One can't hear in the vacuum of space because sound doesn't travel through vacuum, it needs a medium. But astronauts don't prosper in a vacuum, either. They wear spacesuits or stay inside their spacecraft.
If they are wearing a spacesuit, it has a radio with speakers and a microphone. Those are inside the helmet, which contains air and thus a medium for sound. The radio signal is able to travel from one astronaut to another, through the vacuum of space because it isn't a sound wave. It is an electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves use space itself as their medium. They don't need air. If they couldn't travel through space, we'd have bigger problems - such as not being able to see the Sun from Earth (light is an electromagnetic wave).
If they are inside their spacecraft, it is pressurized (full of air) and sound travels throughout that pressurized volume just like it does in your house.
Read other answers by Robert Frost on Quora:
- What are the procedures when astronauts on the ISS are in danger from debris?
- What changes occur in an astronaut's body when they come back to Earth after a long mission from the ISS (International Space Station)?
- If an ISS astronaut was disengaged from the station during a spacewalk, would we be able to recover him?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2dqrziU
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