Austrian Skydiver to attempt 23 mile freefall

[BlackLantern]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4343980.html

A high-altitude balloon made of polyethylene fabric, the thickness of a dry-cleaning bag and filled with helium, will lift a capsule containing Baumgartner to near the top of the stratosphere. With a volume of 29 million cubic feet, it will span 600 feet across at altitude and stretch 600 feet tall. According to Kittinger, “We used a balloon 50 years ago because it was the most practical way to get up there, and it still is.”

Baumgartner will be a wearing a full-pressure suit, similar to that worn by shuttle astronauts, but it’s been configured so that he can rotate the hip and arm sockets for greater mobility. He can manually deploy a supersonic drogue parachute to help him avoid spinning wildly, and at about 5000 feet, after 5 minutes and 35 seconds of freefall, he’ll deploy his main parachute.

When Baumgartner first steps out of the capsule he will be accelerating at 32 feet per second, from subsonic through transonic to supersonic speed; at that point he’ll be traveling at Mach 1, or about 700 mph. (The average skydiver falls at a terminal velocity of about 120 mph.) How a human body will react to that experience is one of the mission’s great unknowns. "Of course I have fear," Baumgartner acknowledges. "But I can use fear to my own advantage; it helps you focus."

About 35 seconds into his fall, Baumgartner will break the sound barrier and pass through a shock wave—which typically creates a sonic boom. At that point, for a fraction of a second, one part of his body will be going faster than the speed of sound while the rest of his body could be traveling slower. Based on an incident in 1966, in which a test pilot survived the break up of an aircraft traveling at Mach 3, “We know it is possible [to live through it],” Thompson says. But that fall occurred from a lower altitude, 78,000 feet. “In this realm of the flight envelope,” he says, “we don’t know with certainty he can transit the sound barrier unencumbered.”

Lack of air pressure and temperatures as low as minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit also pose risks. Baumgartner will breathe oxygen for two hours prior to his flight, so that nitrogen doesn’t bubble in his blood stream under low pressure. Because his pressure suit will be filled with 100 percent oxygen, the engineers have to limit the amount of physiological data, such as heart rate, they collect; any power supply inside the suit can be a source of ignition.

“The reason [the record] hasn’t been broken before is because it’s not easy to do,” Kittinger says. “A couple people tried; a couple people died. It takes the right equipment, the right team and a little bit of luck.”

 

[Paroxysm]

I have a feeling he's going to die....

 

[BlackLantern]

I think he can do it, he might be deaf or really sick for a couple days after but I think its possible

 

[Moridin]

A high-altitude balloon
top of the stratosphere.
600 feet tall.
full-pressure suit
shuttle astronauts
supersonic drogue parachute
deploy
subsonic
transonic
focus
flight envelope
unencumbered
oxygen
Baumgartner

Thems are some very fancy words you got there. http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0603/060203cletus.jpg


Yeah, I don't think this will end well for Mr. Baumgartner

 

[Alex The Great]

One thing is for sure, He's got balls

 

[BlackLantern]

and they will be very fast balls when jump day comes

 

[Morg]

Soon to be the first to make a hole in the ground....

 

[terry78]

This is how you say dumbass in Austrailian.

 

[Alex The Great]

Soon to be the first to make a hole in the ground....

"Hole in the ground, Hole on the ground, what'cha gonna do with a hole in the ground?"

 

[BlackLantern]

jeeszus people...whatever happened to that spirit of curiousity and sense of adventure??

 

[Ahura Mazda]

I wish him the best of luck and it is quite amzing what this guy is endeavoring to do.