mccordia 74 #1 November 21, 2002 http://www.highliftsystems.com/ Read this in the news, These guys want to span a cable between a floating rig and a satalite at a couple of hundred km and use a lift to go up and down... We'd have to ask if we can borrow it one day a year for skydiving...although I gues it would still not qualify as the highest skydive made (no matter how high) since, you are jumping from a fixed object...? Sorry...just borred...JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #2 November 21, 2002 The "safe" way to do your first BASE jump.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildblue 7 #3 November 21, 2002 Quoteand would reduce lift costs immediately to $100 per kilogram I'd better go on a diet....it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhillyKev 0 #4 November 21, 2002 $100/kg, that's only a $10,000 lift ticket for me Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccordia 74 #5 November 21, 2002 Yea, but that's if you go all the way to 350 km hight...I would be more then happy to just go to 40.000 or so for a $1000 or so..just once..for the heck of it... "Sherryl Sterns" I've been training and planning for 6 years to do this jump fro 40.000 ft...(your response) "Yea...maybe I'll try that too next week..."JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhillyKev 0 #6 November 21, 2002 Quote Yea, but that's if you go all the way to 350 km hight...I would be more then happy to just go to 40.000 or so for a $1000 or so..just once..for the heck of it... "Sherryl Sterns" I've been training and planning for 6 years to do this jump fro 40.000 ft...(your response) "Yea...maybe I'll try that too next week..." I went to 24000 ft for $50, wasn't all that special, don't imagine 40000 would be much different other than oxygen usage. And Cheryl Stearns is planning to go to 130,000 ft., not 40,000. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scoby 0 #7 November 21, 2002 Hell, why not just dive in from orbit, Starship Troopers style...? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #8 November 21, 2002 Don't know if you ever read this - it's something I wrote a few years back about that very topic. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sebazz1 2 #9 November 21, 2002 Bill that is a well written story. I liked it a lot!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #10 November 21, 2002 >These guys want to span a cable between a floating rig and a > satalite at a couple of hundred km and use a lift to go up and down... There are two or three ways to do it. The first one is easiest conceptually and hardest in practice. Imagine yourself on a geosynchronous satellite. It's 22,300 miles out in space, but because it orbits at the same speed the earth spins, it appears to "hover" over one place on the globe (that's why it's such a useful place for communications and TV satellites.) Now extend a rope towards the earth, and extend another one away from the earth. Because of orbital mechanics, the ropes will start trying to pull away from the satellite - one towards the earth, one away. If you keep those pulls equal by feeding rope out in both directions, the satellite doesn't move out of its orbit. Eventually one of those ropes will touch the surface, and you've got your elevator. Of course, making a 'rope' that can even support its own weight over 22,300 miles is somewhat difficult. The next types are called skyhooks. A low earth orbit satellite shoots out two ropes, then spins them so it looks like a big propeller. The spin is arranged so that when one end of the rope gets close to the earth (say, within 30,000 feet) it is almost stopped. Naturally, the other end of the rope is whipping by at twice orbital velocity (36,000 mph) Now just fly your airplane to a rendezvous at the end of the rope when it's almost stopped at 30,000 feet, grab it, and hang on. The skyhook will whip you around into space. If you hang on for half a revolution, you're going 36,000 mph (more than escape velocity.) If you hang on for a full revolution, you end up back in the atmosphere far away from where you started. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ernokaikkonen 0 #11 November 22, 2002 You wrote that?? Hell, I read that probably in 98 when I started skydiving.... Great piece! Do you think that would be really doable? I'm feeling that the brave poor astronaut would be fried like a dish on a wok-pan.... but then again I know nothing about spacecraft re-entry and stuff. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spy38W 0 #12 November 22, 2002 *fizzle, fizzle, pop* Uhm, need pictures... -- Hook high, flare on time Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scoby 0 #13 November 22, 2002 I'm guessing the unfortunate astronaut would have a lot of trouble jerry-rigging a re-entry shield from a disabled shuttle in the timeframe. That said, it's a very cool story! I think that skydiving from orbit with a jettisonable heat shield would be possible. Who knows how cool it would be, though, since you probably wouldn't have such a great view... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
