Comment Some info 'bout HALO (Score 1) 282
As a skydiver let me make a couple points:
* the fastest you could get near the earth, regardless of how high you jump FROM, is a terminal velocity somewhat over 200mph. Big boys pencilled-out in a head down (looks just like it sounds) can break 200 but not skinny dudes like me. Of course you could always dress in a lead cone for more speed...
* no way the guy would make a crater. whoever said that must have been looking at the speed at 35,000m or something, and just did some quick (wrong) math. he /would/ end up like a fat skeeter on the windshield glass tho.
* there's no way you could survive hitting water at 120mph. it's similar to hitting concrete once you are going that fast. just ask my friends who dropped a watermelon from a helicopter over a lake... that sucker exploded like dan akroyd's experimental melon in Caddyshack 2.
* you want to be slowed to a terminal of ~120mph by the time your parachute opens... yes, some lines a.k.a. "ropes" would probably break if you opened at mach 1.something. opening at that speed might also rip your legs from your torso.
* this guy may have one or several "drogue" parachutes, or small chutes that would help to slow his rate of descent at various points. the "Tandem" jumps commonly done by first-timers have a drogue since with 2 people (and the same surface area) they would otherwise fall too fast to open the parachute safely (190-200mph is too fast). now, from space a drogue might help keep you from incinerating (since he would essentially be a meteor otherwise).
That is pretty high... i would like to make a HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump like the military (and rich folks) can do, from 30k feet or so with oxygen. But i'll settle for 14k feet which you all should try
(and now your shameless off-topic plug for skydiving...) come to skydiveorange (dot com) if you're in VA, that's where i jump
* the fastest you could get near the earth, regardless of how high you jump FROM, is a terminal velocity somewhat over 200mph. Big boys pencilled-out in a head down (looks just like it sounds) can break 200 but not skinny dudes like me. Of course you could always dress in a lead cone for more speed...
* no way the guy would make a crater. whoever said that must have been looking at the speed at 35,000m or something, and just did some quick (wrong) math. he
* there's no way you could survive hitting water at 120mph. it's similar to hitting concrete once you are going that fast. just ask my friends who dropped a watermelon from a helicopter over a lake... that sucker exploded like dan akroyd's experimental melon in Caddyshack 2.
* you want to be slowed to a terminal of ~120mph by the time your parachute opens... yes, some lines a.k.a. "ropes" would probably break if you opened at mach 1.something. opening at that speed might also rip your legs from your torso.
* this guy may have one or several "drogue" parachutes, or small chutes that would help to slow his rate of descent at various points. the "Tandem" jumps commonly done by first-timers have a drogue since with 2 people (and the same surface area) they would otherwise fall too fast to open the parachute safely (190-200mph is too fast). now, from space a drogue might help keep you from incinerating (since he would essentially be a meteor otherwise).
That is pretty high... i would like to make a HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump like the military (and rich folks) can do, from 30k feet or so with oxygen. But i'll settle for 14k feet which you all should try
(and now your shameless off-topic plug for skydiving...) come to skydiveorange (dot com) if you're in VA, that's where i jump
