GPWizard F1 Forum
Everything Else => Off Topic => Topic started by: Wizzo on October 08, 2012, 04:01:35 PM
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Felix Baumgartner seems determined to set a new world record by doing an extreme jumping attempt.
The project dubbed as “Stratos”, Felix will start his journey on the edge of space that is 23 miles up from the earth. He’d be clad in just a pressurized suit with a parachute. He will ascend in a tiny capsule attached to one of the biggest hot air balloons ever created.
The giant balloon filled with helium needs at least three hours to reach 23 miles up from the earth. Once it reaches 120,000 feet, Felix will leap from the capsule. The descent will take him 20 minutes and his speed is estimated to reach more than 690mph. Such speed would entail huge pressure and could result to blood boiling, eyeballs popping out, and brain bursting. That’s why he will be wearing a special pressure suit that can tolerate temperatures measuring at -70 degrees Celsius. Even the parachute is packed with oxygen that can last up to 20 minutes. This is important since the parachute will only open when he’s less than 5,000ft from the ground.
The biggest danger lies in the fact that the balloon could rupture shortly after take-off. When that happens, Felix wouldn't have enough time to open his hatch and escape. That means the capsule would be crashing down the ground with him trapped inside.
At any rate, Felix and the rest of the team had been preparing for this attempt for the last seven years.
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Hmm, I thought he was going higher than that Wiz, this link reckons Joe Kittinger jumped from 31 miles back in the '60's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2JYklqLpEc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2JYklqLpEc)
Bit of a discrepancy here, the vid says 31mls high but the front of LIFE mag at the end says 19mls.
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Lost in translation. 19miles is 31km
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23miles...if I was up that high I'd be nervous about there being enough gravity to pull me back to earth. Wonder where the record will stop? When someone floats off into space :D
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Cheers Scott, it's that infernal European cr*p again ain't it. :P ::)
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The blood boiling, eyeballs popping out, and brain bursting could be a down side! :crazy:
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You gotta admit though, he has great big brass ones, be blowed if I could go up that high and just fall out of the capsule. I did read a report on this a while ago and he said he was hoping to break the sound barrier.
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16hrs and counting...here is the website where you can watch it live tomorrow about 2pm UK time (check that yourself...I always get time zones mixed up).
http://www.redbullstratos.com/ (http://www.redbullstratos.com/)
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3hrs and counting to launch
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Wow! Nice one, I'm gonna watch that in awe.
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Launch back to 14:30 GMT now.
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Now it's back to 15:30 GMT. Will he or won't he go?
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Now it's 17:30 GMT earliest launch.
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Mission resumes, laying the balloon out.
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Launch aborted due to wind, they'll try again tomorrow but they're not too optimistic.
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Too bad. Hope they get it going this week.
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Too right, the camera resolution should be a bit better than when Joe Kittenger done it in '60.
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It's LIVE - up to 21000m at the moment. He should be jumping in about an hour and a half if all goes well.
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Discovery Channel is showing it live here
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Wow what an amazing thing to watch.Fair play to the guy what a nutter.It got a bit worrying when he started to spin glad it all went ok
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Kind of makes my 3,000 foot static line jump
look small in comparison.
I bet I beat him being scared :o
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And I thought I done well jumping a mile and a quarter high off of a mountain.
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I have to admit when the door opened and he
stood on the platform my stomach twinged
just a wee bit
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My mouth went dry.
I was worried for a bit when he wasn't responding to some of the checklist questions. I thought maybe he had altitude sickness - it brings on a sort of dementia. Then when he was spinning like crazy during his speed record attempt (any word? Did he make that one? The feed we had was in Austrian, and well, those Austrians are a bit hard to understand sometimes). Glad to see he managed to arrest it. I guess that's what screwed his attempt to have the longest freefall - he wasted too much altitude going for the speed record.
Pretty exciting to watch. I'm sure the documentary will be a good watch when it comes out. :good: :good:
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Last i heard Scott he did get the speed record it just had to be verified
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He broke the sound barrier.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50133134n (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50133134n)
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The whole thing in pictures :good:
http://totallycoolpix.com/2012/10/felix-baumgartner-freefall-from-the-edge-of-space/ (http://totallycoolpix.com/2012/10/felix-baumgartner-freefall-from-the-edge-of-space/)
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Thought's just occurred to me, we all saw Felix land safely, but what about the capsule, it ain't just gonna fly off into space is it. Does the balloon burst when it gets too high, and if it does, that capsule sure could ruin someone's day when it comes hurtling back to earth ?
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After he landed they showed briefly a shot of the capsule also coming down with a parachute. I imagine it didn't land quite so softly though, so perhaps that's why they left it out of the reportage.
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Cheers Scott, I never saw that shot.
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Not much more you can say other than.... WOW! 8)
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An era of Red Bull, no matter where I lays my eyes, these two head-locked bull keep appearing, whether small or big.
Still I am glad, that I did lived in this era. Will buying case of Red Bull just to cheer this nutters to keep pushing the world of sports to the limit..
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I heard a report the other day that said the brand is getting bigger than the drink. So many of their attractions are actually profitable, that in a sense they aren't really sponsoring them anymore. Suits me fine as I'll never buy a can of the stuff.
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Some unseen footage here :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFU774q6eVM&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFU774q6eVM&feature=player_embedded)
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:DD :DD :DD That's great. Already posted it on my son's timeline. Good one Wizzo :good:
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Lol. :DD :DD
That certainly looks a lot more fun than the actual Felix effort. ;)
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:DD :DD Great!
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That was simply great, and they fitted it every thing that Felix did..
:DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD
Great One Wizzo.. :good: :good: :good:
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This from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me:
His first thought when he jumped out - "Maybe I should have worn the brown pressure suit."
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This from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me:
His first thought when he jumped out - "Maybe I should have worn the brown pressure suit."
:DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD :DD