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Skydiver Leaps From 18 Miles Up In 'Space Jump' Practice
wooferhound writes "A daredevil leapt from a balloon more than 18 miles above the Earth today, moving one step closer to a so-called 'space jump' that would set the record for the world's highest skydive. Austrian adventurer Felix Baumgartner stepped out of his custom-built capsule at an altitude of 96,640 feet (29,456 meters) above southeastern New Mexico, officials with Red Bull Stratos — the name of Baumgartner's mission — announced today. In today's jump, Baumgartner experienced freefall for three minutes and 48 seconds, reaching a top speed of 536 mph (863 kph), project officials said. Baumgartner then opened his parachute and glided to Earth safely about 10 minutes and 30 seconds after stepping into the void."
That's one small step for a man, One giant leap for me.
Makes me wish I'd been alive to watch live coverage of people LANDING ON THE FREAKING MOON.
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
From the article:
Red Bull Stratos is a mission to the edge of space to an altitude of 37.000 meters to break several records including the sound of speed in freefall
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
While these things are somewhat debatable, Baumgartner's future "space jump" is not due to take place in what most consider "space."
FTFA:
Baumgartner has his eyes on an even bigger leap, a "space jump" from 125,000 feet (38,100 m) in the next month or so. (Space, however, is generally considered to begin at an altitude of 62 miles, or 327,000 feet.)
It's still a great feat and laudable they went ahead with it despite ridiculous legal challenges:
Baumgartner and his team had hoped to attempt his record jump in 2010, but they were delayed by a legal challenge that claimed the idea of the dive was earlier suggested to Red Bull by California promoter Daniel Hogan.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
I sincerely hope they get Boards of Canada to provide the theme song for the actual space jump.
-gz612
Was he wearing the Google Glasses and will the replay be on YouTube later?
Did he also attain distinction of being fastest non-propelled human?
Air resistance up to typical skydiving altitude provides sufficient drag to keep the person from accelerating to the point where deceleration would result in so much friction as to vaporize the person. If this guy's really dead-set on jumping from the actual threshold of space...
1. He'll need thermal insulation until he's in the earth atmosphere properly. I hear it's pretty cold up there.
2. I think it's safe to assume he has the oxygen problem licked, because at 12 miles, he'd have suffocated.
3. I understand objects falling from that altitude tend to encounter very little air resistance, which means they pick up a lot of speed. The kind of speed that causes brilliant fireballs to appear in place of anything falling from that height, like asteroids, satellites, and space shuttles.
... I don't see how anyone could survive those kinds of physical stresses while maintaining any level of mobility, or having a silhouette even vaguely resembling a person. The low mass of a person (even one encased in inches-thick ceramic heat shielding, would mean the bow wave shocks would turn anyone inside into goo. Perhaps someone with a better understanding of physics clear up for me why this isn't the case, since I'm pretty sure Red Bull doesn't want their energy drink to be associated with what in my eyes is essentially suicide by thermodynamics?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The secret of flying is to throw oneself at the ground - and miss.
Upon landing Mr. Baumgartner simply requested a cigar and fresh undies.
According to the article, this jump is still over 6000 feet short of the record of 102,800 feet (31,333 m), which was set in 1960. It seems almost unbelievable that the record has stood for over fifty years.
If you could run this as a business operation, I wonder how much you could charge people for "space jumps"?
Committees from both the Darwin Awards and Guinness will be on hand for the final jump. The Guinness people are hoping for multiple awards at the jump. Highest jump, longest free fall, highest velocity in free fall, longest scream in free fall, highest speed a human ever impacted the ground and greatest distance human remains were spread after impact.
Did he also attain distinction of being fastest non-propelled human?
No, I'm pretty sure that record was set by the Apollo 10 re-entry, at close to 40,000 km/h (almost 25,000 mph).
He's not even the fastest skydiver - that record has held for 52 years now - Joseph Kittinger did a free fall in 1960 that lasted 21% longer and reached a top speed 15% faster than what Baumgartner just did.
Freefall strictly speaking means 9.8m/s/s which, after 228 seconds, multiplies out to 5000mph. That's an order of magnitude more than Baumgartner's speed. Wikipedia explains:
"The example of a falling skydiver who has not yet deployed a parachute is not considered free fall from a physics perspective, since they experience a drag force which equals their weight once they have achieved terminal velocity (see below). However, the term "free fall skydiving" is commonly used to describe this case in everyday speech, and in the skydiving community."
Still, terminal velocity for a human at sea level is about 120mph which is 4.5 times slower than the quoted 536mph. Taking the square root gives an atmospheric pressure 2.1 times less than normal which translates to him popping the 'chute at about 25,000. Actually he had a pressure suit which would probably slow him down so it could have been higher than that.
You cannot convect heat directly into a vacuum, so where there is no (or very little) atmosphere you don't actually feel cold (nor do you lose much heat) no matter how cold that thin atmosphere actually is.
You DO still lose heat, through radiation, but that process is quite slow so he won't even notice it during his short exposure.
Who is to say that he didn't just make it up?
