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Alan Eustace Jumps from Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record
- coreymgilmore 12y agoAmazing how little this was publicized and promoted compared to Baumgartners jump. Undoubtedly because Redbull used FB's jump for marketing, but still a feet like this should have had more media exposure. On a side note: If the marketing/publicity budget on this was so much lower, and the design was simpler, how much less do you think this cost compared to FB/Redbull Stratos?
- specialp 12y agoI believe from reading the article that he planned this in secrecy and the lack of publicity is intentional.
- brbcoding 12y agoYeah, according to this it would seem like it > Mr. Eustace said Google had been willing to help with the project but he declined company support, worried that his jump would become a marketing event. Seems like he did it just because he wanted to do it... And that's awesome.
- dwild 12y agoIt's great to be able to afford that...
- dudus 12y agoIf something went wrong and he died that could be bad for stocks. Better keep it a secret until it's a proven success.
- deepsun 12y agoBecause Alan didn't break the world record. According to article, he used drogue-chute, which is basically a small parachute, and it's WAY safer to jump with drogue. Baumgartner, however, didn't use no drogue-chute, and has really broken the world record. Funny that during Baumgartner's jump they kept telling that previous record was held by Joseph Kittinger, while it did not: FAI doesn't recognize it, because with drogue chute it's way easier and safer.
- beambot 12y agoSo what's the current record with a drogue chute? And are you sure the drogue was used during the entirety of Alan's jump? It mentioned that he did a series of backflips and broke the sound barrier during his jump. Is that even possible w/ a drogue? EDIT: Plus, you seem to harbor some negativity about his achievements. Two things (1) It was verified by the US Parachute Assn, and (2) perhaps this reaction is precisely why Alan didn't seek press fanfare; it's an awesome accomplishment by itself!
- specialp 12y agohttp://www.fai.org/records/news-of-records/37017-baumgartners-records-ratified-by-fai http://www.fai.org/records/news-of-records/37017-baumgartner... Here is the list of records set by Baumgartner. The record set today is the highest exit altitude. So yes the record is broken. Baumgartner will still have the farthest freefall and highest speed jump without a drogue. The article did not say all records broken. The most important record to the public probably is the exit altitude record.
- thekingofspain 12y agosniff I smell an Austrian!
- goatforce5 12y agoImagine how much he could have got in sponsorship money from Monster Drinks or some other competitor of Red Bull.
- igetspam 12y agoAlan has been with Google for a long time, he doesn't need money. Having interacted with him on a number of occasions, this whole think shocks me. He doesn't come off as the extreme type. Always seemed more Mr Rogersish. Awesome huy to work with and for. Very impressed.
- vermontdevil 12y agoI admit I thought maybe this was one of the numerous hoax news that's been plaguing Facebook lately. But really? Wow. That definitely came out of left field considering how long Felix' jump was promoted until the jump day.
- birken 12y agoWow, I had to do a double take when I saw the name. He is a well known SVP at Google, and at least when I was there he was in charge of the majority of engineering. Good for him.
- joshu 12y agoYeah, he hired me when I was at Google and have kept in touch. When I saw the title, I was like, wow, someone has the same name as Alan.
- ck2 12y agoat 57 years old - dang - what is my excuse...
- davesque 12y agoMaybe the fact that (I'm assuming) you don't work at Google?
- thenmar 12y agoMine is that I can't afford to hire a team of engineers for three years...
- taternuts 12y agoUltimately it still comes down to the question of whether or not you've got the chutzpah to free-fall for that long. I'm not sure I would.
- davesque 12y agoI'm not sure you should, either.
- manish_gill 12y agoI know right? I would've said "yeah maybe I'll do it given the chance", but a few weeks ago, I got the chance to jump from a cliff in a river -- very safe, and everyone was doing it, but I still froze for a second. Then someone behind me went "just look ahead, don't look down!=" which is what I did! :)
- kazinator 12y agoExcuse for what? There are plenty of ways to show you "still got it" not involving plummeting from the stratosphere.
- aresant 12y agoSo the guy straps himself to balloon, rides straight up for 2 hours, 25 miles high. So 12.5 mph, a little faster than the average bicycle pace. Straight up. Works with other engineers in secret for 3 years to knock out a badass space survival suit. And then, just for us kids, "cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device . . ." and achieves 800mph+, setting off a "small sonic boom". I !@%! love engineers.
