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Austrian Skydiver Prepared to Leap From Edge of Space
Cutting_Crew writes "Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt a supersonic free fall on October 8th as the worlds highest skydive. According to the Christian Science Monitor 'The current record for world's highest skydive stands at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). It was set in 1960 by U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger, who serves as an adviser for Baumgartner's mission. If Baumgartner succeeds on Oct. 8, he will break not only that mark but also the sound barrier, becoming the first skydiver ever to fall at supersonic speeds, Red Bull Stratos officials said. During the July 25 jump, Baumgartner's top freefall speed was 537 mph (864 kph) — about as fast as a commercial airliner.' Let's hope that the weather on the 8th is as good as they hope for. It would be awesome to have a real time camera feed from his helmet."
That's one record that's sure to fall!
Be relentless!
"Stupid is as stupid does."
I see a bright future for this man.
- I stole your sig.
Not sure I'd want to be that close to one. But maybe it'll be behind him. Or maybe he'll explode. We'll see.
Let's hope that the weather on the 8th is as good as they hope for...
I just hope that if he gets too hot during re-entry he can unzip his suit!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
are we EVER going to see video of ANY of his attempts? Does anyone have any links to ANY of his free falls? I know Red Bull wants to market the sh%t out of this but at least give us some spoilers.
If this attempt is successful Austria will reveal the other part of their space program:
a vertical tunnel down the Grossglockner mountain with a bottle of propane at the bottom.
You went to the Christian Science Monitor to get the information on the current altitude record? You're going to get your statistics from the people who think dinosaurs and humans coexisted? Good luck with that.
I don't think you know what Christian Science is.
Undo mod
"A mind reader? That sounds like sci fi." "Honey, we live on a space ship"
One of my favorite music videos, Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy, starts out with footage from Kittinger's 1960 jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrBZeWjGjl8
Good luck with that, Red Bull haven't released any of the footage for the warm up jumps other than a few teasers, let alone streaming/televising a dangerous stunt (for want of a better word) live.
If anything went wrong their corporate image would take a big knock so I assume they'll wait until they know it's a success before announcing it and then they'll probably see how they can best 'monetize' the footage.
The CSM has only financial links to Christian Science, and generally has better science journalism than the mainstream media. That isn't a particularly high bar to clear, but don't let the name put you off.
I hope so.
Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
0xDEADBEEF
> "It would be awesome to have a real time camera feed from his helmet."
Hopefully out of respect to his family the news channels will edit out the last minute.
I think bigger issues than breaking the record, are the capabilities of the human body
1) How will the human body cope with the insane pressure and temperature buildups at his head (assuming here he's going to go head first) 2) I'm assuming he'll have a regulated air supply of some kind, but how will this be affected by 1 3) etc
captcha: ascender
Actually the stresses would be roughly the same as the one back in the 60's. The real stress isn't in the upper stratosphere it's as the atmosphere thickens so going further out wouldn't add to the stresses. Terminal velocity still applies so he will max out before he hits maximum stress. Really the limiting factor is the Van Allen Belt. Odds are the suit he's using wouldn't be enough and he'd cook but it starts at a 1,000 kilometers so he won't even be close to it.
What's sad is at the end of the story:
God, we really built an entitlement society. People now think that a concept farts out of their brain, that it must be a) unique and b) theirs for all eternity. Now it seems the old adage of "Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration" should be changed to "Genius: one percent inspiration. Sue the suckers who put in the 99 percent perspiration."
I don't think you know what Christian Science is.
Sounds like an oxymoron to me.
C'mon, who could possibly say this isn't cool? As far as I can tell it is 100% useless (somebody please tell me how this will further science) but damn, given the opportunity, who wouldn't?
In future news, Felix Baumgartner dead at age 43.
The edge is 100km.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line
Nobody told Baumgartner about the Secret Nazi Space Shark lab still in low orbit over Germany near the Austrian border.
