3 ms·
The main difference is that the skydiver started with a velocity of 0. The astronaut in low earth orbit is going to be starting with a velocity of something lik
by goodcanadian 14y ago
The main difference is that the skydiver started with a velocity of 0. The astronaut in low earth orbit is going to be starting with a velocity of something like 28,000 km/h.
- WalterBright 14y agoRight. But the atmosphere is exponential, so the idea would be to have a high drag/mass for the start, to slow you down before compression heats things up. A capsule is small and heavy, so it'll have enough inertia to push up the compression and hence reentry heat.