fastest speed reached by man?

Man of Honour
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11 Mar 2004
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Just been watching days that shook the world, this one was about the first supersonic flight.
It just got me thinking what's the highest speed that someone has traveled at.
I assume it's on the shuttle or another rocket. Any one know who it was which rocket and what speed they reached.

Found the fastest women
Highest Speed Reached By A Woman
Kathryn Sullivan (USA) achieved a women�s record speed of 28,582 km./h. (17,761 m.p.h.) on April 29, 1990, at the start of re-entry at the end of the STS-31 Discovery shuttle mission.
Which i just over mach 23 :eek:

Who can beat my lacking google skills.
 
It makes you appreciate the speed of light
The record for the fastest spacecraft of all is held by the twin Helios probes that were placed in orbit around the Sun. Both these vehicles reached top speeds of around 150,000 mph (250,000 km/h) at closest approach to the Sun in their highly elliptical orbits, Helios 2 being marginally the swifter.
What's that about 1.4% speed of light.
 
that + imagine the g forces you'd put on something accelerating it to escape velocity in such a small distance, would turn most people to jelly, and wreck equipment i think.

people yes but not sure about equipment. I would imagine it be a relative cheap way to launch large masses into space.
 
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rofl how the hell did they get that so wrong.
To put it another way, whats the fastest speed a human could survive?
speed of light, as long as the acceleration isn't to hard.
 
would the just be crushed under the pressure if the acceleration was to fast? :eek:

yep.
Vertical axis g-force

Aircraft, in particular, exert g-force along the axis aligned with the spine. This causes significant variation in blood pressure along the length of the subject's body, which limits the maximum g-forces that can be tolerated.

In aircraft, g-forces are often towards the feet, which forces blood away from the head; this causes problems with the eyes and brain in particular. As g-forces increase brownout/greyout can occur, where the vision loses hue. If g-force is increased further tunnel vision will appear, and then at still higher g, loss of vision, while consciousness is maintained. This is termed "blacking out". Beyond this point loss of consciousness will occur, sometimes known as "g-loc" ("loc" stands for "loss of consciousness"). While tolerance varies, a typical person can handle about 5 g (49m/s²) before g-loc'ing, but through the combination of special g-suits and efforts to strain muscles—both of which act to force blood back into the brain—modern pilots can typically handle 9 g (88 m/s²) sustained (for a period of time) or more (see High-G training).

Resistance to "negative" or upward gees, which drive blood to the head, is much lower. This limit is typically in the −2 to −3 g (−20 m/s² to −30 m/s²) range. The subject's vision turns red, referred to as a red out. This is probably because capillaries in the eyes swell or burst under the increased blood pressure.

Humans can survive up to about 20 to 35 g instantaneously (for a very short period of time). Any exposure to around 100 g or more, even if momentary, is likely to be lethal, although the record is 179 g.[2] It has also been said that the height of a person can be shortened if high g-force is sustained for a continuos amount of time.
 
Ok, scenario, travelling at the speed of light, we increase our speed by 1mph, what would happen?

You can't according to our understanding of physics.
The faster you go the more mass you have. As you approach the speed of light your mass is infinite. So to increase the speed of the mass you would need unlimited power.
 
Ok thanks i understand now, star wars/trek lies :(

Proposed spacecraft methods that may violate the laws of physics


In addition, a variety of hypothetical propulsion techniques have been considered that would require entirely new principles of physics to realize and that may not actually be possible. To date, such methods are highly speculative and include:

* Diametric drive
* Pitch drive
* Bias drive
* Disjunction drive
* Alcubierre drive (a form of Warp drive)
* Differential sail
* Wormholes - theoretically possible, but impossible in practice with current technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_propulsion
It's about two thirds of the way down. Can click on each one to read more
 
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