23 mile skydive!

Freefaller

Freefaller

Freefaller

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Has anybody heard of Felix Baumgartner?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16908004

It's something that I would love to do (obviously had I had more training and still kept up my skydiving hobby).

I just can't imagine anything more exciting. Edge of space, seeing the curvature of the earth, and falling with no atmosphere around you... with the potential of breaking the sound barrier.

I've jumped out of hot air balloons, but that was only from about 4000ft, so whilst you do get that sense of serenity and quiet as you fall, you only fall for about 10-15 seconds or so.

Having minutes of freefall, hitting thicker atmosphere and seeing the world from space almost face to face and not within an aircraft - it's just something that I am in awe of. Cannot wait for the jump!
 
Wow, Joseph Kittinger's 19mile sky dive looked epic, this should be awsome :), plus with modern capture equipment the video should be a cracker

What an achievement this will be if he does it
 
DJMK4 said:
Wow, Joseph Kittinger's 19mile sky dive looked epic, this should be awsome :), plus with modern capture equipment the video should be a cracker

What an achievement this will be if he does it
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Exactly - the capture of Kittinger's fall was incredible - I can't wait to see the modern version.
 
Christ that article was a horrible read.

It was just full of short sentences split into paragraphs.

It read like a 13 year olds film review.

I think the BBC are going downhill.

This will be an awesome jump, hopefully with better cameras and things we'll get a better view of the jump. (as above)
 
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Remeber when this was first announced and thinking it was amazing, glad they got whatever problems they had sorted and it's back on.

Can't wait to see the video :cool:
 
I find the most interesting thing about the article is that 50 years of technological advances only allow him to go 5.5km higher than the old record. Obviously I understand that it's not a linear line for how complicated the jump gets the higher it is, but it makes it sound all the more impressive that they managed it from 31km high FIFTY years ago!
 
MoNkeE said:
I find the most interesting thing about the article is that 50 years of technological advances only allow him to go 5.5km higher than the old record. Obviously I understand that it's not a linear line for how complicated the jump gets the higher it is, but it makes it sound all the more impressive that they managed it from 31km high FIFTY years ago!
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Once you run out of atmosphere, balloons do nothing, iirc the last jump was above 99.9% of the earths atmosphere.
 
MoNkeE said:
I find the most interesting thing about the article is that 50 years of technological advances only allow him to go 5.5km higher than the old record. Obviously I understand that it's not a linear line for how complicated the jump gets the higher it is, but it makes it sound all the more impressive that they managed it from 31km high FIFTY years ago!
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I think it comes down to a limitation of how much you can put your body through aswel, given that technology HAS indeed advanced, there still maybe limitations on health issues from skydiving at that altitude that improvement in equipment may not be able to solve. As well as getting above the atmosphere and looking at other atmospheres.
 
Felix Baumgartner will jump from a balloon 36.5km up (23 miles/120,000ft), where any leak in his pressurised suit would cause his blood to vapourise.
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I swear this has been called out as false by loads of scientists?
 
godinman said:
Once you run out of atmosphere, balloons do nothing, iirc the last jump was above 99.9% of the earths atmosphere.
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I see what you're saying, but he's still jumping out of a balloon on this attempt. Unless they've had to do a lot of fettling to create a balloon resistent enough to the pressure up there to carry him up.

DJMK4 said:
I think it comes down to a limitation of how much you can put your body through aswel, given that technology HAS indeed advanced, there still maybe limitations on health issues from skydiving at that altitude that improvement in equipment may not be able to solve. As well as getting above the atmosphere and looking at other atmospheres.
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Again, that's all tech tho isn't it. He's still human, and he's still going up there, so the limitation can't be on his body; rather than on how to sustain him on his trip up, and much shorter trip back down. From a health perspective, I can't see a reason why Kittinger's jump could've have been from the same height.

This is why BBC reporting is crap, they don't go in to the detail! And yes godinman, that article does look like it's been written by a child :mad:
 
Freefaller, what sort of altitude do you think he would open up the shute at? I think the last one was something like 18,000, 19,000ft, was this a "safe" choice, or do you think you could get away with going further, say around 11,000ft?
 
DJMK4 said:
Freefaller, what sort of altitude do you think he would open up the shute at? I think the last one was something like 18,000, 19,000ft, was this a "safe" choice, or do you think you could get away with going further, say around 11,000ft?
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I reckon they would have to do it fairly high up where the atmosphere is thinner, otherwise the shock would probably be too much for him and the chute.
 
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