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More on High-Altitude Balloonists
An anonymous reader writes "The Guardian reports on an attempt at the record for the highest balloon flight. 'A bag of helium the size of the Empire State building to challenge Nasa record.'" We had an article about them a few months ago.
Worth noting that the ballon is so large that once airborne it will be visible over a radius of some 600 miles. Its being launched on the south coats of cornwall so most of England, Ireland and Wales and Northern France will be able to see it.
I bet the bastards launch at night though....
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
The real high-altitude balloon record-holder, surprisingly, was not mentioned in this article.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
other than the fact that they are going to be moving at 1000 ft/s, and the fact that they are going to be exposed to temperatures WELL below what any human should desire, nevermind their strange choice to rely heavily on accurate weather reports, why would you think this is crazy?
At about 44,000ft, you need to be wearing a pressure suit, because if not the blood will start to heat and actually boil.
It's my understanding that the blood wouldn't actually heat, it would boil because of the lack of pressure. Am I wrong?
No, but if you knew anything at all about chemistry or physics, you'd realize that as the pressure decreases, a liquid can boil even if the temperature stays the same.
That being said, I don't think the water in your blood will actually vaporize at that altitude. However, nitrogen will start to come out of solution and form bubbles in your bloodstream.
The technique is called
rockoon
and is often used for altitude records.
However, its utility for getting into orbit is somewhat less, as all a rockoon gets you is above some of the air resistance - to get to orbit requires speed, not just alititude.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Bear in mind that their skin and all those other solid bits actually does contribute a bit to maintaining the pressure of e.g. their blood.
This has been borne out by experiments with primates and a few decompression accidents with humans.
Yes, decompression would still kill them, but mostly just as a consequence of asphyxiation (albeit accompanied by very painful swelling). They certainly won't explode.
While they still might look a bit grotesque, there needn't be any worries about having to crack the suits and ladle the corpses into buckets afterwards or anything like that.
DNA just wants to be free...
"However, by diving or "standing up" in free fall, any experienced skydiver can learn to reach speeds of over 160-180MPH. Speeds of over 200MPH require significant practice to achieve. The record free fall speed, done without any special equipment, is 321MPH. Obviously, it is desirable to slow back down to 110MPH before parachute opening."
- http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml
How did he get enough speed to break the sound barrier? He would have needed a jet to speed his descent or something like that.
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The website for the attempt is at QinetiQ 1
Its worthwhile noting that they will launch from the back of a trimaran warship research vessel, and will be observed from the highest flying powered, tethered UAV ever.
So it will demonstrate a whole slew of new technologies, real Slashdot stuff.