Anybody watching the idiot jump out from space?

[John L]

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Why is he an idiot?



Imagine being able to bail of low orbit spacecraft during emergencies.

I'm thinking the very same thing Tait. What makes people think he is an idiot?

Hey, he isn't getting the Govmint to pay for any of it, is he? And he is doing it on his own, right? Seems to be a pretty smart move to me.

As I said over at my forum, the only thing missing is that of a surf board so as to do some tricks on the way down. Now that would really be a hoot.


As for the sound barrier, he broke it only because there was almost no atmosphere to add friction and slow him down.

He started out tumbling, and everyone seemed to be worried, but what for. Again he tumbled because of no atmospheric resistance. As a skydiver the second thing I was taught, first being how to land safely, was that assuming the 'frog' position would always, Always, get you in a stable posture. And that is exactly what occurred with him, as shown in the video later.

And he popped out at 7500 ft, a bit high for me. By then he had slowed down to the point where he was no faster than any other skydiver, so the canopy opened like a charm. Nothing unusual, other than the possible blood contamination one.

He did a wonderful job, and absolutely none of it on the Taxpayer's dime. Try to get the Bamster to do something like that.


Someone made the comment that we all now know it is possible for someone in space to safely enter the atmosphere without dying, and be able to land safely after escaping a space craft. But that makes no logical sense

If a person is just drifting in from outer space, then perhaps so, because he/she would not be traveling all that fast. But if escaping from a vehicle/station in orbit, not a chance. If an object is in orbit, it has to be traveling at a high speed in order to defeat gravity, and keep up the centrifugal force. That means any escaping person would almost be traveling at that very fast speed. When they reenter the atmosphere the atmosphere would create such friction that the person would burn up from the heat, unless he/she had a special suit to dump all that heat.

Our intrepid jumber was just floating at 24 miles high before jumping, and thus escaped all that terrible friction. So many people know so little about science it is staggering.

[LKTraz]

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It was stated during the broadcast that some of the data gathered would be used by NASA toward researching high altitude bailouts. I realize that it could only be possible from a very limited set of circumstances and most certainly not from re-entry speed which from low earth orbit starts out at over 17,000 MPH and that speed is scrubbed off by atmospheric friction and compression.

I believe that the high altitude escape model they are looking at would be during the launch phase prior to escaping the atmosphere. For this scenario to work one would have to cut all thrust and at the right moment exit the craft just as it reaches the limits of its upward momentum but before the craft builds any speed in descent.

That leaves a very small window of opportunity.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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That's what I said in a much less educamated way.

[Flamethrower]

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New launch protocols would need to be developed for high altitude bailouts to be viable. It's not a bad idea per se but I agree that it would only be useful in a limited set of circumstances.

But hey, any potential safety measures really can't be considered a bad thing or not worth looking into.

[John L]

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All this is going to be mute once the first space elevator finally gets set up. Everything between low orbit, on up to geo-stationary orbit will have to be removed, for safety reasons. Anything lower than the space station in geo orbit will be moving faster and subject to collide with the cable. So eventually there will not be any permanent/semi-permanent fixtures in orbit.

Jumping out will only pertain to any damage to the cable, or the car moving up/down the cable and the people occupying it.

[LKTraz]

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The elevator idea is a long way from becoming a practical reality. Practical being the operative term here.

[John L]

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The elevator idea is a long way from becoming a practical reality. Practical being the operative term here.

Not necessarily. The very minute it becomes possible to mass produce carbon nanotubes, the race will be on. Within five years after this occurs, there will be at least one space elevator up, and others on the way.

You really need to bone up on how versatile carbon nanotubes are, how strong carbon is, and how much better it is over steel, to appreciate how carbon is going to be the element of choice for use in outer space, and also on this planet.

Whoever patents the process for mass producing this product is going to become the richest person on the planet, and soon to be the solar system.

And speaking of 'carbon sinks'.

[LKTraz]

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I saw a Discovery Channel program that dealt with the very subject of carbon nanotubes and it did address the space elevator.

The concept is not new to me. I'm simply saying that much will need to be done even after the technology is fully viable before the project would become practical.