fark this guy and everyone with their party balloons, were running out of helium and we need it for MRIs and other important things.

Felix should be easy to spot now.

I don't get why this is such a big deal. didn't someone already jump from the stratosphere like 40 years ago?

ManRay: He said he thought about aborting because of his visor fogging up. How would he abort? Did he have a bb gun to shot a hole in the balloon or something?

For that matter, what happens to the capsule once he jumped?

The capsule was remotely separated from the balloon after he jumped, and came down on its own parachute. If something had gone wrong before he jumped, he would have come down with the capsule.

/saw the whole thing yesterday
//thought he was a dead man when he was tumbling
///Baumgartner has balls of adamantium

Know who else was Austrian?

While it is neat to watch, I really never understood the awe everyone is showing this guy.

He didn't design any of the equipment. Hell, if NASA pulled up to my house right now with a space suit and told me that in a nearby parking lot they had a balloon getting filled up with helium and they needed someone to jump out of their capsule at 130k feet, I would totally do it. All Baumgartner did was sit there watching a readout and talking to people on the ground. When he was told to, he open the door and jumped out. No different than any other skydive except the outfit and length of freefall. A failure is really no different a result between falling 125k feet or 2k feet.

BeesNuts: Kittinger: I gotta jump out of this thing, my suit is leaking and my hand has swollen up to roughly twice it's normal size.

/true story.

{{citation needed}} search engines won't give no love.

stuffer: fark this guy and everyone with their party balloons, were running out of helium and we need it for MRIs and other important things.

All the more reason to get cracking on nuclear fusion. Then we will have all the party balloons and MRIs we could want.

Pathman: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

wow - i did not remember that from physics at all
i was assuming the mach numbers were constants - obviously that's not the case.

theremoreyouknow.jpg

You didn't learn anything. Almost nothing in h2oincfs's post was accurate. Mach 1 is 768mph at sea level and it slowly drops as elevation increases up to 10k meters. I think it is around 610mph at that elevation. As you go higher the speed of sound starts going up, getting back up to 740mph at 50k meters. Felix jumped at under 40k meters. The speed of sound is impacted by both temperature and pressure. And no, it is not quite a vacuum at 30-40k meters - pretty darn close though. It would kill you pretty quickly.

madgonad: While it is neat to watch, I really never understood the awe everyone is showing this guy.

He didn't design any of the equipment. Hell, if NASA pulled up to my house right now with a space suit and told me that in a nearby parking lot they had a balloon getting filled up with helium and they needed someone to jump out of their capsule at 130k feet, I would totally do it. All Baumgartner did was sit there watching a readout and talking to people on the ground. When he was told to, he open the door and jumped out. No different than any other skydive except the outfit and length of freefall. A failure is really no different a result between falling 125k feet or 2k feet.

Recovering from a rapid tumble at 100k feet with a fogged helmet and nearly no atmosphere to use for drag is a pretty spectacular feat.

Flab: Matrix Flavored Wasabi: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

1) There was air. He was in the middle of the stratosphere.

2) The speed of sound at STP is around 760 mph IIRC. He hit 834.

761 mph to be exact.

My fluid dynamics classes are long behind me, but I seem to remember that the speed of sound also changes with air pressure, therefore going 834mph at 100,000 ft may still not be over mach 1. I'd have to dig through class notes (or Google) to be sure.

Speed of sound at 120k ft is actually lower. 710 mph. he easily exceeded it.

stuffer: fark this guy and everyone with their party balloons, were running out of helium and we need it for MRIs and other important things.

Actually we are not running out of helium, the problem is we don't have enough plants up and running to process the helium we need.

Like a lot of stuff it is cheaper in some regards to process not in the US and what happens is we lost the capacity we once had.

PsyLord: madgonad: While it is neat to watch, I really never understood the awe everyone is showing this guy.