- kyro 12y agoLots of things make me regret not studying engineering, but this certainly takes the cake and the entire bakery.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoIts never too late. Start now.
- thrownawaya 12y agoSays the guy with the user name toomuchtodo...
- toomuchtodo 12y ago31 year old Operations/DevOps at a startup. I still find time to build CNC mills from scratch, and my current/long-term project is building a 40' sailing vessel for a circumnavigation. I have no college education. I can weld (quite well), I've built 3d models for laser sintering, I've assembled carbon fiber body panels. If you want to do something, learn how to do it. Then go do it!
- sillysaurus3 12y agoUnfortunately, this only tends to work during periods of economic prosperity. When times get tough, those without credentials usually seem to be the first to be ousted. But I've long wondered whether that's true. How'd you fare during 2008? It'd be nice to collect some datapoints from someone else. The phenomenon seemed most true just after The Bubble. I think tptacek mentioned he had some pretty substantial credentials yet finding a job was extraordinarily difficult.
- Crito 12y ago> "Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground." I was under the impression that the "faster than the speed of sound" thing was technically deceptive, since it used the speed of sound at sea-level but they were only doing that many miles up where the speed of sound was much higher. Terminal velocity should always be lower than the speed of sound, is my thinking here. If that is the case, then I wouldn't expect a sonic boom. Is it actually the case that they have enough momentum to continue to fall that fast as they enter the denser atmosphere?
- matthewmcg 12y agoThe speed of sound actually decreases, and then increases again as you go up in altitude. So when they say faster than the speed of sound, they mean the local speed of sound (hence the sonic boom). This is explored (with graphs!) here for the case of Mr. Baumgartner's jump: http://blog.wolfram.com/2012/10/24/falling-faster-than-the-speed-of-sound/ http://blog.wolfram.com/2012/10/24/falling-faster-than-the-s...
- seanflyon 12y agoI think he built up speed in the high atmosphere were the air is thin and was still going fast when he reached denser air and thus was going faster than the speed of sound in the denser air.
- Yhippa 12y ago> “It was amazing,” he said. “It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.” I want to experience this before I die.
- p1mrx 12y ago> I want to experience this before I die. This gets a lot cheaper when you remove the survival constraint.
- presumeaway 12y agoHe didn't specify the length of the interval between when he experiences it, and when he dies.
- anigbrowl 12y agoIt will be monetized before too long, and become available to anyone with $15,000 to spare.
- DanBC 12y agoWould people be allowed to dump that much helium on fun-runs? I have no idea how much this one jump used nor what that looks like in comparison to world stocks.
- onewaystreet 12y agoThe article says he had a GoPro on. Hopefully they release some video or stills from the actual jump.
- MoistDinosaur 12y agojust wait for the next "And"roid commercial. Android Wear, in space!
- eyeareque 12y agoI love it when things like this happen. He spends next to nothing compared to redbull, and surpasses their record. Awesome work :)
- michaelochurch 12y agoMaybe this is cynical but I dislike stories like this. I'm glad he got back safely, but it sounds a bit Everest-y. Felix Baumgartner was an experienced jumper. Every time a corporate executive pulls the "throw money at something hard for mere mortals" card I cringe. Again, Everest. The number of rich businessmen who die because Mother Nature does not give a fuck about job titles is immense.
- davesque 12y agoAt the risk of getting flamed/down-voted, I kind of agree. I don't really get this. Sure, you could say it's inspiring or something, but how about spending the same money on cancer research? What's the value in stunts like this? Not to mention that he seriously risked his own life. By the way, if you plan on down-voting my comment, instead consider replying with why you think this event will actually lead to something beneficial and why the same benefit could not have been seen a different way.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- nowarninglabel 12y agoPerhaps you are being downvoted because you are making a very tired argument which has been and discussed many times on HN and always has the same conclusion. Do you spend all of your discretionary income on cancer research? I'm guessing not, so why do you think someone else should?
- ctdonath 12y agoHN FAQ: Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you.
- ctdonath 12y agoSame as people going on vacation, with "nothing to show for it, could have donated to cancer research" and take a variety of terminal risks in the process. We live for a little while, then die. Good if we can have a heckuva ride along the way, so long as it doesn't result in a net harm. This guy did it because the record was there, the experience was there, he contributed to advancing the (admittedly narrow) field involved, etc. If you've lived a good productive life, kudos in doing something fun & dramatic that may have a chance of a spectacular exit. And you have no idea how much he _has_ contributed to cancer research or other laudable causes. The wealthy tend to give away a whole lot more than the general public is aware of.
