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Asked by igloo23 to Adam, Catherine, Leila on 21 Mar 2012.
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Leila Battison answered on 21 Mar 2012:
To get dynamite to explode, you’d need to be able to light it first – as far as I know the fuses on dynamite burn with oxygen, but there’s no oxygen in the vacuum of space. No fuse = no explosion 🙁
But most explosives have the oxygen they need for burning inside them. If you could get an airtight stick of dynamite, and then find some way of igniting the oxygen without breaking the seal (some kind of spark inside, like a lighter?), then yes, it would explode big!
Without an atmosphere to slow down the particles and gas, they would shoot out from the dynamite at great speed, and continue to go fast… You wouldn’t get hit by dynamite exploding 5 m away on Earth, but you’d be peppered with bits of shrapnel 50 m away in space.
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Adam Stevens answered on 21 Mar 2012:
Dynamite is made of nitroglycerin soaked stuff. Like Leila says, Nitroglycerin is an explosive with its own oxidiser in. An explosive without its own oxisider in wouldn’t work in space, it would need additional oxygen, like the tanks they use to carry rocket fuel.
Nitroglycerin is actually a contact explosive so you can set it off without igniting it, you could use a percussive or electronic blasting cap to detonate it.
So I reckon you could. Can’t think of any reason why you would!
They actually have to use explosives in spacecraft separation systems (when the solid boosters and tank separate from the shuttle for examples) so explosives can work in space, you just have to do it right.
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