He didn't design any of the equipment. Hell, if NASA pulled up to my house right now with a space suit and told me that in a nearby parking lot they had a balloon getting filled up with helium and they needed someone to jump out of their capsule at 130k feet, I would totally do it. All Baumgartner did was sit there watching a readout and talking to people on the ground. When he was told to, he open the door and jumped out. No different than any other skydive except the outfit and length of freefall. A failure is really no different a result between falling 125k feet or 2k feet.

You can probably make the same argument with John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. All they did was strap him into a capsule and rocket him to space. He was there pretty much for the ride.

that's why they used monkeys and dogs first.

This just in: Balloons can't rise above the atmosphere. Unless they're filled with something that weighs significantly less than the vacuum of space, which would be quite the advancement. I think we'd have heard about that one.

THX 1138: Know who else was Austrian?

Toy_Cop: I don't get why this is such a big deal. didn't someone already jump from the stratosphere like 40 years ago?

Joseph Kittinger jumped from 102,800 feet (31km) in 1960. Baumgartner just did it from 128,100 ft (39km).

Kittinger was actually CapCom for Baumgartners attempt.

PsyLord: madgonad: While it is neat to watch, I really never understood the awe everyone is showing this guy.

He didn't design any of the equipment. Hell, if NASA pulled up to my house right now with a space suit and told me that in a nearby parking lot they had a balloon getting filled up with helium and they needed someone to jump out of their capsule at 130k feet, I would totally do it. All Baumgartner did was sit there watching a readout and talking to people on the ground. When he was told to, he open the door and jumped out. No different than any other skydive except the outfit and length of freefall. A failure is really no different a result between falling 125k feet or 2k feet.

You can probably make the same argument with John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. All they did was strap him into a capsule and rocket him to space. He was there pretty much for the ride.

Not quite. Astronauts did do quite a bit of control work, but I guess they didn't have to early on since chimps and dogs were their predecessors. I think my point was that there was almost no experience necessary for the jump. Nothing to adjust. Just sit and wait for the order to jump. Not really that different from the jumps I've done. I'm not even sure if he pulled his own chute - it was probably automatic too. I would even suggest that Felix getting into a spin was caused by trying to go as fast as possible (face first) versus Kittenger who went back-first in a seated position. I would have gone flat, face down, for the view - I wouldn't have pointed down and risked a tumble.

Belias: This just in: Balloons can't rise above the atmosphere. Unless they're filled with something that weighs significantly less than the vacuum of space, which would be quite the advancement. I think we'd have heard about that one.

but when the atmosphere runs out you're in space and there isn't gravity in space so you aren't really floating because of the balloon anymore, but becasue you were already moving that direction you keep going up because of the conservation of momentum. that's science!

... sort of.

madgonad: Pathman: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

wow - i did not remember that from physics at all
i was assuming the mach numbers were constants - obviously that's not the case.

theremoreyouknow.jpg

You didn't learn anything. Almost nothing in h2oincfs's post was accurate. Mach 1 is 768mph at sea level and it slowly drops as elevation increases up to 10k meters. I think it is around 610mph at that elevation. As you go higher the speed of sound starts going up, getting back up to 740mph at 50k meters. Felix jumped at under 40k meters. The speed of sound is impacted by both temperature and pressure. And no, it is not quite a vacuum at 30-40k meters - pretty darn close though. It would kill you pretty quickly.

I just don't even know what to believe anymore

Fark Rye For Many Whores: BeesNuts: Kittinger: I gotta jump out of this thing, my suit is leaking and my hand has swollen up to roughly twice it's normal size.

/true story.

{{citation needed}} search engines won't give no love.

On August 16, 1960, he made the final jump, from the Excelsior III, at 102,800 feet (31,300 m).[2] Towing a small drogue parachute for initial stabilization, he fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 miles per hour (988 km/h)[4][5] before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled to twice its normal size.[6][7] Ignoring the pain, he rode the balloon up to 102,800 feet and said a short prayer - "Lord, take care of me now" - before stepping off

you asked...

TehBoognish: wikipedia

Ah, I tried it like a real quote that's my problem. Thanks.

