Imagine freefalling from space

wouldn't work. The re-entry heat would melt you into plasma. Sufficient sheilding would be prohibitively bulky.

that's amazing. i wonder how many g's he sustained when he opened his chute. he wasn't really at the edge of space though, he was only about 20 miles up!

anyway, is this man still alive today?

I would like to meet this guy and see how he felt about falling from such high distances. Does anyone know where Kittinger, Jr. lives by any chance? As for free falling from space if there was enough sheilding I would do it most definatley. Hoping not to be melted into plasma though.

[edit on 8-7-2004 by Amxkool]

WOW, is that above the ozone layer? He must have gotten alot of danger pay for that one. I'd do it if I had cancer or was going to die.

Space Balls. Best movie ever made by far!

Breaking the sound barrier would be very interesting. I guess the biggest thing would to not stick your arms out because the would get torn off by the shock wave (much like early sound-barrier breaking planes). I wonder if their necks will be strong enough to sustain the load? And all of this is kind of hard to test without dropping a real person or a highly realistic dummy.... Helmet shape will be critical. And I imagine they will have several chutes that open in series

Originally posted by oddtodd
I believe he opened a chute in the shape of a funnel that slowed him down to begin with , and then as the atmosphere became thicker and slowed him furthur he was able to negotiate things at a reasonable speed .

thanks. i never even thought of anything like that. i was just thinking along the lines of when people jump from b-52s they experience enough g's to shrink them about 6 inches. of course, that's a lot more accelleration than this guy had undergone.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
that's amazing. i wonder how many g's he sustained when he opened his chute.

Not more than you would experience when jumping from seven kilometers.
Human's "maximum free fall speed" in atmosphere is limited.

Those speeds near Mach 1 must have been possible because air is thinner at 20 km. (and drag decreases speed gradually when atmosphere's density grows whe ncoming down)

I saw a docu on this on National Geographic channel a few years back about this.

The footage they had of the jumps and him in his incredible freefalls were amazing.

They went into the details of the suit worn by him too. Had to withstand those speeds he fell at and protect him from the incredible low temperatures he had to face.

This guy has balls, to say the least. One of those pioneers almost noone knows.

I saw a documentary on him, just a day or so ago.
I remember something about a glove, it had a small leak
But he was afraid to tell anyone, for fear it would cancel the jump.

He also remarked on the "thinness" of the air. Nothing flapping around on
the suit, no noise...At least for a while, then of course, WHAT A DRAG..

I've been reading up on the more recent attempts that have been continually delayed .

One of the major concerns is breking the sound barrier threshold (wich is much higher in a thinner atmosphere ) and also what will happen when the daredevil will encounter when passing thru different jet streams .

Jet streams move in seperate directions at high speeds , and I wonder if the transition could effectively "tear" a person apart .

This doed not sound like a good move IMO until something had been dropped to measure the " shear " forces that will be encountered .

I don't think high altitude bailouts are a reasonable safety precaution for disaster survival , but it would be cool to see a new record being set , and find out the effects on the body just in case .