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Space Diving: Iron Man Meets Star Trek Suit In Development
cylonlover writes "Science fiction may well become reality with the development of a real life Iron Man suit that would allow astronauts or extreme thrill seekers to space dive from up to 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth's surface at the very edge of space, and safely land using thruster boots instead of a parachute. Hi-tech inventors over at Solar System Express (Sol-X) and biotech designers Juxtopia LLC (JLLC) are collaborating on this project with a goal of releasing a production model of such a suit by 2016. The project will use a commercial space suit to which will be added augmented reality (AR) goggles, jet packs, power gloves and movement gyros."
...to which will be added augmented reality (AR) goggles, jet packs, power gloves and movement gyros.
I'd love the power gloves– they're so bad.
I understand their efforts to relate it to the Iron Man and Star Trek suits, and while this may contribute to the development thereof, it's not quite there yet...and I think it's nuts, but would be fun if the freefall works.
I'm waiting for nanotube muscle fibers that, with EEG, operate as a part of the body. From there, armor and flight capabilities.
Re just in case nobody want to read this they actually did a bit of research
From the article..
So where have we seen this before? If you are a Trekker, you will remember the scenes from 2009's Star Trek (The Future Begins) where James T. Kirk, Hikaru Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson performed a space dive to the Narada's drill platform. They jumped from a shuttle craft above planet Vulcan wearing high tech suits and used parachutes to land on the rig. “Super” Trekkers will also know about the space dive scene cut from the 1998 Star Trek Generations movie and the holodeck simulated "orbital skydiving" in Star Trek Voyager (Episode 5x03), also in 1998.
So more than just a headline reference to suck in the readers.
Drunkeness is an electron free version of virtual reality.
"Space dive"? Not from orbital velocity, you're not. Is this another sub-orbital thrill ride masquerading as sci-fi level "space travel" for uncritical mental midgets? All I see so far is crappy generic CGI, which makes this about as reliable as the sales brochure for an unbuilt condo.
Vaporware is exactly what this is. The red bull team spent years designing and prepping for their suit, and it was a one off. These guys are going to have a suit production ready by 2016? Hogwash.
Seems like vaporware to me, it seems to take every precaution they can think to survive the trip but no mention of the actual energy required to make a safe landing form that altitude. Jet boots need fuel and no parachute is mentioned.
I don't see how this could possibly end badly.
References with the wrong dates, too.
As for what counts as Space Diving, I didn't think further development of what Baumgartner would get the 'gee-whiz' treatment. It's certainly dangerous and likely wonderfully exciting, but I was expecting them to start talking about the prospects of orbital dives, about trying to fashion suits to withstands thousands of degrees (of any heat measure) for entering at orbital velocities. Especially when they're mentioning having thrusters and gyroscopes on the suit.
Why does the design include boot thrusters for landing? What is unacceptable about parachutes?
Pure Amish country, we have a lot of fresh baloney here, try a free sample! But not as much baloney as this absurd slashvertisement blogosphere link doohickey!
If the astronaut moved her/his leg the wrong way, it could be melted off by the jets. Then what will (s)he do?
So, what happens if one or both legs fail? By the time it is needed to power the boosters, a parachute would probably already have been deployed for a safe landing. If not, then whats the benefit. What are the backup measures in place?
You're hurtling to your demise at past the speed of sound in atmospheric conditions that would literally make your blood boil. How much more extra sense of realism and stimulation do you need at that point?
I love the power glove. It's so bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya0F83Bmbl4
If you can have a parachute, why not include a parachute? I'd consider retroboosters as the backup system, not the primary, for safety. By the time you're close enough to the ground to fire them, the parachute is no longer an option, so if they fail, you get about 3 seconds to contemplate your own stupidity before cratering.
A company that can provide two layers of life-saving security and yet only manufactures one should be charged with manslaughter, but instead we're allowing it because it caters to thrillseekers? Where was this kind of logic during the anti-smoking campaigns of yesteryear? "Smoking is okay; it's a thrill-seeking behavior!" Yeah.... okay, sure.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
How'd you solve the icing problem?
Why do they want to do this again?
buuuuullshit
Does it come in 3XL or bigger?
Did anyone else read the headline and assume it was going to have something to do with a lawsuit in the making?
Just remember to point your feet the right way when you land or you make quite a deep hole.
I'm not really a trekkie, but you know what, I am really enjoying the latest movies.
Also, Spock uses rocket boots to save Kirk from a free-climbing fall.
Felix Baumgartner adjusted his scarf and cleaned his horn rimmed glasses before mumbling something about space jumping before it got popular.
Re just in case nobody want to read this they actually did a bit of research
From the article.. So where have we seen this before? If you are a Trekker, you will remember the scenes from 2009's Star Trek (The Future Begins) where James T. Kirk, Hikaru Sulu and Chief Engineer Olson...