- jeztek 12y agoMore details here: http://www.paragonsdc.com/stratex/ http://www.paragonsdc.com/stratex/
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- gohrt 12y agoWhy does Alan Eustace not have a Wikipedia page? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eustace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eustace Other random Google SVPs do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Singhal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Singhal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundar_Pichai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundar_Pichai
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Zikes 12y agoAs of now he does.
- aniket_ray 12y agoWell a Google SVP is not "random", certainly not Sundar Pichai.
- sjs382 12y agoMy favorite part is that he did it so quietly, with no marketing or build-up. Just because he wanted to. Also, off-topic, but this is some terrible ad placement: http://imgur.com/T6MBg2x http://imgur.com/T6MBg2x
- shostack 12y agoLove this...have a whole folder of these sorts of placements at home and this will make a lovely addition. Thanks for posting!
- incision 12y agoFantastic. I've long thought that if I ever acquire the means I'd want to take a U2 ride like James May [1]. I'm thinking I'd definitely prefer this. Also, no wonder his name felt so familiar [2]. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJoMDq4AyLc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJoMDq4AyLc 2: http://pando.com/2014/03/27/how-steve-jobs-forced-google-to-cancel-its-plan-to-open-a-paris-office/ http://pando.com/2014/03/27/how-steve-jobs-forced-google-to-...
- layman 12y agoMay be he went up to get permission from Steve for some other hire! Just making a joke. This sure is remarkable and I admire this. Wish I could do it one day myself.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- AndrewKemendo 12y agoAs a skydiver I am super upset that I didn't know this was happening! I'd love to see video of it and see if he had better control than Felix. We almost lost him and I wonder if Alan had implemented controls to prevent a bad spin. On another note, I love that he used the suit only instead of a diving bell - completely simplifying the whole process. It's arguably more dangerous, but not by much.
- ProAm 12y agoI'll admit Im a little bummed the record was broken so quickly too. It took so long to break it the first time, 2 years doesnt seem like enough time.
- AndrewKemendo 12y agoKind of bound to be the case right? Seems to be the way it works for most records, long gaps then a flurry of records back to back. I'd love to be the first Karman line re-entry.
- ogig 12y ago>I'd love to see video of it and see if he had better control than Felix. We almost lost him and I wonder if Alan had implemented controls to prevent a bad spin. The article mentions a small early parachute that is used to prevent that spin. You can also see it on the video.
- AndrewKemendo 12y agoGenerally the pilot/drogue chute only provides z axis stability (makes sure you don't roll over onto your back) and certainly the drogue wasn't deployed during the mach transition so I don't think it would have been helping that during the phase that Felix had trouble.
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- taternuts 12y agoThis is one of the most bad-ass things I've read in a while. The fact that it was so under-covered so as _not_ to be associated with any kind of marketing makes it even cooler.
- unchocked 12y agoWe need more hero-engineers like him. Now he's cool, as opposed to just nerdy (and rich). Bang for the buck, this is going to help STEM a great deal. Astronaut daredevils: both cool and nerdy.
- ForHackernews 12y agoHow is he a hero? What was "heroic" about this stunt?
- fixermark 12y agoThere's some heroism in daring to do something technically possible that hasn't been done before---the fact that he did it with world-class technical backing and engineering work doesn't diminish the fact that at the end of the day, he strapped into that suit and he rode it down. Apollo 11's crew had all of NASA backing it; that doesn't make them less heroic.
- lmm 12y agoThey were heroic because they took those risks, at least in some part, for science, for the good of humankind. Armstrong wanted to be recognised as a geologist (cynthiologist?) more than as an astronaut. This sounds like it's just some rich guy doing it for fun. Which, y'know, best of luck to him, enjoy what you've earned, but it seems no more heroic than buying a Ferrari.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ForHackernews 12y agoI'm sorry, but I didn't care about the Red bull/GoPro marketing stunt, and I don't care about this one, either. "Oh, but this one fell from slightly higher up than the other one!" Can somebody explain why this is impressive or cool? Anyone can fall.
