Is it conceivable to survive re-entry?

[shaiziel 0]

We're talking true space jump here. You jump from say... a space station starting with a brisk 50-150mph launch towards the earth's surface that was aimed so your trajectory matched up with the turn of the earth on it's axis. If you launch from an object orbiting the earth fast enough to stay over a fixed point on the surface this wouldn't be much of a problem)

Would your burn up on re-entry or would gravity pull you slow enough through the outer atmosphere to avoid roasting your ass?

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[Andy_Copland 0]

You have way too much time on your hands

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[OrangeJumper 0]

This should be interesting.....

The Original Cabana Boy!

[shaiziel 0]

This isn't a new question. My friends and I have long speculated about it. I just thought to ask.

[Slappie 9]

No

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

[Conundrum 1]

I would guess that you'd get pretty toasty on re-entry.

[micro 0]

well, you'll have to staple a bunch of those shuttle tiles to your ass first.

I miss Lee.
And JP.
And Chris. And...

[Zipp0 1]

Superman would be OK.

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[Hambone 0]

didn't whats his name the skydiving maniac that pitched himself of a hot air balloon have to wear heat resistant material?

Yeah...You need to grow up. -Skymama

[AggieDave 6]

Spectre210 survived reentry from bailing out of the shuttle, so I don't see why not.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[shaiziel 0]

Or would it be better to not launch at a fixed point and just make a direct line for the planet?

To me it seems it all depends on which way reduces atmospheric resistance. If you launch at a fixed point on the surface, you'll be going an exponentially faster "orbital" speed than the surface of the earth (spinning at 1,037.50mph) as you are further away from the surface.

These are at least a couple of the details I've worked out.

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[psipike02 0]

Quote

We're talking true space jump here. You jump from say... a space station starting with a brisk 50-150mph launch towards the earth's surface that was aimed so your trajectory matched up with the turn of the earth on it's axis. If you launch from an object orbiting the earth fast enough to stay over a fixed point on the surface this wouldn't be much of a problem)

Being an engineer in aerospace, I couldn't help but answer this.

First, unless there were a way to coat your jumpsuit and rig with thermally dissipating material, i'm pretty sure you'd burn.

Secondly, upon re-entry into the atmosphere, if you don't hit the atmosphere at precisely the right angle, it will laugh at you as you skip off the atmosphere back into space.

Quote

would gravity pull you slow enough through the outer atmosphere to avoid roasting your ass?

Once you're inside the very top layer of the atmosphere, and gravity does kick in, there won't be such a thing as falling slowly. You'd reach speeds and temperatures not even capable of human endurance. Friction would essentially disintegrate your body into 1 million pieces to be sprinkled upon the rest of earth.

Not saying I'm an expert, but just from what I've learned in class and with my internships....I've thought about it too, but doesn't seem possible...

Then again alot of people said jumping out of a plane would never be possible, so who knows what we'll be doing in a few years or so

Puttin' some stank on it.

----Hellfish #707----

[micro 0]

Quote

Or would it be better to not launch at a fixed point and just make a direct line for the planet?

To me it seems it all depends on which way reduces atmospheric resistance. If you launch at a fixed point on the surface, you'll be going an exponentially faster "orbital" speed than the surface of the earth (spinning at 1,037.50mph) as you are further away from the surface.

These are at least a couple of the details I've worked out.

I think that the higher the thread count of the sheets your wrap yourself in, the better chance you have of not frying your nuts like bacon.

I miss Lee.
And JP.
And Chris. And...

[shaiziel 0]

I dont think falling 600ish MPH through the upper atmosphere is fast enough to cause the resistance experienced by a shuttle going several thousand miles an hour. If you can go slow enough, seems you just have to negate being baked by UV, NOT re-entry forces. I think his suit was mostly designed to survive the cold, low pressure, and keep from being baked by UV light.

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[shaiziel 0]

You may be right!

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[twibbles 0]

Just thinking out loud here... If i remember right, Orbital velocity of a geosync orbit is 11,000 Km/h, Low earth orbit is 27,400 Km/h. To get back to the surface, you need to lose that. So i guess the question is wether you can lose the speed slow enough to survive re-entry.

Eugene

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[shaiziel 0]

From what I speculate (from my uneducated standpoint) it seems most of the re-entry resistance is caused by orbital velocity primarily, THEN vertical velocity. Think of the space shuttle. When it's taking off, it is making some wicked vertical speed but it's orbital speed doesn't kick in until much later. Plus by the time it reaches the outer atmosphere, I'm pretty sure it's going faster than a human body would fall terminally. But you've never seen a shuttle burn up (due to what I'm calling "atmospheric re-entry resistance") on take off. They have to maintain a proper angle on re-entry because they are going VERY fast. I was pretty confident that they don't speed up during re-entry only slow down.

This is all just theorycraft but do I have any real foundation in my thinking here?

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[shaiziel 0]

See that's my point. It seems if you have almost ZERO orbital velocity, gravity is only going to pull you so fast, and it will be much slower than a satellites orbital velocity or the velocity of a space shuttle returning to earth.

So the question is. Will gravity pull your body fast enough to burn up, assuming ZERO orbital velocity?

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[shaiziel 0]

By the way I'm purposely disregrading the hazards of being in space like small pieces of debris ripping through you at 12-15,000 mph.

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[quade 4]

Well, it's not inconceivable . . . NASA looked at it.

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/moose.htm

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[twibbles 0]

Hmm, assuming zero orbital velocity... I don't see any reason why it's shouldn't be survivable.. The only reason the space shuttle needs heat shields is because it needs the atmosphere to slow it down, unless i'm missing somethiing here. If Joe Kitinger survived his jump... Thinking out loud again: You won't be going faster then terminal velocity.As the atmosphere thickens the lower you go, your terminal velocity lowers. Got to go think about it some more.

Edited to add: In vacuum, acceleration is constant, velocity increase is constant. Air density decreases exponentionally with height, and terminal velocity depends on air density. I suppose i could work it out, but i just finished an exam on fundimental aeronautics and i don't want to do anything similar for the next three months.

Eugene

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[Andy_Copland 0]

Am i the only person sitting here laughing my nuts off thinking "what the fuck?"

What 12k isnt enough for you? greedy bastard

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[Saw 0]

Kittinger in 1960... 30KM
The suit doen't look comfortable though.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-369888258105653405

[OrangeJumper 0]

The Original Cabana Boy!

[normiss 892]

Didn't a shuttle recently DISprove this as a possibility???