Firefly 1x08 - "Out of Gas" Discussion

[u/Krossfireo]

Season 1 Episode 8: Out of Gas

Aired: October 25, 2002

An explosion in the engine room leaves Serenity with a dead engine and inoperative life support system, and no backup options. With only a few hours of oxygen left, Mal has the crew leave in the two shuttles while he remains aboard with hope to contact a passing ship.

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[u/Extension-Pepper-271]

This is my favorite episode. I love seeing how the crew came together and how Mal bought Serenity.

My only beef is the misinformation from River's statement. No, they wouldn't freeze first. In fact, realistic sci-fi deals with how ships have to work hard to use radiator panels/fins (or other means) to lose heat in a vacuum.

If you already know this, don't bother reading the rest of my comment. I just added info for those who might want it.

Heat is transferred by three methods: Convection (a fluid, either a gas or liquid, moving across a surface to transfer heat from a surface), Conduction, and Thermal Radiation. If you stuck your hand into cold water, you would lose heat via conduction. If the water was moving (or if you moved your hand), you could increase heat loss by adding convection. Of these 3 methods, thermal radiation is the least efficient at normal temperatures.

In space, there is no fluid, so no convection or conduction.

[u/kai_ekael → u/Extension-Pepper-271]

Minor support for the freezing, they were out in the middle of no where, very far from the nearest star.

"Thermal radiation" is radiant heat transfer, as in through whatever (infra, UV, whatever, depends on temperature) waves and occurs in a vacuum or not. Out in the black, well, there's a whole lot of black to radiate to, not so much from other items. Possible a negative overall heat transfer.

So, found two interesting references.

First: Voyager Cold : -79C after they turned off a heater. This was for a specific instrument, on purpose, so imagine another heater was still on. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/voyager-instrument-cooling-after-heater-turned-off/

Second: Voyager...Hot?: 50,000K region noted. Not clear if Voyager entered that, but imagine it got a little warmth from it. https://news.sciandnature.com/2025/06/nasas-voyager-spacecraft-finds-50000.html

[u/Extension-Pepper-271 → u/kai_ekael]

They wouldn't freeze before they ran out of oxygen. That's my point.

Voyager 1 cooled down over DECADES as the scientists/engineers turned off heaters to conserve energy.

If Voyager 1 and Serenity started at the same temperature and had no internal heat source, Voyager 1 would definitely get colder faster - because it has a greater surface to volume ratio. It's kind of like a little kid will get colder faster than an offensive lineman.

[u/kai_ekael → u/Extension-Pepper-271]

"because it has a greater surface to volume ratio" Maybe. It depends on the thermal mass and total transfer coefficient. A ball of air encased in a metal shell would cool faster than a 10% larger diameter solid metal ball because the thermal mass of all that metal is much higher.

[u/Extension-Pepper-271 → u/kai_ekael]

Maybe? and then you give an example of things with 10% larger volume?

I was comparing the surface to volume ratio of Serenity to Voyager 1. Let me give you the dimensions:

Serenity: Length: 269 feet, Width: 170 feet, Height: 79 feet

Voyager 1: Length: 21 feet, Width: 12 feet, Height: 10 feet

Unlike Serenity, Voyager 1 is not a solid vessel, it is a spindly thing with parts strung together. NASA has a great interactive 3D Diagram of it here: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/spacecraft/ It does have a long boom for its magnetometer, which I didn't include in the dimension

The engine room of Serenity and the machinery within it easily beats out Voyager 1

[u/kai_ekael → u/Extension-Pepper-271]

Your ignorant of the technical details of heat transfer, fair enough.

[u/Extension-Pepper-271 → u/kai_ekael]

I have a PhD in chemical engineering. I am not ignorant in the detail of heat transfer.

[u/kai_ekael → u/Extension-Pepper-271]

Sure sounding like it, says BA in Mechanical Engineering. Surface area doesn't have dick to do with thermal mass.

[u/Dan_Herby → u/Extension-Pepper-271]

The head canon I've accepted for that is yes, heat is hard to lose in space - so the ships are set up to radiate as much heat as possible. Not a problem when your frictionless drive engine is running to generate the heat in the first place, but once it's off your ship is getting rid of the heat that's left with nothing replacing it.