Forget sky diving, space divings where its at...

KaHn · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:23

Samtheman1k said:
That's what I was wondering. When you hit the atmosphere, you'd burn up! You can't even slow yourself down first because your parachute wouldn't work until you reach the atmostphere! Bit of a catch 22 really.

Did you actually read the article? A drogue chute would deploy controlling decent, that can be made out of ceramic composites for all we know. Also the heat generated by air friction will have to be controlled by the suit, ceramic plates/composites.

KaHn

KaHn · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:25

Gilly said:
You're not arguing with me you're arguing with his link. I was merely saying that his link told him the answer to his question.

Bit of a mistake sorry.

KaHn

DJMK4 · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:27

Someone done something similar to this before, it wasnt in space but it certainly was on the edge of space...

SaBBz · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:30

KaHn said:
Terminal velocity does not change with mass, it changed with air friction (2 objects same weight but different shapes), the force due to gravity acceleration is bigger on heavier objects tho, so will reach terminal velocity quicker.

Surely mass would effect it. Terminal velocity is the point at which the forces are equal, and there is a higher downwards force on an object with a greater mass so if the shape is the same it has a higher terminal velocity.

kaiowas · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:31

KaHn said:
What you posted doesn't make sense tho, you are correct in that the link is wrong in this case but what you posted was wrong also, i was correcting you and trying to explain the link a bit better.

KaHn

Except that you're wrong.

Terminal velocity is achieved when the force due to gravity is equal to the force due to friction. If you have 2 identical sized spheres one of higher mass than the other then the friction force at any given speed for each will be the same however the force due to gravity will be higher for the heavier object (F=mg) therefore the heavier object does have a higher terminal velocity.

If you were to drop both object together you would see that initially they would fall at the same rate however once the lighter object has reached it's terminal velocity the heavier object would continue to accelerate until it reaches it's own terminal velocity. It would then continue to fall at a higher speed than the lighter object.

Samtheman1k · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:32

KaHn said:
Did you actually read the article? A drogue chute would deploy controlling decent, that can be made out of ceramic composites for all we know. Also the heat generated by air friction will have to be controlled by the suit, ceramic plates/composites.

KaHn

Yes I did, but I gues your understanding of physics isn't that good. You would hit the atmosphere at 2500mph, only then would you begin to slow down, and you wouldn't slow down very fast as the atmostphere is thin. My concern was how can you have a suit that would be thin enough to enable movement, but heat resistant enough to protect you? Only way would be to make it effectively a capsule rather than a suit.

KaHn · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:34

Check my edit, i was thinking of a different experiment with no air friction, feather and bowling ball fall at exactally same speed ( over short distance), was just too quick and no thinking

KaHn

Samtheman1k · 27 Jun 2007 at 11:36

KaHn said:
Terminal velocity does not change with mass,

Err...yes it does...according to NASA anyway!

it is proportional to the sqrt of the weight...

EDIT: Damn, ninja edit

Psyk · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:03

n3crius said:
Always looked at footage of spacewalks and engineers/scientists in orbit and just imagined letting go, letting the earths gravity pull you back in.

That wouldn't happen though. When you're in orbit you are technically falling towards the earth, but you'd never actually reach the earth because you are moving sideways so fast. So if you let go on a space walk you would moving along with the shuttle.

"andy" · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:11

kittinger is a true hero

sure these guys wanting to attempt better today have balls of steel too but they have allot of technology and expierience that he didnt have on there side

cymatty · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:16

andy said:
kittinger is a true hero

You would have to be a nutter to do that. Impressed.

Azagoth · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:21

More insane fun! This guy was either incredibly brave or just didn't give a damn!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Stapp

I have a few documentarys downstairs about him, incredible fella to say the least!

KaHn · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:28

Psyk said:
That wouldn't happen though. When you're in orbit you are technically falling towards the earth, but you'd never actually reach the earth because you are moving sideways so fast. So if you let go on a space walk you would moving along with the shuttle.

Although true you would be on a decaying orbit (very slight friction in space due to dust iirc - think of sats which drop out of the sky from the 60's), if you pushed hard enough you may increase the rate of decent.

KaHn

norm · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:41

If you drop a feather and a hammer on the moon they both descend at the same rate.

"andy" · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:57

how ? the moon still has gravity

norm · 27 Jun 2007 at 19:36

"Because they were essentially in a vacuum, there was no air resistance and the feather fell at the same rate as the hammer, as Galileo had concluded hundreds of years before - all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass."

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_15_feather_drop.html

Relentless · 27 Jun 2007 at 19:48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gn2oLeC_U

The last shot on that video is madness.

This guy had some serious balls.

Droolinggimp · 27 Jun 2007 at 20:01

Looking at some of those videos of the insane jumps. What would the impact be like if the `chute failed to open? Would we see nothing but a red mist spread over a few thousand feet radius?

Speeds over 600mph like that was claimed to of been doing surely must make a real Hoooge spread on the pavement..

Azagoth · 27 Jun 2007 at 20:02

Imagine dropping a few power balls, the 70's toy not the Powerballs for arm strength here at OcUK, from there! :eek:

They're mental when dropped from Blackpool Tower, so from 20 miles up it would be immense fun I reckon.

Droolinggimp · 27 Jun 2007 at 20:05

Azagoth said:
Imagine dropping a few power balls, the 70's toy not the Powerballs for arm strength here at OcUK, from there! They're mental when dropped from Blackpool Tower, so from 20 miles up it would be immense fun I reckon.

You on about those real small balls that bounce 100million miles up if you drop them from 4ft.