HALO Suit... or 'Don't look down!'

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HeX

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Ride a rocket into space and then abandon ship? You’d need to be nuts—or desperate. Either way, space diving could be the future of reentry
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Scenario 1: Sport
Sixty miles up, you sit in a chair on the open deck of a small rocket, admiring the stars above, the Earth far, far below. The vacuum beyond your visor is cold, but it would boil your blood if your pressure suit failed. You give your parachute straps a reassuring pat. It’s utterly silent. Just you and your fragile body, hovering alone above the Earth. “Space Diver One, you are go,” crackles a voice in your ear, and you undo your harness and stand up. There’s nothing for it now: You paid a lot of money for this.

You breathe deeply and leap, somersaulting into the void. The mother planet is gorgeous from up here. You barely perceive that it’s rushing up toward you, and your body relaxes. You streak into the atmosphere at 2,500 miles an hour, faster than anyone’s ever gone without a vehicle. The sky lightens, the stars disappear behind the blue, and a violent buffeting begins. You deploy your drogue chute for stability; an uncontrolled spin in this thin air would rip you apart. The thick lower atmosphere slows you to 120 mph—terminal velocity. After a thrilling seven-minute plummet, you pull your main chute at 3,000 feet, hands shaking, and glide in for landing. A mile away, your rocket retro-thrusts its way gently to the ground.
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Scenario 2: Safety
Sixty miles up, you float easily in the cabin of a small rocket, admiring the stars above, the Earth far, far below. Suddenly, alarms sound. Space debris has pierced the ship, and it begins to break apart. In seconds, the air is gone. It’s utterly silent. Pain gathers in your face. Your tongue and eyes seem to be boiling. The captain rushes over and flips down your visor, and you feel better. Then he screams “Go!” over the radio, and pushes you toward the door. There’s nothing for it now: You don’t want to die.

You close your eyes and leap, tumbling into the abyss. The curved horizon spins wildly. You let out a scream of terror as it rushes up toward you, and then you black out. Minutes later, a sudden jerk wakes you. This must be death, you think—your flesh meeting Earth at horrible speeds. But it’s the tug of your chute deploying at 3,000 feet. You realize you’re going to be all right. You glide in, touch down, and collapse in convulsions, traumatized. Through your tears you see your friends nearby, similarly undone but alive. You spot smoke on the horizon where, a mile away, your ship returned to the ground in an angry hail of twisted metal.
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Together, the two plan to demonstrate a record-breaking 120,000-foot jump by 2009, and the truly unprecedented 60-mile space dive within two years—an audacious timetable. If all goes well, they’ll reach even higher. “Our ultimate goal,” Tumlinson says, “is to have individual human beings return from orbit alive.” That’s a drop from 150 miles—or more—involving increased heat and near-deadly Gs, essentially turning their divers into human meteorites.

Even that’s survivable, says NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Robert Manning, who designs reentry systems for unmanned craft. Given the right protection—including thermal protection, oxygen, an aerodynamic heat shield and a control system—Manning says, a human being could, theoretically, fall to Earth from any height and survive. The question is whether Tumlinson and Clark can turn theory into fact, and whether anybody would be crazy enough to give their thrill ride a try.
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Full 5-page story and details here:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/3c082d2daa463110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html



Mad stuff the future holds! :eek:
 
That would be great if they could pull this off, which I'm sure they can. Not only to help space tourism and revenue for space. But for any astronauts caught out there with a damaged ship. they could safely return to earth and wait for sa rescue mission for the ship it self. With all the correct parts.
 
Hmm, Scenario 2 seemed to rely on the fact that the astonaut was sitting there with the suit on just in case.

As it would not work for an EVA that one seems a bit implausible.

There would not be enough time in a catastrophic failure to get that lot on
 
One question that comes to mind, if they think they can make a suit that looks that sleek (and lets be honest - pretty cool), then how come standard astronauts suits are still the old bulky ones worn by the Saturn5 pioneers?

I didn't read the link so maybe they're talking about 50 years into the future :p its just always puzzled me why we don't have 2001-Space Odyssee style suits.
 
how amazing would that be...... the questionis if that person went through a re-entry would they not be knocked out due to the shuttle holding you in place and probably takin the brunt of the force would it not just shake u to a pulp just a random q tht is :S ?
 
knowlesy said:
how amazing would that be...... the questionis if that person went through a re-entry would they not be knocked out due to the shuttle holding you in place and probably takin the brunt of the force would it not just shake u to a pulp just a random q tht is :S ?
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Very little atmosphere up there, so nothing to hit against. The only risk is if you start spinning. With no air to slow the spin. You would soon turn to mush. That's why they have the jets on the wrist.

As for the suits, *** HALO doesn't have air tanks. It just scrubs out the co2. So you will have limited oxygen. Probably cost, suits look big and bulky due to the insulation.
 
chimaera said:
One question that comes to mind, if they think they can make a suit that looks that sleek (and lets be honest - pretty cool), then how come standard astronauts suits are still the old bulky ones worn by the Saturn5 pioneers?

I didn't read the link so maybe they're talking about 50 years into the future :p its just always puzzled me why we don't have 2001-Space Odyssee style suits.
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Basically it probably comes down to the fact that the space suits used in missions are Goverment funded.

Whereas these new suits are commercial...


Same reason we're still using the Space shuttle designed 30 years ago, and not some sleak new ship. Anything built on a Government budget takes forever and goes over budget.

Commercial R&D works in a different way usually.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
How far away from earth do you have to go before you just float away, rather than come back down to earth?
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I guess that depends on how fast you're orbiting speed is. :confused:
 
Mr_T said:
Imagine that there would be a massive heat build up during re-entry, wonder how they would deal with that.
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Use of heat resistant materials, ceramics I would have thought. Then the liquid cooling system.
 
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