Going to the Edge of Space To Set a Skydiving Record - Wall Street Journal [fornadablog.blogspot.com]
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[fornadablog.blogspot.com], Going to the Edge of Space To Set a Skydiving Record - Wall Street Journal
By RUSSELL GOLD
An Austrian daredevil plans to break a 52-year-old record for the highest skydive on early Tuesday morning above eastern New Mexico, in a feat that will test the limits of technology and the human body at the edge of space.
Felix Baumgartner plans to ascend to 120,000 feet in a 55-story-tall helium-filled balloon and then jump back to earth.
During the first few minutes of his descent, his free fall is expected to break the speed of soundâ€"about 690 miles per hour in those atmospheric conditions. As air density increases, the speed of his descent will gradually decrease. The 43-year-old will then deploy his parachute, returning to earth hopefully within a few miles of the balloon's liftoff location.
The previous record for skydiving is held by Joe Kittinger, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, who dived from 102,800 feet in 1960. Mr. Kittinger's jump was part of Air Force testing of a protective suit and whether human bodies could survive in the low-pressure, cold environs of space. Mr. Kittinger is part of the ground team working on Mr. Baumgartner's flight.
To prepare for the jump, Mr. Baumgartner jumped from 97,146 feet in June, eclipsing the second-highest skydive mark held by Yevgeny Andreyev, a member of the former Soviet Union's Air Force.
The cost of Mr. Baumgartner's record-breaking attempt wasn't disclosed by the Austrian firm Red Bull GmbH, a maker of energy drinks that is paying for the jump. A spokesman for the project, Derrick Lerum, said the company likes to be affiliated with pushing the limits of human capabilities.
"Anything extreme is what we want to have our hands in," says Mr. Lerum. "It is pretty crazy when a guy jumps out of a helium balloon and on the way down breaks the speed of sound." He added that the work done on Mr. Baumgartner's pressurized suit and the impact on his body could "be helpful for future people traveling into space."
The Red Bull team says information gleaned from this free fall could aid in developing safety measures for pilots, astronauts and tourists who travel at the edge of space. Equipment will gather information about Mr. Baumgartner's physiological state while hurtling toward earth.The team suggested it could be used to develop bailout procedures, which don't currently exist, for low-space orbit craft.
Mike Todd, a former Lockheed Martin engineer, is a life-support engineer on the team and worked on Mr. Baumgartner's pressurized suit. In a prepared statement, Mr. Todd said: "His attempt to dare atmospheric limits holds the potential to provide valuable medical and scientific research data for future pioneers."
Of course, there is quite a bit of marketing involved as well. The balloon will ascend from Roswell, N.M., a site chosen for its weather, winds and open space, Mr. Lerum said. Roswell is perhaps best known as the site of other strange doings in the sky. In 1947, an unidentified flying object allegedly landed near Roswell and the city hosts the International UFO Museum and Research Center.
"There is a certain mystique about Roswell," said Larry Fry, the city manager. He said he has been impressed with the Red Bull team during test flights. "I wouldn't put this in the crazy-stunt category," said Mr. Fry, adding that watching the balloon inflate during the June test flight was surreal and majestic.
After Mr. Baumgartner leaves the ascending balloon, it will be remotely detached from the capsule that carried him aloft. The capsule, a high-tech basket, will descend to earth, braked by its own parachute, and will be recovered by the ground team. During separation, the balloon is torn and the helium vented, and the empty balloon falls to earth for recovery.
The skydive isn't without risks. Mr. Baumgartner will step out into a hostile environment, with the temperature nearing minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit and extraordinarily low atmospheric pressure.
Richard McCall, a physics professor at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and author of "Physics of the Human Body," said his biggest concern is that a defect in the pressurized suit could cause swelling, poor blood circulation, dizziness and disorientation. Mr McCall said he didn't expect any problems with a human body crossing the speed of sound.
"Of course," he said, "the experiment still needs to be done, the data collected and analyzed, and the results studied. That's one of the reasons why we often try such thingsâ€"not just to be the first or the highest or the fastest, but to see what can be learned and to, hopefully, have some fun doing it."
Louis Bloomfield, a professor of physics at the University of Virginia, agreed that a human body in an adequate suit should withstand the forces of accelerating and decelerating. "Probably it'll all work out fine, but I'm happy to let him do it, not me," he said.
Messrs. McCall and Bloomfield are not associated with the Red Bull team.
The jump was originally scheduled for Monday, but was postponed when a cold front with low clouds pushed through the region.
Write to Russell Gold at
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