You Might As Well Jump

March 15, 2010 7:22 PM

The supersonic jump of Felix Baumgartner. previously

Here's Felix jumping from the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio.

posted by Xurando (12 comments total)

Holy crap! Won't that break bones?
posted by figment of my conation at 7:41 PM on March 15, 2010

What attracted me to Red Bull was their methodological approach to safety and to providing scientific benefits.

I mean...
posted by nathancaswell at 7:57 PM on March 15, 2010

You Might As Well Jump

If you're Gnostic, it's more like he was jumpin' with the songsmith ami... no, oh

Meme failure. Press left mouse button to continue
Guru meditation #00000004.OICU812
posted by cog_nate at 8:06 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

What attracted me to Red Bull was their methodological approach to safety and to providing scientific benefits.

My eyebrow lofted at that, too, but it's hard to find a more unimpeachable spokesperson on this issue than Joe Kittinger.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:10 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is badass.* It occurs to me though that since the speed of sound "...for air (or any given gas) increases with gas temperature ..., but is nearly independent of pressure or density for a given gas.^" Felix might not have as much trouble when accelerating through mach 1 as he will decelerating from from mach 1 to subsonic speed because the air will be much more dense when he is rejoined by his shock wave. I think he needs to spend as little time as possible above mach 1.

*But I'm a little worried for Felix.
posted by vapidave at 8:39 PM on March 15, 2010

You know, I typically don't like features on things yet to happen. Let them happen, then tell me about it.

This is not one of those times. It would be so easy to take for granted (even this) in retrospect. Fails? Couldn't be done. Succeeds? Hard, but clearly not impossible. I like this being in the future, and I'm excited that it's the near future (but a little scared for the man). Wow.

Thanks for this.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:22 PM on March 15, 2010

wow, that statue of christ jump blew me away. it must have been awesome to do, not that i would be able to do it.

and when his chute opened and he just flew round, wow, what a feeling, what a view.
posted by marienbad at 9:39 PM on March 15, 2010

Within about half a minute, he figures, he would be going 690 miles per hour and become the first skydiver to break the speed of sound.

Hmm. Apparently the speed of sound gets lower and lower the higher up you are. At 60k feet it's only 659.8 mph, compared too 761.1 mph on the ground.
posted by delmoi at 9:46 PM on March 15, 2010

Joe Kittinger?! Wow! This is corporate money spent right. Who cares what took them so long to figure it out, what I want to know is which one of them is sponsoring the trip to Mars?
posted by humannaire at 9:50 PM on March 15, 2010

By the way, Monsanto could sponsor Stargate and they can still suck it.
posted by humannaire at 9:53 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Besides aiming at records, they’re doing physiological research and developing procedures for future astronauts to survive a loss of cabin pressure or an emergency bailout in the stratosphere.

WTF? Is it possible to bail out while the SRBs are still burning and not pass through the twin plumes of white-hot hypersonic death? But by the time the SRBs burn out in the upper stratosphere, you're already moving at 3,000 mph. And of course reentry is even less comfortable. How is this balloon jump comparable to any portion of an orbital mission?
posted by ryanrs at 11:33 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

WTF? Is it possible to bail out while the SRBs are still burning and not pass through the twin plumes of white-hot hypersonic death?

One thing is for sure about astronauts in the future - they won't be using the space shuttle anymore.

You're right though that at neat orbital velocities you face a much harder problem than a balloon jump.
posted by atrazine at 4:29 AM on March 16, 2010