Rocket scientist/areonautic/physicist help, please

Post Reply New Topic

Trying to figure this out. No doing very well.

If you "fell" out of a spacecraft ,on the edge of the earth's atmosphere , would you inevitably burn up on reentry ? Leaving breathing issues etc aside.

If you had a parachute+squirrel suit, would it slow you down enough at high altitude? Would this be enough prevent you getting fried on the way down.

What sort of speed would you be traveling at? Is there a terminal velocity : air friction, thing here?

So basic question is: could you fall into the earth's atmosphere and survive without the protection of a space craft or very special clothing ( say carbon nanofibre) if you didn't need to breathe and could resist various forces etc when they come into play.

What temperatures are we talking here?

Was this brought to mind by Felix Baumgartner's upcoming attempt to break the sound barrier while sky-diving?

What if you "fell out" of geostationary orbit, ie from "standing start" more or less straight down? Would you accelerate up to 17000mph or is there a terminal velocity below this speed? Is there such a thing as a standing start in space?



Carbon nanofibre can resist temperatures up to 4000C . I wonder how thick a layer would have to be to prevent damage serious
person inside a Nanosuit exposed at peak velocity to 3000C. There's got to be a build up curve and the seriously high temperatures .

How long would you actually be exposed to the high temperatures for, before there would be enough density of air to to keep a parachute open and slow you down?

This should help sum up what you want to know.

http://www.damninteresting.com/free-fal ... near-space

Fuzzy- wow!! !! !! That must be amazing.

102,800 ft and I thought I had a long pair of ladders.

Near speed of sound. Quite a record to break.

carbon fiber is thermaly and electrically conductive so it would pass heat. you need an insulator.
maybe this can help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aerogel_matches.jpg

Areogel - hmmm.

Also- would it be possible to make prosthetics out of nanofibre tube that worked like muscle if specialized motor/ nuerones equivalent , if electrically conductive.

Could artificial skin be grown over something like this?

Drogue chutes have got to be those you see in the famous footage of the Apollo capsules falling back to earth. Will check what height they opened at.

Drogues opened a 24,000 ft , after heat shield jettisoned. However will check what height they can function from because that might have been something to do with design of Command Module.

Maybe if you fell from directly above the North or South pole? That might work?

(your ship would have to be deliberately holding position there, rather than orbiting, I think)

North/South Pole? Long trek back home.

My character's going back to 2015, from some point in the future. She's decided that was her last combat mission and is going to work in a community center/school with disadvantaged, disabled children on a very poor housing estate. ( Like I said quirky)

I put her down in the English Channel.