. I was specifically referring to traveling from Roshar to Braize, I don't have any idea if surgebinding even works for them on Braize. 

About inventiveness tho, I'm going to try dig up some actual evidence but I'll describe what I mean. I have this idea in my head that one of the reasons humanity was able to survive the desolations for so long was their constant inventiveness, whereas the fused tended to stick to the same strategy every time. Something about their immortality causing them to change very slowly. 

Alright without a reread I think I won't be able to find evidence for that (if it exists and I'm not just making it up) so that's essentially what I mean by inventiveness. Not that they weren't smart, they are clearly extremely intelligent. More that they aren't daring, so if they try something and it doesn't work, most of them just give up. I imagine Raboniel is likely an exception to this, as she is particularly science minded. We also know that the groups of Fused are divided in a similar way that the radiants are divided, so if one group of fused is against a plan, they likely just wouldn't participate.

With that inventiveness however, I think RoW helps to prove my point. Raboniel was probably looking for a way to make anti-light for a couple thousand years and never really came close. Navani got there with help in a few months. Fused seem to just be very in the box thinkers. 

Oh wait I get what you mean with the first quote.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

If they tried this from Braize to Roshar, then how?

I was responding to this

On 3/16/2023 at 11:09 AM, alder24 said:

They tried this during Desolation, and traveled from Roshar to Braize

I meant that the opposite is true, they did try it during a Desolation but failed to travel from Roshar to Braize. I apologize, my wording was confusing.

Oh but if you will indulge me for just a moment longer, I'm going to do some math. If we assume that the distance from Roshar to Braize is approximately the distance from Earth to Mars (which feels right based on how the rosharan system is set up) then at the shortest the distance is 54.6 million kilometers. With acceleration of .7g, your position is given by s = .35gt^2. You would want to accelerate half the time, then decelerate the other half of the time, so we should consider the time taken to travel 27.3 million kilometers and then double it. So that's 2 * sqrt(27300 million / .35g), which gives a total time of 187042 seconds. Very useful number, right. Anyway that works out to about 50 of our minutes. This is certainly within the correct value by an order of magnitude, which in my opinion makes this method of travel extremely possible.

Anyway I spent wayyyy too long on this response instead of making a presentation due tomorrow so I'm going to go do that now

EDIT: I went back in and checked the velocities and they are too fast so the calculation isn't valid. However, the relativity will actually make you arrive faster in your perspective, so it's actually better evidence. I might do the relativistic corrections later when I have time

Edited March 23, 2023 by Heilven

[a Faceless Immortal]

The problems a radiant may suffer in space are, I believe, the following:

• Lack of Oxygen
• Lack of Pressure
• Extreme fluctuations in Temperature
• No protection from Radiation

And I believe a combination of Shardplate, Stormlight, and Adhesion* can effectively nullify these issues, in fact I believe that Shardplate alone is probably the second most functional space-suit we will see in the Cosmere, beaten only by a Feruchemist, who in all probability could simply store enough resources to survive (although pressure may present a problem for them, but I am sure there is simply something I am not remembering) entirely by themselves.

As to the speed of space travel, I believe that has been sufficiently discussed above. I would, however, like to add that a fabrial capable of applying reverse lashings would prove as a useful method of transport for those who aren't gifted with the surge of Gravitation. Although this probably wouldn't be as effective as a Windrunner or a Skybreaker using the surge themselves (see other surge fabrials, like the soulcaster), it would at least be something.

Man, all of this sure gets me excited for the space age of the Cosmere!

*The usefulness of Adhesion depends on whether you can impose pressure on space, despite there not being any particles to provide that pressure. If it turns out that adhesion allows you to pressurise empty space, then it will be extremely useful.

[therunner]

6 hours ago, a Faceless Immortal said:

And I believe a combination of Shardplate, Stormlight, and Adhesion* can effectively nullify these issues, in fact I believe that Shardplate alone is probably the second most functional space-suit we will see in the Cosmere, beaten only by a Feruchemist, who in all probability could simply store enough resources to survive (although pressure may present a problem for them, but I am sure there is simply something I am not remembering) entirely by themselves.

I think Shardplate is the best space-suit so far in Cosmere.
While yes, Feruchemist could store attributes to survive, they would have to tap gold non-stop at quite large rates (healing radiation, lack of pressure), and the rest of attributes they would have to spend years storing to prepare for single trip. I mean, just storing enough breath would take quite a while, not to mention wakefulness (since you can tap/store only when awake so Feruchemist would have to remain conscious for entire trip).

With Shardplate you just summon it, close it, and now you need Stormlight mainly to heal lack of Oxygen, being protected from everything else.

[alder24]

13 hours ago, Heilven said:

I went the longest time misinterpreting this. I thought it was said in the books that the Fused simply choose not to lash more than once in order to better use voidlight, not that they literally couldn't, but yeah.

Kaladin also said that in his fight with Leshwi in early chapters of RoW.