Hyppy: Recovering from a rapid tumble at 100k feet with a fogged helmet and nearly no atmosphere to use for drag is a pretty spectacular feat.

He caused that himself - going headfirst, which is the least stable position. He should have just stepped and dropped like Kittenger instead of jumping head-first like a Red Bull marketing loon. It really didn't matter. Once more air got involved Felix slowed down and stabilized. I would even say that his efforts for a faster descent caused the early tumble which robbed him of the stable experience of falling at that speed and altitude.

madgonad: No different than any other skydive except the outfit and length of freefall. A failure is really no different a result between falling 125k feet or 2k feet.

Not exactly. As mentioned in one of the post-jump interviews, the bulkiness of the suit prevents "feeling the wind." He had to use intuition (and probably had more than a bit of luck) to pull out of that multi-axis spin. It's not something that just any jumper with some practice and the right gear would have survived.

(Also, we now have some more firsthand experience at how wearing a pressure suit that thick interacts with the jumper's ability to control. SCIENCE).

GBB: Next up: BASE jumping off the ISS.

/the S stands for satellite, right?

Would that require a booster pack to enter the gravity well? Because that might would be tye awesome thing anyone has ever done outside of rescuing an entire orphanage of blind kids AND their seeing eye puppies.

Oh, and nice headline subs.

madgonad: Hyppy: Recovering from a rapid tumble at 100k feet with a fogged helmet and nearly no atmosphere to use for drag is a pretty spectacular feat.

He caused that himself - going headfirst, which is the least stable position. He should have just stepped and dropped like Kittenger instead of jumping head-first like a Red Bull marketing loon. It really didn't matter. Once more air got involved Felix slowed down and stabilized. I would even say that his efforts for a faster descent caused the early tumble which robbed him of the stable experience of falling at that speed and altitude.

Most of the reason for the jump was scientific research, including what happens when a person breaks the sound barrier during reentry. Sure, he could have towed a drogue like Kittinger too, but that would defeat the entire purpose.

versus Kittenger who went back-first in a seated position.

Really?

Honest Bender: What's the BFD? He fell. A long way. Big whoop.

Seriously. MY fall would have been MUCH more dramatic, what with the little girl screams and pee showers.


They should never have put that girls school so close to the landing zone, and let me drink all that Red Bull.

unlikely: I think I watched a different feed than everyone else. In the one I watched he kept freezing up and looking like he was on the edge of curling up and asking for a teddy and the kindly old man on the radio kept having to coax him to move. Did anyone else watch that one?

Maybe he panicked. From the New York Times article:

""It was harder than I expected," said Mr. Baumgartner, a 43-year-old former Austrian paratrooper. "Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble. It's not about breaking records any more. It's not about getting scientific data. It's all about coming home.""

"Although he had no trouble jumping off buildings and bridges, and soaring across the English Channel in a carbon-fiber wing, he found himself suffering panic attacks when forced to spend hours inside the pressurized suit and helmet. At one point in 2010, rather than take an endurance test in it, he went to an airport and fled the United States. With the help of a sports psychologist and other specialists, he learned techniques for dealing with the claustrophobia."

"One of the techniques Mr. Baumgartner developed was to stay busy throughout the ascent. He conversed steadily with Mr. Kittinger, a former fighter pilot whose deep voice exuded the right stuff as he confidently went through a 40-item checklist rehearsing every move that Mr. Baumgartner would make when it came time to leave the capsule."

roughridersfan: versus Kittenger who went back-first in a seated position.

Really?

[upload.wikimedia.org image 220x279]


Yes, actually. That photo was taken just prior to rotating to back first seated position which is the most stable because of the body's aerodynamics.

some info...

Kittinger was wearing a regular pressure suit with "winter coveralls" for protection. That is nuts. It must've been pretty damn uncomfortable and fairly unsafe. It's no wonder it took another 50 years before anyone tried it again.

topcon: Funny, I didn't even realize, having watched that yesterday live, the guy talking on the ground was Kittinger.