- DanBC 12y agoThe falling part is easy. The not dying part is harder. The creating a suit to fall in is tricky too. And as for falling being easy: when's the last time you jumped off a high dive board? Try it sometime.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoDidn't he blow a charge to disconnect? Way easier to press a button than to jump out of a doorway
- correcthorse 12y agoWell, the suit handles all the hard work of not dying. It could have been anyone in that suit, it just happened to be that guy. I can stand in ovation at the engineering work in all this, but I don't see reason to applaud the rider.
- base698 12y agoDunning Kruger effect. Stick your hand out a car window and not the force at say 70 mph. Now imagine it twice as fast. If your hand is not symmetrical you spin. I can do turns in the air with just my hands. A misplaced arm or leg is going to cause even more force and faster rate of turn.
- davesque 12y agoAgreed. Honestly, I'm really disappointed in the backlash that skeptical commenters are seeing on this article.
- logfromblammo 12y agoThe technical challenges are as follows: 1. Making the ascent. 2. Surviving the environmental conditions of the ascent. 3. Converting the ascent to a fall. 4. Surviving the environmental conditions of the fall. 5. Surviving subsequent contact with the ground. 6. Getting home from wherever you landed. 7. (optional) Taking good pictures and video. Three of those seven elements are always potentially lethal, and three more could be, if not planned correctly. It's not quite the same league as jumping off a roof into a swimming pool.
- dekhn 12y agoAlan also wrote a wonderful Digital Technical Note (he used to work at, or manage Digital's Western Research Labs): http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/WRL-TN-13.pdf http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/WRL-TN-13.pdf it's worth reading the whole thing, including the references.
- sp332 12y agoI wonder why he decided to use pure oxygen?
- cjensen 12y agoI assume it's to avoid the weight of all the other gases, but it's a great question that I'd love to see an answer for.
- specialp 12y agoIt could also be that he is breathing gasses at far less than the pressure at sea level. The suit is probably pressurized to a very high altitude.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- MHordecki 12y agoSo from my quick googling it looks like oxygen absorption lowers with pressure (~ altitude), so the higher you go the more oxygenated air you have to breathe to maintain proper oxygen levels in blood. Source: https://www.inkling.com/read/guyton-hall-textbook-of-medical-physiology-12th/chapter-43/effects-of-low-oxygen-pressure https://www.inkling.com/read/guyton-hall-textbook-of-medical...
- jangid 12y agoAlan himself had distanced himself from Google's offer for support; because of marketing etc. I am sure he his happy to not get much media coverage.
- deepsun 12y agoArticle title is false: he has not broken the Baumgartner's record. According to article, he used drogue-chute, which is basically a small parachute, and it's WAY safer to jump with drogue. Baumgartner, however, didn't use a drogue-chute, and has really broken the world record, registered by FAI. Funny that during Baumgartner's jump they kept telling that previous record was held by Joseph Kittinger, that was false: Kittinger also used drogue-chute, like Alan. So FAI had not recognized Kittinger's jump, because with drogue chute it's not a free-fall. It's flying under canopy. I mean, Baumgartner is still the world-record holder.
- correcthorse 12y agoIsn't the record for highest sky-dive? isn't height all that matters? is using a different parachute somehow not sky-diving?
- deepsun 12y ago> Isn't the record for highest sky-dive? Yes, it isn't, because it's not a skydive with a drogue, it's canopy flight. > isn't height all that matters? Height of... skydive? > is using a different parachute somehow not sky-diving? Yes. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (agency that confirms these world records) doesn't recognize it as a free-fall. And from my own experience -- yes, it's way different ;)
- joeguilmette 12y agoYou have done just enough research to use the right nomenclature in the wrong way. Using a drogue might not technically be freefall, but it is called drogue-fall because you're hauling ass. It is not a parachute. The para part of parachute means it will slow your decent enough to save your life. A drogue is used mainly for stability and to slow you down enough so your parachute won't explode when deployed. Deploying a drogue doesn't mean you're now "under canopy". As to a drogue making this no longer a skydive, drogues are used in tandem skydives and are most certainly perfectly acceptable. You're entitled to an opinion, it just so happens that your opinion is wrong.
- jchook 12y agoAt what point does the boundary between a high-altitude skydiving suit and re-entry spacecraft become blurred? With the right definitions someone could say that Yuri Gagarin has this record beat.
- ars 12y agoWith reentry you are in orbit first (i.e. velocity tangent to the ground). With a free fall you are at standstill relative to the ground before you start.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- pmontra 12y agoMaybe I'm being pedantic but it's possible to perform a reentry without being in orbit first. Most notable cases, the Apollo missions. They plunged directly into the atmosphere without entering orbit. Details and rationale at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607491 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607491
- ghshephard 12y agoThe Apollo was either on the moon or orbiting the moon, so in either case it was orbiting the earth.
