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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ I was going to write similar answer, assuming the atmosphere is not instantenously lost. If the leak is small enough, the computer could release water every now and then, keeping pressure relatively low, but not complete void. The cool water steam would fill up the room, hottest steam (heated by the CPU) rising on top, some of it escaping into space. If the leak is small enough, the water might momentarily even seal it by freezing - but I guess that would be just lucky incident. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 10:38
  • $\begingroup$ @diynevala: There is no convection in microgravity, so saying that the hottest steam would rise to the top is false. In microgravity, heating the gas in one part of a gas-filled room results only in local heating until the heat eventually conducts away. Spacecraft must use forced convection. The convective cooling you want to introduce is something completely different from evaporative cooling. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 10:56
  • $\begingroup$ Assuming they have no rotation to create artificial gravity, there is still one more force moving the cool water around: the cpu fan, if they got one. Most probably, if the cooling system is not very modern, they got lots of fans. Anyway, this is just a race against time. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 12:35
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    $\begingroup$ True but at the high rate at which the question says the computer room is leaking, the pressure would drop too quickly for the fans to be much use for cooling. I'd rather wait for the pressure to drop sufficiently that the computers can be cooled with CO2 & nitrogen snow than trying to keep the pressure up. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 14:06
  • $\begingroup$ We clearly interpreted the "alarming rate the room is venting" differently. I thought that the leak would take minutes, during which they'll need to decide how to fix the situation. If all the air is gone in seconds, they are pretty much screwed. In any case, they might be better off wearing suits, and attempting a maintenance trip to the computer room, at least sealing off the leak. Also, turning computers off (or as low a load as possible) might be a wise move until the cooling is guaranteed. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 23, 2016 at 7:12