13 hours ago, Heilven said:

Citing chapter 14 from RoW, where they meet in Kholinar. If they really are considered great builders I would assume that they are perfectly capable of making complex structures.

Right, I forgot about this one. 

13 hours ago, Heilven said:

I don't understand what you mean by this. I was specifically referring to traveling from Roshar to Braize, I don't have any idea if surgebinding even works for them on Braize. 

You said, quoting me, that the opposite is true, opposite of what I said was travel from Braize to Roshar:

17 hours ago, Heilven said:

On 16.03.2023 at 5:09 PM, alder24 said:

They tried this during Desolation, and traveled from Roshar to Braize.

As other people have said I believe the opposite is true. They specifically mention trying and failing. This could easily be explained by:

1. Heavenly ones tend not to perform more than 1 lashing, limiting their speed

2. Healing is weaker, and without adhesion you are taking constant damage due to pressure

3. They aren't inventive. I believe they say that they took a bag of gemstones and attempted to travel to braize, thinking it could be a possibility for escaping between desolations. They likely didn't bring enough voidlight, and died on the way. They then assumed it was impossible, and never tried again.

I think it's very possible for them to travel to Braize. Simply use transformation to make a sealed metal ball around the heavenly one, and give them a bunch of voidlight. Much more than usual. Apply a few lashings to the ball, possibly 3, then use voidlight to breath. The pressurized ball will prevent your blood from boiling, and you should absolutely have enough voidlight to make the trip. The main issue is would be bad aim, so maybe install a window or something. 

So weren't you trying to dispute my claim that they traveled from Roshar to Braize and support that they traveled from Braize to Roshar?

 

13 hours ago, Heilven said:

About inventiveness tho, I'm going to try dig up some actual evidence but I'll describe what I mean. I have this idea in my head that one of the reasons humanity was able to survive the desolations for so long was their constant inventiveness, whereas the fused tended to stick to the same strategy every time. Something about their immortality causing them to change very slowly. 

There isn't any support to this theory, and Raboniel actions in previous Desolations and in True Desolations proves Fused invent and change their strategy as well.

13 hours ago, Heilven said:

We also know that the groups of Fused are divided in a similar way that the radiants are divided, so if one group of fused is against a plan, they likely just wouldn't participate.

I don't think so, the meeting with the Nine proves it, but I have to reread it to be sure of this. They might argue and disagree, but they will listen to the Nine (Pursuer was "tamed" for a little while), or they will listen to Odium. 

But you're right, they are very spren like, with single intent driving their actions. So with passage of time they would be less inventive, as most don't have that drive to change like Raboniel did.

 

14 hours ago, Heilven said:

I meant that the opposite is true, they did try it during a Desolation but failed to travel from Roshar to Braize. I apologize, my wording was confusing.

Oh right, yes, they died. I didn't want to suggest they succeeded. We later discussed why they died.

14 hours ago, Heilven said:

EDIT: I went back in and checked the velocities and they are too fast so the calculation isn't valid. However, the relativity will actually make you arrive faster in your perspective, so it's actually better evidence. I might do the relativistic corrections later when I have time

Well, I'm not doing math now (somebody did it on the forum), but with a quick google search, constant acceleration of 1g will make you reach the speed of light in around 1 year, so based on that you won't have any relativistic effects when traveling to Mars.

And another google search tells me that 1 g would make you reach Mars within 1 day and 7 hours. So Fused dying within hours is correct.

 

9 hours ago, a Faceless Immortal said:

The problems a radiant may suffer in space are, I believe, the following:

• Lack of Oxygen
• Lack of Pressure
• Extreme fluctuations in Temperature
• No protection from Radiation

I don't think temperature is an issue, as it's the property of the matter, and in the vacuum of space there are no particles (like whole 5 atoms per 1 cm3), so there is no temperature transmission to your body. However you get heated up by the Sun's radiation, but that's not much greater than what's on Earth's surface. Your body however will have troubles with cooling down, as it can only do it by radiation, which is a slow process, and can't do it via heat convection or conduction, so you might get overheated because of that.

Radiation is a long term problem. You won't die from radiation while crossing space between planets. You might develop cancer from this, or radiation poisoning, or nothing if it was fast enough. I think the most radiation intense regions of space between Earth and Mars are van Allen belts, caused by the Earth's magnetosphere. From Wiki: 

Quote

A satellite shielded by 3 mm of aluminium in an elliptic orbit (200 by 20,000 miles (320 by 32,190 km)) passing the radiation belts will receive about 2,500 rem (25 Sv) per year. (For comparison, a full-body dose of 5 Sv is deadly.) Almost all radiation will be received while passing the inner belt.

The Apollo missions marked the first event where humans traveled through the Van Allen belts, which was one of several radiation hazards known by mission planners. The astronauts had low exposure in the Van Allen belts due to the short period of time spent flying through them.