- pmontra 12y agoA very peculiar orbit but OK. So my next candidate is the Startdust mission. That went into a solar orbit and released a capsule to return samples to Earth on a fly by in 2006 before being sent to visit a comet in 2011. That capsule is quoted to have been the fastest reentry for a man made object at 12.9 km/s, which is faster than Earth escape velocity at sea level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_%28spacecraft%29#Launch_and_trajectory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_%28spacecraft%29#Launc...
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- andrethegiant 12y agoGoogle exec films with a GoPro, not Glass? Missed out on a marketing opportunity.
- astolarz 12y ago> Mr. Eustace said Google had been willing to help with the project but he declined company support, worried that his jump would become a marketing event.
- trhway 12y ago>plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at 822 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground. doesn't FAA prohibit supersonic flights over US territory? :)
- noir_lord 12y agoOn a technicality he wasn't flying only falling ;).
- nsxwolf 12y ago... With style!
- trhway 12y agoon a military radar he probably looked like a ballistic missile warhead :)
- ghshephard 12y agoHe looked absolutely nothing like a ballistic missile [1], different radar profile, totally different source/trajectory - at his peak he was 25 miles high, whereas an ICBM at midcourse is about 750 miles - and, finally he was moving way too slow - at his peak he was moving at 800 miles/hour. ICBMs in their Re-Entry phase move are tracking at around 15,000 miles/hour. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercontinental_ballistic_missile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercontinental_ballistic_miss...
- neurotech1 12y agoDid he jump through a supersonic flight corridor? New Mexico has designated corridors for supersonic flight. FAA has been known to grant waivers for record attempts like this and it sounds like he was too high for the sonic boom to cause major concerns.
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- phkahler 12y agoI've been wondering when the high power rocketry guys and the skydivers will get together...
- pingou 12y agoI was surprised to see he was breathing through a mask and seriously wondered what would have happened if he had vomited in it.
- djb_hackernews 12y agoTo put this in perspective, if the average school room globe diameter is 0.3 meters, Alans peak elevation was 0.97 millimeters above the surface of the globe...
- ryandrake 12y ago1/8 of the way to the height of the International Space Station's orbit, which would be 7.8mm from the surface of your globe.
- joeevans1000 12y agoAnd for the non-metric... he went less than a 16th of an inch above a globe about a foot in diameter. It's amazing how thin our shell of sustainable atmosphere is. There was a lot that annoyed me about the RedBull promo jump, a whole lot, but the most annoying thing is how they misrepresented his view using fisheye lenses to make it look as though the horizon curved radically for him. They wanted viewers to think he was in outer space, in that regard. If you watch the RedBull footage, you can see when this phony effect gets turned upside down when he was upside down; in that case the earth curved radically the other way.
- jonah 12y agoI doubt the distortion was intentional, I feel like going back to see what cameras they used but most action cams (GoPro, etc.) have cheap fisheye wide angle lenses rather than more expensive (and complex) rectilinear ones which would represent the horizon correctly.
- bicknergseng 12y agoI know the ISS is moving at ~27,600 km/h and is ~10 times further away than this jump, but is there a significant engineering reason to not say... double this jumps height? 5x? ...10x?
- tjohns 12y agoThe maximum altitude for a weather balloon is 173,000 feet, though 60,000 to 120,000 feet is more common. If you want to go higher, you're going to need to use a rocket instead of a gas-filled balloon.
- fletchowns 12y agoWhat determines the maximum height that a weather balloon can go?
- krasin 12y agoThe density of the air, the higher altitute, the smaller density: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#mediaviewer/File:Atmosphere_model.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#mediaviewer... And the balloon has to have a smaller density than the surrounding air to be floating.
- MHordecki 12y ago(IANAP) The physics of a balloon. It works by having lower density than the surrounding air. As the air gets thinner with altitude, at some point the balloon is just too heavy.
- ender7 12y agoDecelerating from ~27,600 km/hr would be the main challenge :)
- twic 12y agoThe Russians are having a crack at it: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6714639/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/russians-keep-working-space-parachute/ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6714639/ns/technology_and_science-... Henry Spencer reckons it's been seriously considered all the way back, and he invented regular expressions, so, er, well apparently being a computer scientist gives you parachute credibility this week: http://yarchive.net/space/launchers/personal_reentry.html http://yarchive.net/space/launchers/personal_reentry.html And there's some intriguing work from various people about using tethers as highly unconventional parachutes: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/009457659500108C http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/00945765950...
