The Felix & his Supersonic dive

[wilheldp_PE]

Is there any plans to try to recover the capsule? I'd imagine that eventually, it'd stop going up and fall back to Earth.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I would assume it's got a tracking mechanism on it and they're just waiting for it to come back down just like most weather balloons.

 

[MA_PE]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/shortcuts/2012/oct/15/felix-baumgartner-skydive-key-questions-answered

What happened to the capsule and the balloon?

As soon as it was confirmed that Baumgartner had landed safely, the attention of mission control shifted to the balloon and capsule. The team remotely detached the capsule from the balloon, allowing it to fall back to Earth under its own parachute. It hit the ground 55 miles east of Baumgartner's own landing site. The balloon was deflated via a nylon "destruct line", with the lightweight balloon material – known as the envelope – falling back to Earth to be gathered and removed by truck. The capsule could, in theory, be used again, but the balloon envelope can only be used once.

 

[MA_PE]

Pretty cool.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/15/watch-felix-baumgartners-space-jump-reenacted-with-legos/

 

[Supe]

Watched it live, there were a couple unnerving moments for sure. It was bizarre to see him tumbling end over end, and then assuming the swan dive position when he actually hit some sort of resistance. I get the feeling he would have pulled the chutes much later had he not had helmet fogging issues.

 

[Master slacker]

Ok, in all seriousness, what's the BFD with this jump? It's not a talent. It's not a skill. Anyone with that exact same support group and engineering group could do the same thing. Do I find this whole sound barrier thing neat? Sure. Am I impressed? Meh.

Seriously, WTF?

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I don't know that I could have brought myself to jump out of a capsule 24 miles above Earth...I think that takes a special kind of crazy. But it was more about the technology than it was the stunt. They were testing a new spacesuit that will be used for private space missions and maybe space tourists in case they have to bail out at extremely high altitude. It was a proof of concept jump to test the suit and the human body's ability to withstand breaking the sound barrier. Red Bull sponsored it because they sponsor all manner of crazy ****. And there were 8 million people watching the jump live with the guy plastered in Red Bull logos, so they got some exposure for their sponsorship.

 

[Master slacker]

Well, since everyone is praising the jump and not the technology, what's the BFD with the jump and the jumper?

 

[blybrook PE]

 

[MA_PE]

Well, since everyone is praising the jump and not the technology, what's the BFD with the jump and the jumper?

I don't know that I could have brought myself to jump out of a capsule 24 miles above Earth...I think that takes a special kind of crazy.

^This.

The technology worked the way it was supposed to and it was successful. What's the BFD about someone doing a 1080 on a snowboard, riding a 50 ft wave on a surfboard, doing the 1/4 mile at 300+ mph in a jet car, the list goes on. All those "extreme" activities have a death-risk component. Will presented a pretty good assessment of the financials. The guy was a "test pilot" and thanks to the internet lots of folks got to watch it live.

Of course his feat is nothing compared to hoopla surounding real news like did Kim Kardashian have butt implants?, or that Britney Spears made $58M last year or whether or not the Biebs knows about the sixteenth chapel.

 

[knight1fox3]

Of course his feat is nothing compared to hoopla surounding real news like did Kim Kardashian have butt implants?, or that Britney Spears made $58M last year or whether or not the Biebs knows about the sixteenth chapel.

:Locolaugh:

I agree though, the jump was definitely a death-defying act that was carefully orchestrated. The jumper himself had to be a bit of a daredevil to go through with it too.

 

[Master slacker]

I guess I just can't be convinced to be impressed. There's just as much risk (and talent) jumping from 24 miles as there is from 10,000 feet... or even a few hundred by base jumping... I can think of riskier tasks out there people do for a job with no love.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I'm not terribly impressed with the person, other than the fact that I don't have the stones to make that jump. I'm more impressed with the breaking of the sound barrier by a human (outside of a plane or space ship). I also read about the spin that he got into right after jumping. Turns out, spinning is a normal thing when sky diving, but there was virtually no atmosphere where he was when he started to spin, so normal techniques to stop the spin were ineffective (the air was so thin, he couldn't reposition his body to direct the air in the other direction to stop spinning). It was a real concern that he would start spinning so fast that blood would be pulled to his extremities (i.e., away from his brain) and he would pass out or die.

 

[Supe]

I guess I just can't be convinced to be impressed. There's just as much risk (and talent) jumping from 24 miles as there is from 10,000 feet... or even a few hundred by base jumping... I can think of riskier tasks out there people do for a job with no love.

There's definitely more risk jumping from 24 miles when you factor in the potential for depressurization, etc. Almost like equating an airplane to a space shuttle.

 

[Master slacker]

I guess I just can't be convinced to be impressed. There's just as much risk (and talent) jumping from 24 miles as there is from 10,000 feet... or even a few hundred by base jumping... I can think of riskier tasks out there people do for a job with no love.

There's definitely more risk jumping from 24 miles when you factor in the potential for depressurization, etc. Almost like equating an airplane to a space shuttle.

Again, not impressed by the jumper. The technology, however, is way neat.

Besides that, he had an entire crew who did R&D to mitigate all perceivable risks associated with that stunt. How many medical professionals, engineers, biometric sensors, etc... are used for Joe Shmoe when he jumps from a plane (tandem or not) after showing up at the air field and paying a hundred bucks for the thrill?

 

[pbrme]

I guess I just can't be convinced to be impressed. There's just as much risk (and talent) jumping from 24 miles as there is from 10,000 feet... or even a few hundred by base jumping... I can think of riskier tasks out there people do for a job with no love.

There's definitely more risk jumping from 24 miles when you factor in the potential for depressurization, etc. Almost like equating an airplane to a space shuttle.

Again, not impressed by the jumper. The technology, however, is way neat.

Besides that, he had an entire crew who did R&D to mitigate all perceivable risks associated with that stunt. How many medical professionals, engineers, biometric sensors, etc... are used for Joe Shmoe when he jumps from a plane (tandem or not) after showing up at the air field and paying a hundred bucks for the thrill?

Seriously MS? He broke a record that has stood for over 50 years, where others have tried and died. At this risk level, you have to have a skilled professional team. He's also the first person to have broken the sound barrier durring freefall, which is only possible at those extreme altitudes as terminal velocity for the regular Joe Shmoe's who jump all day long from 14-15k ft prevents this.

 

[Master slacker]

Let's try this again...

1. My point = missed
   
2. My point, part 1, was that the dedicated team to which you referred is the exact team I stated was the neat part.
   
3. My point, part 2, was that the job of this dedicated team was to identify and mitigate those hazard which would cause one to die.
   
4. The intent was to show that Joe Shmoe does NOT have these resources... can be of unknown or unsound physical condition for any jump... and relies only on a 20 minute safety walk through and proper rigging procedure / equipment by professional diver.
   

So, yes, seriously.

 

[roadwreck]

They could have pushed a 20 lbs bag of potatoes out of the capsule with all that technology wrapped around it and that support team behind it, would you have been impressed by the technology then?

 

[Master slacker]

Do differing opinions of this event really rattle your cages that much?

 

[roadwreck]

I think it's silly to say that the man in the suit is irrelevant and could be replaced with anyone. Is he given to much credit for the success of their "mission"? Probably. But he was also the only one on the team that was in danger of dying.