Largest Balloon Ever

bitpusherdotorg writes "The UK's Colin Prescot and Andy Elson are in the midst of preparations for their upcoming attempt at setting a new world balloon altitude record in July. The pilots will make their ascent in the largest helium balloon ever constructed, on an open flight deck (!) with nothing but a pair of tailor made Russian spacesuits to keep them breathing. Why pay 20 million for a shuttle when you can just balloon it?"

Comments

Re:parachute

[Mt._Honkey]

Actually, that's not as easy as you make it sound. In order to survive such a jump, you first need a drogue chute that keeps you from spinning wildly out of control, and then a multi-stage main chute that opens a little bit at a time. This is because you would be going super-sonic at that altitude, and the shock of going into the lower atmosphere with a fully deployed parachute would snap you and the chute like so much fish. The guy who did the 102,000 ft. jump barely made it, if I remember it correctly. Didn't he have a problem with the drogue?