I am obliged to say, as a devout atheist and sometime christian-bater, that CSM actually has pretty good science journalism. They're nothing to do with scientologists, if that's what you were thinking of
If he jumps out over Australia, won't he be going the wrong way?
Have gnu, will travel.
It would be a cool way to commit suicide, I'll give you that.
The ISS is 230 miles up and you'd fall most of the way in vacuum, gaining 2.6kJ/kg of kinetic energy - meaning you'd be going around mach 7 when you hit the atmosphere With a good enough wing suit you *might* be able to spend enough time decelerating in the far upper atmosphere to avoid incinerating on reentry.
But to actually jump from the ISS you *start out* moving at 17,000mph(mach 22) - to reach the Earth you'd have to jump hard enough to neutralize enough of that velocity so that your new orbit intersected the atmosphere, but 200 miles is a fairly minor adjustment to a 4000-mile orbit, you might only need to shed a mach number or so, which you'd get back with interest as you fell. At that kind of speed you need to go to pretty extreme lengths to slow down - either a seriously large sturdy wing that can keep you in the far upper atmosphere shedding speed for a long time, or a serious heat shield. And I think either of those probably disqualify it from being considered a base jump.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Well probably not. I reckon you'd probably lose a lot of altitude before you could get any air under your wings. You'd have a fuck-ton of air speed to play with once you did, though! Maybe you could make the jump across the Bering Strait or the English Channel. I think it'd suck to try to work a wingsuit around a bulky-ass spacesuit, but it would be a pretty cool jump! And I won't sue you if you steal my idea!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The speed he will be falling at will be higher than what would result to "supersonic" speed at ground level. However, with the thin atmosphere being so thin high up, he will not actually reach the speed of sound.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
This may be flame bait, but i'm pretty sure Newton was one of the most fanatical (I'm pretty sure today he would be regarded as a Christian Fundie) scientists in the world. And yet, his advancements are extremely important to our modern understanding of the earth. Just because some people may have ulterior motives for pushing a particular theory doesn't mean all contributions they make to science are instantly invalidated.
Sounds to me like you're staying away from religion for religious reasons ;).
They'll probably release 10 seconds of it and the rest you have to pay $$$ for the DVD. The fact that they're making a big thing out of it but giving away nothing I suspect means they'll find people giving them the finger when they actually try and sell any footage.
Newton didn't peddle his science as part of his religion. A rather important difference.
Kittinger is an actual hero. He should be celebrated up there with the pioneers of flight from the Wright brothers to the Astronauts in American history books, indeed world wide. He didn't just do it first. He did it first and he repeated multiple jumps. He suffered discomfort and injury. And he volunteered.
His service after those jumps was just as hero worthy, hell, his life after retiring from the military, with the first solo Atlantic crossing and other records places him in the books, yet again.
He's one of the last true aviation pioneers, if you ever get a chance to meet him in person, have him sign his own autobiography, it is an interesting read to say the least.
Newton didn't peddle his science as part of his religion. A rather important difference.
Actually, quite the opposite it true. Much of his writings center around the notion that a monotheistic God is the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. --plagiarizer from the Wikipedia on Newton's views of religion.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
Perhaps he gave up religion for Lent?
-
In defense of the energy drink company... most of the stunts they sponsor were from people who were going to do the stunt anyhow. They are just providing some cash to get it going in return for sticking their logo on it.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
... and if he fails, he'll break every bone in his body.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Yup. Newton was, for example, quite clear on his belief that the only thing keeping every thing in the cosmos from eventually glomming together due to gravity was God occassionally making an adjustment. He was also quite taken with alchemy.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
....Red Bull does give you wings
Christian Science is like Grape Nuts. It ain't Science and they ain't nuts.
Oh, yeah! Wise guy, huh? Woob woob woob woob! Nyuk! Nyuk!
Nah, it's 88.3 Mz!
Free Martian Whores!
amen to that
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