- stormbrew 12y ago> He did not feel or hear the supersonic boom as he passed the speed of sound, he said. He performed two slow back flips before a small parachute righted him. Just out of curiosity, isn't this expected? It is my extremely layman understanding that the boom happens behind the object moving supersonically, and obviously if you're going faster than the speed of sound it won't catch up to you, right?
- josu 12y agoIf the people on Earth heard it, he must have heard it at some point. Even if he was travelling faster than the sound wave, as he started decelerating the wave must have caught him up at some point.
- pbhjpbhj 12y agoI'd imagine the part of the wavefront behind him would dissipate in his wake, only undisturbed parts - those moving out to the sides - would survive to pass him? Others could potentially hear the boom that way without him hearing it.
- neurotech1 12y agoFighter pilots don't hear the boom when they go supersonic. That is why there have been a few cases of pilots accidentally exceeding M1.0 and doing damage on the ground. At the altitude Mr Eustace jumped he probably didn't feel any buffeting either.
- mikepalmer 12y ago... and at the press conference after his record-breaking jump, Mr. Eustace addressed assembled reporters in Mandarin!
- general010 12y agoThis is gonna put a little dampening on all the Red Bull hoopla.
- joeevans1000 12y agoHooray. That whole thing was absurd. They hyped it like it was the first moon landing.
- joeguilmette 12y agoTo clear up some points (I am a professional tandem skydiver and use drogues)- A drogue is about 3 to N get feet wide. It is used for z axis stability, to slow you down a bit so that when the parachute deploys it will not explode, and finally to actually deploy the parachute. If you do not use a drogue chute then you would use a pilot chute to deploy the parachute. The difference between a pilot and drogue chute is minimal. In fact, design wise the only difference is that after you deploy the drogue you need to pull a handle to open the container holding the parachute, at which point the drogue chute becomes a pilot chute. A deployed pilot chute will open the container without needing to pull a separate handle. Drogues are also generally much hardier than pilot chutes as they have more force acting on them. A drogue is not a parachute. The para in parachute means it is designed to be used to slow you down enough to survive your fall. A drogue is not designed to do so. Tandem skydiving, the kind everyone does recreationally, uses drogue parachutes to maintain what would be terminal velocity for one person. Terminal velocity for two people lying on top of each other (or one 500lb person) would be too high to safely deploy either the main or reserve parachute. So yes, a tandem skydive is still a skydive even though you use a drogue. Eustace, even though he used a drogue, has the record for highest skydive. Arguably Baumgartner had the record for longest freefall without a drogue. But longest freefall without a drogue is a silly record to cling to. Does anyone care who has the record for driving the fastest land vehicle without a helmet? This still is amazing. And from the perspective of a professional skydiver, Eustace broke Baumgartner's record fair and square.
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- awongh 12y agoI hope that some of this work gets open sourced. Is this the next logical step from balloon cameras?
- taksintik 12y agoUp next.. Power assisted Launch from the moon with reentry landing on MGM Las Vegas. For tha win.
- mercwear 12y agoHe did it because it was a hard engineering problem that interested him, not for the publicity. A+
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- chris_wot 12y agoIs there footage of the whole descent from his POV?
- blackkettle 12y agowhat happened to the balloon?
- birdstrike8888 12y agogrep on "bird' at 212 comments "bird strike' problem for aircraft, likely worse than deer strike problem for automobiles. question: what is the strategy to survive BIRD STRIKE problem? please. Also, birds could be 'long flight' dozing while flying in formation and are NOT looking up. Congrats. and am I off on my questioning, since this is question 122 or is the fluoride and pollutants in drinking water decreasing general intelligence in USA like the lead did in the Roman Empire?
- cpncrunch 12y agoYour comment doesn't entirely make sense. However bird strikes are generally only a problem under 1000ft, and the parachute will have opened at that point. (You can get bird strikes at higher altitudes, but it is quite rare as the majority of bird activity is close to the ground). I know this as I'm a pilot and I've had quite a few very close encounters with birds when taking off or landing. The plane I fly only manages 100mph, so generally the birds have time to get out of the way.