...also known as the Expendable One in the red suit...(I started laughing like crazy when I saw this the first time, for I knew if they kept to tradition, he was as good as dead.)
...did it before anyone knew how to do it and walk away after.
Just ask Pyotr Ivanovich Dolgov.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
In the early 1960's, General Electric was working on an emergency "bail-out" system for astronauts in low-earth orbit. http://www.astronautix.com/craft/moose.htm
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOSE
They're enjoyable movies, but in the beginning ST was definitively not fantasy set in the future, whereas the critic (of all new incarnations of ST ever, actually) is that it loses this quality.
Land using rocket boots. Nope. 90% death rate for that one. the Human body does NOT have the strength to handle controlling and vectoring thrust with the legs. Anyone trying this will simply die. And it's a very stupid idea. A parachute works great, I'd rather have that than a giant tank of rocket fuel on my back.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
... like the armor of Samus from Metroid.
Until Elon Musk starts a company to do this, I'll consider it basically suicide. When Elon Musk tells me it can be done and he puts together something that can do it, I'll sign up in a heartbeat.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Guess you better watch the movie again. It was over Vulcan not Earth.
"I see you are trying to start the thruster boots, would you like help with that?"
In NSA America social networks join you!
iirc Spock shot the one over earth with the future ship.the dive was over Vulcan.
I believe in karma, which is why, when I do something bad to people, I assume they deserve it.
n/t
Paul: Father... father, the sleeper has awakened! - Dune
Imagine that.
I never thought I'd see the day when I would be coming down on other people for liking Star Trek. That said, since this isn't Star Trek, I guess we're good.
riight.. I can't grasp the 62 mi. altitude limit ... Surely the enironment at that altitude is essentially the same as at 300 miles, no? I mean, if ya wanna thriLLL GO for it!
Oxygen, etc, should not be a problem .. nor can i think of any other safety issue more far-fetched than the project itself (other than the stupid 'boot thruster' idea!)
"There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
"safely land using thruster boots instead of a parachute" Completely incorrect. According to the article and video, the suit will use not one, but TWO parachutes. As for the boots, they are not really "Iron Man" type thrusters, but simply for ensuring a smoother parachute-assisted landing (and probably mainly to look cool): From the article: "The other main function of the diver’s gyroscopic boots will kick in as he nears the surface of the Earth and he fires off his miniature in-built aerospike thrusters to gently descend to the ground for a feet-first perfect landing. " This is AFTER both parachutes have deployed. It seems like window dressing to me.
A concept illustrated by Lee J. Ames from the 1959 book "Man’s Reach Into Space" by Roy A. Gallant. http://mfwright.com/spacebailout.html
mfwright@batnet.com
Early Star Trek was a documentary?
"Space dive" to me sounds like a process whereby one dives into space, not from out of it, but I'm probably being semantically pedantic.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
... commercial space suit ...
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Nanofibre? Sure, but I want to use them to create a hybrid organic / inorganic mental lattice. My current brain can then interact with the additional brain power and more and more power can be added. Hopefully by the time my organic cells are old and dying it will be a mere fraction of the total mind and be redundantly duplicated across the neural network from recalling the memories. Bodies? Where I'm going, I don't need bodies.
I'm all for the kind of mind extension you're talking about, but unfortunately once that organic "fraction" of your neural net dies so does your consciousness, or at least it (you) will no longer be in that neural net. All that will be left in that extended neural net are a bunch of abstract patterns and processes with no capability to experience reality or even care about it.
Trekkie fights aren't quite as much fun as girl fights because of the reduced chance that there will be exposed boobs and the increased chance that exposed boobs might be attached to a male.
Still entertaining though. I'll egg it on just a little... Did Scotty still invent trans-warp beaming, even though Spock Classic gave him the equation?
"Lame" - Galaxar
Old star trek does have some documentary qualities, with the captain's log being a comparable narrative style. The older Star Trek was far more cerebral than the recent two movies, but it's easier to fit cerebral into a lower budget-per-minute production. (And shorter movies need more action to get butts in the seats :p )
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
I never understood how the fuck Iron Man's jet boots are supposed to work. They're clearly rocket motors, but somehow powered by his arc reactor which afaik just produces a lot of electric power? Unless he's invented the most badass ion drive units ever it makes completely no sense.
When I think space-dive, I don't think of Star Trek or Iron Man at all... I reckon Kurt Hectic had this sewn up with his ribbon-chute equipped Coilsuit in MDK :p
I'm sorry, but as one of the "Super" Trekkers you speak of, I have to correct you: Generations came out in 1994, right after The Next Generation went off the air.