Log in

View Full Version : [Video] - Skydiving from 100,000 feet.



Xzin
07-08-2007, 04:53 AM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1120619888350136916

The intro voice over is from the movie Alive, but it seems awfully appropriate.

Not WoW related but I really enjoyed this short film as it is about pushing the boundaries of what humanity is capable of doing and peeling back the raw tenacity of what a mind (or group of minds) that is so desperately focused on one goal can achieve. Which is what every single boxer does on some small level.

To put this in perspective, 47 years ago (1960) - so no computers - humanity designed, built and safely deployed a system which allowed a man to jump from a height almost three times as high as a jet plane flies and return safely to earth. It took him more than 13 minutes of free fall and parachuting to reach the ground. Did I mention there is no air up there, it is literally freezing cold and the human body does not take kindly to such a dramatic change in pressures when you are breathing from a SCBA system. Think "the bends" but in space. When you SCUBA dive, you ascend gradually. In space, you fall at terminal velocity. That's just for starters.

Despite all that - he did it. Amazing.

Popsci has a modern look at this:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/3c082d2daa463110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Runiat
07-08-2007, 11:50 AM
Wow...

Just.. wow..

I think I'd be too scared of missing the ground to step off that thing.. I mean, most sattelites are only 5km further up so a good push-off should send you into orbit..