Yahhh, dat vas me

madgonad: Hyppy: Recovering from a rapid tumble at 100k feet with a fogged helmet and nearly no atmosphere to use for drag is a pretty spectacular feat.

He caused that himself - going headfirst, which is the least stable position. He should have just stepped and dropped like Kittenger instead of jumping head-first like a Red Bull marketing loon. It really didn't matter. Once more air got involved Felix slowed down and stabilized. I would even say that his efforts for a faster descent caused the early tumble which robbed him of the stable experience of falling at that speed and altitude.

You're clearly unfamiliar with a lot of details on this jump. First, Felix did in fact assist with the design of a lot of the equipment he used, particularly the jump rigs.

Second, the headfirst (delta position) jump was planned. It's a very stable position, and the only one in which he could've released the drogue chute safely. It'd be very risky to deploy the drogue on his back.

TheDirtyNacho: roughridersfan: versus Kittenger who went back-first in a seated position.

Really?

[upload.wikimedia.org image 220x279]


Yes, actually. That photo was taken just prior to rotating to back first seated position which is the most stable because of the body's aerodynamics.

some info...

Kittinger was wearing a regular pressure suit with "winter coveralls" for protection. That is nuts. It must've been pretty damn uncomfortable and fairly unsafe. It's no wonder it took another 50 years before anyone tried it again.

Thank you for that information. Nice to learn a little more about it.

After stepping off "the highest step in the world," he fell on his right side for about eight seconds, then rolled over on his back to watch the silvery balloon against a black sky. 

That would have been a view that changed a bit quickly.

carterjw: Flab: Matrix Flavored Wasabi: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

1) There was air. He was in the middle of the stratosphere.

2) The speed of sound at STP is around 760 mph IIRC. He hit 834.

761 mph to be exact.

My fluid dynamics classes are long behind me, but I seem to remember that the speed of sound also changes with air pressure, therefore going 834mph at 100,000 ft may still not be over mach 1. I'd have to dig through class notes (or Google) to be sure.

Speed of sound at 120k ft is actually lower. 710 mph. he easily exceeded it.

Children, children! I wrote the headline because it fitted the flow of the lyrics.... I knew there was air, but I just did not care. Was ignorant of Mach 1; and now know I was wrong. Fresh Prince was the goal, facts in part, but not whole. So please S-T-F-U, Langston - all kudos to

/subby

Hyppy: madgonad: Hyppy: Recovering from a rapid tumble at 100k feet with a fogged helmet and nearly no atmosphere to use for drag is a pretty spectacular feat.

He caused that himself - going headfirst, which is the least stable position. He should have just stepped and dropped like Kittenger instead of jumping head-first like a Red Bull marketing loon. It really didn't matter. Once more air got involved Felix slowed down and stabilized. I would even say that his efforts for a faster descent caused the early tumble which robbed him of the stable experience of falling at that speed and altitude.

Most of the reason for the jump was scientific research, including what happens when a person breaks the sound barrier during reentry. Sure, he could have towed a drogue like Kittinger too, but that would defeat the entire purpose.


The suit is the really impressive part. Pressurized space suits have been normally very bulky and difficult to maneuver in when fully pressurized. Felix's suit from David C. Clark is a big step forward in creating a trim, easy to manuever suit. This has all kinds of applications in future space exploration, and also high altitude bailouts.

The space shuttle, for example, had a bailout option but only around 30k feet. Above that at the pressure suits they wore during ascent/descent were not maneuverable enough to exit the craft, nor rated for high speed skydiving. Those suits were really only to allow them to fly the space shuttle back to earth with a loss of cabin pressure.

You do realize that you could push your mom off that billion dollar capsule, while wearing a billion dollar suit and she would live, right?

I like how the article says he had to use all his vast experience to stop tumbling, lmfao.

Lick it up kiddies, slurp up whatever offal the corporations have served up for you today.

PsyLord: GBB: Next up: BASE jumping off the ISS.