I dont get the point on this since if you've ever seen the documovie the right stuff, you'd know the united states sent an air force pilot well here:
On August 16, 1960, as research for a then-fledgling U.S. space program, Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger rode his Excelsior III helium balloon to the edge of space, 102,800 feet above the earth -- a feat in itself. Then, wearing just a thin pressure suit and breathing supplemental oxygen, he leaned over the cramped confines of his gondola and jumped -- into the 110-degree-below-zero near-vacuum of space. Within seconds his body accelerated to over 600 mph in the thin air, approaching the sound barrier. After free-falling for more than four and a half minutes, slowed finally by friction from the heavier air below, he felt his parachute open at 14,000 feet, and he coasted gently down to the New Mexico desert floor.
Since it's a balloon jump, he'll be starting with zero velocity. He'll only get the acceleration due to gravity starting from zero, and that will be mitigated by air resistance. De-orbiting vehicles slam into the upper atmosphere with much more velocity. Natural meteors are moving even faster. That's why they burn up, and conversely it's why SpaceShipOne didn't require a particularly clever heat shield (although I'm sure it was somewhat of a factor). If SpaceShipOne can reach the top of a parabolic arc in space and come down without burning up, dropping from a balloon at less than half the altitude shouldn't be too much of a problem.
On Aug. 16, 1960, US military Col. Kittinger stepped from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet to test the use of a parachute for escape from a space capsule or high-altitude aircraft. In free-fall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 614 mph and temperatures as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit, Col. Kittinger opened his parachute at 18,000 feet.
The jump set records that still stand today: the highest ascent in a balloon, the highest parachute jump, the longest free-fall, and the fastest speed by a man through the atmosphere.
Video of the story
On Aug. 16, 1960, US military Col. Kittinger stepped from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet to test the use of a parachute for escape from a space capsule or high-altitude aircraft. In free-fall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 614 mph and temperatures as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit, Col. Kittinger opened his parachute at 18,000 feet.
The jump set records that still stand today: the highest ascent in a balloon, the highest parachute jump, the longest free-fall, and the fastest speed by a man through the atmosphere.
Video of the story
witold.org
above you is the one. That one's named Crypto Gnome.
From wikipedia on Kittinger, it sounds like this wasn't even the highest jump. So what "record" did he set?
quoting: " Kittinger's record-setting leap from over 102,800 feet "
Aliens, nothing! Here, read this before They brainwash you with more disinformation!
The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
The Apollo 10 astronauts were in a capsule, not skydiving, but that hadn't happened when Kittinger set the record in 1960. Even Yuri Gagarin's flight wasn't until 1961, and the U-2 planes only went up to about 70,000 feet.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No, I'm pretty sure that record was set by the Apollo 10 re-entry, at close to 40,000 km/h (almost 25,000 mph).
He's not even the fastest skydiver - that record has held for 52 years now - Joseph Kittinger did a free fall in 1960 that lasted 21% longer and reached a top speed 15% faster than what Baumgartner just did.
Kittinger is part of Felix's team as an adviser. Their goal is to actually break Mach 1, which Kittinger nearly did.
Breedlove set world land speed records of 500 and 600 mph, and one of his cars got up to about 675 before crashing.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
... no one can hear the enormous "Whoooooooooooooooooooooosh" that just flew over your head.
when he takes the plunge. Command Gold or Science Blue is safer.
You could charge them lots of money, but the real question is, would it be a sustainable business possibility. If you need to charge them more that they'd be willing to pay just to cover your costs, you wouldn't be able to make money on it.
-- Captain Obvious
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Go so high that when you jump you miss the earth.
Terms and conditions apply:
Darwin awards can only be awarded to those who can prove they have no living children.
Maximum of one award per applicant.
Recipient must collect award personally and show proof of identity.
Free fall for more than 3 minutes, and reaching a speed of over 800 kilometers per hour that way must be an awesome experience!
I'm wondering one thing though: If you open a parachute while going down at that speed, how does that work? It must be a rather strong parachute. How fast do you decelerate?
Astronauts returning home from ISS could just jump, all that's needed is a parachute.
That don't impress me. Try surfin' in from space on a piece of space junk!
Has anyone noticed that they launched from Roswell, NM? I suppose a couple of people might have looked up and pointed "hey, that's no weather balloon"...
Just give him a gun, and he's ready to fight some aliens.
10 minutes is fast. Did he have to wait extra time to decompress? Or was his suit at ground level pressure from before launch from the ground?
Humans will always find new an innovating ways to die. Looking forward to the pending "Destroyed in Seconds" episode on Discovery Channel.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
... who said this while reporting on the first landing of space shuttle Columbia.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I'm the original author of this little piece of satire, and it amazes me that it still continues to pop up regularly after more than a decade.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
He lives vicariously through himself.
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
it seems to me that this jump represented almost identical risks without the reward of breaking the record or the sound barrier. Why not just go the extra 13,000 feet and have the record for all your trouble and risk?
Nullius in verba
How do they dispose it safely?
If they want to reach speed of sound, then they are not only darevils. They are idiots too. You don't have to go that high to calculate when his terminal velocity breaks speed of sound. Even 100k feet jump was 50mph (~10%) short of sound speed.
Hey, where's the GoPro video?? :)
"A daredevil leapt from a balloon more than 18 miles above the Earth today"
That would make me shit my pants.
I believe this has already been done, in 1960.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=MRxaxNG2XoY