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Skydiving from 25 Miles Up

Posted by michael on from the life-flashing-before-your-eyes dept.

chisox writes "The Observer has a story about a retired French army colonel who is soon to make a free fall parachute jump from 25 miles up. In the process he will break the sound barrier, reaching a top speed of mach 1.68 before he opens his parachute 1,000 metres above the Earth. Of course, if the chute doesn't open, the hole he'll make will be about 1,000 metres deep." Well, actually his max speed will be high up and near the earth the atmosphere will have slowed him down to terminal velocity.

4 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Physics by drfrank · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, actually his max speed will be high up and near the earth the atmosphere will have slowed him down to terminal velocity.

    Well, actually he'll be at terminal velocity for nearly the entire time... Terminal velocity is dependant on the density of the atmosphere. You'd think that someone that posted a link to a page which defined "terminal velopcity" would have at least read the definition...

    1. Re:Physics by Alsee · · Score: 4, Interesting

      actually he'll be at terminal velocity for nearly the entire time

      Nope. At that altitude you are practically in a vacuum. He will accelerate for close to half the distance. You haven't hit terminal velosity untill you stop accelerating. That won't happen until his altitude gets down to around 70,000 to 90,000 feet where the atmosphere starts thickening up.

      After he does hit terminal velocity, the atmosphere will thiken rapidy. The local value (for that altitude) of terminal velocity will drop rapidly. The air resistance will exceed the force of gravity and he will start slowing down, bleeding off his inertia. He will actually be ABOVE the local terminal velocity during this process - pretty much the second half of his trip.

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  2. Re:parachute necessary? by DutchSter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I have always wondered if there were any examples (probably from war) of people bailing over the ocean with no/unopened parachute and surviving. Terminal velocity around sea level is like 120 mph, right? That's pretty fast, but I wonder if there's some chance of surviving an impact with water at that speed.
    Given that water is an incompressible liquid and you would be hitting at such a high rate of speed, you'd be better off landing in a dirt field at the same high speed. Just think about those belly-flops; they hurt from three feet up. The second you hit, the water doesn't move. It's only after the blow has rippled out that the water moves and you begin to sink.

    According to the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (http://www.worstcasescenarios.com) if you plan to jump from anything high you should be prepared to at least break your legs, and clench your buttocks as you go down so as to keep water from rushing in and um, causing severe "internal" damage. Jumping from over 50 feet is ill-advised as it will almost certainaly break something other than your legs (spine) unless you hit at exactly the right angle. At 120 MPH you may not be able to adjust yourself by the time you realize that you're going to enter at a slight angle thanks to that last second cross breeze.

    Interestingly though, according to the same book you can probably survive a 50 foot fall into a dumpster of boxes with few complications.
  3. Skydiving from 25 Miles Up by guru312 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well...He may get to hold the record for highest skydive but *I* hold the record for parachuting night pukes.

    No one has gotten sick jumping out of an airplane at night as many times as I have.

    I keep waiting for someone to try to break my record. They are all afraid to try!

    See it here: http://AICommand.com/PukeDuke.htm

    Guru312