/the S stands for satellite, right?

Wouldn't you just burn up during re-entry?

If you fell strait down from ISS altitude?
You'd probably hit mach 3 and oven hot temperatures for five minutes. I could see a suit designed to survive that.

Problem is the ISS is moving at somewhere around 25k miles per hour.
So if you jumped from the stations orbit and decelerated for reentry, you'd impact the atmosphere at shuttle speeds and sit in blast furnace temperatures for ten to fifteen minutes.

It would take one hell of a suit design to even stand a chance.

way south: PsyLord: GBB: Next up: BASE jumping off the ISS.

/the S stands for satellite, right?

Wouldn't you just burn up during re-entry?

If you fell strait down from ISS altitude?
You'd probably hit mach 3 and oven hot temperatures for five minutes. I could see a suit designed to survive that.

Problem is the ISS is moving at somewhere around 25k miles per hour.
So if you jumped from the stations orbit and decelerated for reentry, you'd impact the atmosphere at shuttle speeds and sit in blast furnace temperatures for ten to fifteen minutes.

It would take one hell of a suit design to even stand a chance.


We're a long way from orbital skydiving. You'd need some fast acting retro rockets to slow down enough to not burn up. Not sure about the g-forces involved in that though.

way south: PsyLord: GBB: Next up: BASE jumping off the ISS.

/the S stands for satellite, right?

Wouldn't you just burn up during re-entry?

If you fell strait down from ISS altitude?
You'd probably hit mach 3 and oven hot temperatures for five minutes. I could see a suit designed to survive that.

Problem is the ISS is moving at somewhere around 25k miles per hour.
So if you jumped from the stations orbit and decelerated for reentry, you'd impact the atmosphere at shuttle speeds and sit in blast furnace temperatures for ten to fifteen minutes.

It would take one hell of a suit design to even stand a chance.

What such a suit might look like:

Captain_Ballbeard: You do realize that you could push your mom off that billion dollar capsule, while wearing a billion dollar suit and she would live, right?

I like how the article says he had to use all his vast experience to stop tumbling, lmfao.

Lick it up kiddies, slurp up whatever offal the corporations have served up for you today.

She'd be alive right until the time she loses consciousness and dies from the centripetal force of tumbling. She may be lucky enough that the CYPRES may save her depending on her position when the reserve deploys.

Have you ever seen an AFF Level 1 skydiving jump? There's a reason why it takes 2 instructors to hold on to the student. They're generally not experienced enough to prevent tumbling. And that's at under 20k feet.

Matrix Flavored Wasabi: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

1) There was air. He was in the middle of the stratosphere.

2) The speed of sound at STP is around 760 mph IIRC. He hit 834.

STP doesn't matter. There are major, discrete flow changes at the local Mach number.

meta1hed: Matrix Flavored Wasabi: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

1) There was air. He was in the middle of the stratosphere.

2) The speed of sound at STP is around 760 mph IIRC. He hit 834.

STP doesn't matter. There are major, discrete flow changes at the local Mach number.

You know what...sound travels slower with an increase in altitude, so it's possible that his Mach number was HIGHER that if it were calculated at sea-level.

meta1hed: meta1hed: Matrix Flavored Wasabi: h2oincfs: If there's no air, then there's no sound, and hence, it is not Mach 1.

1) There was air. He was in the middle of the stratosphere.

2) The speed of sound at STP is around 760 mph IIRC. He hit 834.

STP doesn't matter. There are major, discrete flow changes at the local Mach number.

You know what...sound travels slower with an increase in altitude, so it's possible that his Mach number was HIGHER that if it were calculated at sea-level.

Yeah, denser medium = higher sound barrier, so STP is the highest theoretical speed of sound and he broke that by quite a bit.

It takes more than just breaking the sound barrier to make this more than a "15 minutes of fame" story:

#1 Kittinger already did it 52 years ago.

#2 Other developments in space exploration have kinda eclipsed this sort of thing.

/bye, Felix