Astronauts' overall exposure was actually dominated by solar particles once outside Earth's magnetic field. The total radiation received by the astronauts varied from mission-to-mission but was measured to be between 0.16 and 1.14 rads (1.6 and 11.4 mGy), much less than the standard of 5 rem (50 mSv) per year set by the United States Atomic Energy Commission for people who work with radioactivity.

And another quick google search, we collected data about radiation dose received by Mars rovers during interplanetary travel, and they received 1.75 to 3.0 mSv/day. Which is basically nothing to human (lowest yearly radiation dose linked to increased cancer risk is 100mSv), and Radiant/Fused even more, which both can get on Mars/Braize within a few short days. So radiation is not an issue at all, even its long term effects are non existing.

 

Lack of pressure is the biggest problem they would face, as it would case their body fluids to constantly boil, and their body gasses to expand and rupture soft tissue, so this will drain a lot of Stormlight for healing, more than lack of oxygen (Windrunners already go without breathing sometimes). Shardplate eliminates the pressure problem, so it's much easier for Radiants to travel interplanetary than for others.

[Heilven]

8 hours ago, therunner said:

now you need Stormlight mainly to heal lack of Oxygen

Small correction, while holding stormlight you don't need to breathe, the stormlight powers breathing for you. Most if not all radiants go without radiants go without breathing while holding large amounts of stormlight, because opening your mouth to breathe will cause stormlight to leak out faster. I imagine using stormlight to breathe is probably more efficient than stormlight healing oxygen deprived cells, but that's a total guess on my part. Otherwise I agree with you 100%

5 hours ago, alder24 said:

I don't think temperature is an issue, as it's the property of the matter,

I have seem some crazy arguments on temperature in space. It's really complicated, because the energy you lose from black body radiation isn't as insubstantial as you would believe. Without being constantly surrounded by warm particles you would start to feel colder. But the side of your body pointed towards the sun would feel noticeably warmer, as there is no air to absorb and redirect the sun's light. All in all astronauts do need insulated suits so that they can warm themselves with body heat, but it's not a major concern and likely wouldn't be one for fused or radiant.

Shardplate does likely mitigate all of these issues. Pressurized, will help with insulation, and likely radiation resistant. Doesn't help the fused, but could help a skybreaker. A windrunner might be able to make a bubble of air with adhesion to grab a few people without shardplate, but that's complete speculation. And of course that air would only help with pressure, it wouldn't be breathable for long.

[a Faceless Immortal]

16 hours ago, therunner said:

I think Shardplate is the best space-suit so far in Cosmere.
While yes, Feruchemist could store attributes to survive, they would have to tap gold non-stop at quite large rates (healing radiation, lack of pressure), and the rest of attributes they would have to spend years storing to prepare for single trip. I mean, just storing enough breath would take quite a while, not to mention wakefulness (since you can tap/store only when awake so Feruchemist would have to remain conscious for entire trip).

With Shardplate you just summon it, close it, and now you need Stormlight mainly to heal lack of Oxygen, being protected from everything else.

You are correct, however, I believe the Feruchemist's biggest disadvantage is that they don't exist anymore. Still, I believe that once a way to deal with the pressure difference is found, the about of gold used would be minor.

 

13 hours ago, alder24 said:

I don't think temperature is an issue, as it's the property of the matter, and in the vacuum of space there are no particles (like whole 5 atoms per 1 cm3), so there is no temperature transmission to your body. However you get heated up by the Sun's radiation, but that's not much greater than what's on Earth's surface. Your body however will have troubles with cooling down, as it can only do it by radiation, which is a slow process, and can't do it via heat convection or conduction, so you might get overheated because of that.

Radiation is a long term problem. You won't die from radiation while crossing space between planets. You might develop cancer from this, or radiation poisoning, or nothing if it was fast enough. I think the most radiation intense regions of space between Earth and Mars are van Allen belts, caused by the Earth's magnetosphere. From Wiki: 

You are correct that no conduction or convection occurs within a vacuum, but I believe blackbody radiation accounts for something like 60% of the human body's heat loss, and without a layer of air or other material surrounding the body to be heated up by said radiation, all that heat is simply being dispersed into space, rather than forming the 'blanket' of warm air that usually accompanies the human body and maintains the optimal 28-ish degrees celsius (82 Fahrenheit for you Americans) surface temperature.

Additionally, sunlight heats things up substantially without an atmosphere worth of gasses to absorb it. The outer layer of Earth's atmosphere is something like 120 degrees celsius (248 Fahrenheit) when in direct sunlight, which is significantly more than a human body would enjoy.

Hence, any part of the body in direct sunlight would warm up noticeably quick, and any in shadow cool down. All of this to say that temperature is definitely a factor when working in space. I mean, why would NASA insulate their spacesuits if it wasn't?

DISCLAIMER: Numbers used are from memory, I'll edit in some references later when I'm not using a phone.

[alder24]

@Heilven @Faceless.Immortal Touche, very good points.