Slashdot Mirror
Skydiving from 25 Miles Up
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.
I don't think his ears will be in the area which could experience the sonic boom. The sonic boom is actually a cone-shaped are where the sound becomes concentrated (because you are moving faster than it).
I am more interested in how much his suit would heat up if his chute doesn't open due to air resistance and decreasing terminal velocity.`
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
"it does make you wonder why something like this has not been undertaken by any government agency."
y di vin.shtml
/. injects a space in that URL.
This has been done. I'm not sure why we forget. In 1960, Joe Kittenger jumped from ~20 miles, breaking the sound barrier. See:
http://www.dropzone.com/news/SpaceParachutingSk
A.
ps: I'm sorry that
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
http://www2.tsixroads.com/Corinth_MLSANDY/jk004
including an amazing shot of him taken from the gondola from which he jumped:
http://www2.tsixroads.com/Corinth_MLSANDY/corin
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
65 million years ago, the dinosaurs disappeared mysteriously from the earth, supposedly caused by an impact from a meteor or piece of comet.
A.D.2002: A retired French army colonel makes his skydive from 25 miles up. As he approaches mach 1.68, a bright flash is seen, and he vanishes. For years, the mystery of what happened to him remains unsolved.
A.D.2042: It is discovered that at the moment the retired colonel reached mach 1.68, he caused a rift in the space-time continuum and travelled 65 million years back in time and slammed into the earth at 1200MPH, creator a crator and wiping out dinosaur life.
"So I look at something like this and go how will this advance mankind. The only answer is that it will not. This is like trying to balloon around the world. I think subjuects like this have no0 relevence on slashdot. He could take the money that he is squandering on this and give it to doctors without borders and actually do some good in this world. Isn't it time that postmodernism died."
You know what the moral difference is between robbing someone on the street at gunpoint, and using your government representatives to do it for you?
None.
What you state is VERY contrary to the spirit of freedom and individual liberty. What someone does with his own time and money is no business of yours at all.
How about your own life? That money you spent on that new RAM upgrade could have gone to help AIDS victims. That money you blew on beer and pr0n magazines could have gone to help the homeless.
See what I mean? This is, in essence, what socialism is: A central comitte decides what is done with money, property, and individuals, NOT the individuals.
I don't think that is what you are advocating, at least, I hope not...
If not for the individual freedom the USA is supposed to stand for, and the incredible spirit of adventure and creativity this spawns, the world wouldn't have had:
Charles Lindburgh
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Who both did things that were thought to be nutty at the time.
There is a reason why most great inventions of the past 150 years have happened in America. One word: Freedom.
Freedom to do with what is yours, and what gifts you have, as you will.
Corporatism != Free Market
few on land.