Space Diving
Captain Joe Kittinger, in 1960, jumped from an altitude of 20 miles, reaching a speed of around 700 miles per hour in his 13 minute descent to the ground. Now the skydives are being prepared to beat his record. The aim is to start with 22 miles then build up to 57 miles! If everything works as planned, paying customers might be able to start their fiery descent from space as early as 2009.
Kittinger jumped from the gondola of a helium balloon but new space divers will be bailing out from the nose-cone of a rocket ship, fly in the heavens for a few minutes of weightlessness and admire a spectacular view of the Earth.
If space diving develops as a sport, special equipment will need to be designed. Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite has been developing a computer controlled vertical take-off, vertical-landing spacecraft for the tourist trade, and the Space Diver team thinks the craft could offer the perfect jumping-off point.
How would it work? The diver would trigger an airbag, springloaded seat, or a small parachute to move away from the spacecraft as fast as possible, so as to avoid a collision as he tumbled into the abyss. Then it would be up to the spacesuit to make sure the he copes with frigid temperatures and near vacuum to return safely.
At an altitude of 20 miles, the air is so thin that there will be no rushing of air and little impression of falling. Gradually, as the air becomes denser, pressure against the diver’s body will increase and air friction will heat the suit, which will contain a circulating liquid cooling system.
One problem under study is how to prevent divers from going into a spin, which could leave them unconscious.The team is debating whether a head-first posture or the traditional spreadeagled horizontal position is likely to work best. Once within a mile or so of the ground, the main parachute will deploy automatically.
