Nominated by Richard R.
“The Deadlies,” our contest to find the most insanely-dangerous gear of all time, is well under way. A bunch of folks have already posted their nominees. They’re all brilliant. Take MOOSE (“Man Out of Space Easiest”), General Electric’s one-man, orbital escape pod from the 1960’s.
To use it, an astronaut first would don a spacesuit and remove the 200-pound packaged escape system from a large suitcase-sized container aboard the spacecraft.Then the person would unfold a 6-foot-long bag made of clear Mylar plastic and step into one end of it.
Attached and bonded to the rear of the bag was an ablative heat shield about one-quarter inch (6.3 millimeters) thick. Inside the bag were two canisters of white polyurethane foam, a portable rocket motor with twin exhaust nozzles that protruded through the Mylar cover, a parachute, radio equipment and a survival kit.
Once inside the bag, the astronaut would don a harness, zip the bag closed and float out the hatch of the spacecraft.
Out in space the astronaut would activate the foam canisters, which would inflate the bag into the shape of a blunt cone within a few minutes.
Then the astronaut would orient the bag with the rocket motor so that the blunt end faced towards Earth. That way, atmospheric heat upon reentry would char only the heat shield.
Riiiiight. As Space.com observes, “corporate brochures touting MOOSE did not focus on the question of whether a person could withstand the mental and physiological shock of an untethered jump into space and a free fall of hundreds of miles (kilometers) back to Earth.”
Perhaps the engineers gained confidence from U.S. Air Force Capt. Joe Kittinger who made a couple of towering leaps from open-balloon gondolas during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In one high-altitude test in August 1960, Kittinger jumped from a height of nearly 103,000 feet (31,395 meters) and free fell for more than four and a half minutes before his parachute opened. Kittinger even surpassed the speed of sound – the only human to do so without using an aircraft or space vehicle — yet survived his 20-mile (32-kilometer) fall in remarkably good shape.
The reasoning followed that if one man survived such a drop, then others could as well from even higher altitudes.
Google “wingsuit” some time, watch the videos, and tell me that those guys would turn down a chance to try a freefall jump from orbit.
The line to get on board the jump ship would be a kilometer long.
Cranky
Exactly, Cranky.
There are enough *EXTREME* people out there that certainly some of them would be willing to do the ultimate sky, er, space, dive.
As from Aliens:
Hudson: We’re on an express elevator to hell – going down!
LOL… looks like an instructional brochure for, “How to bake humans like a potato”…
I think I saw this once on Dragonball Z.
Damn straight.
Four weeks training at Star City, $40,000.
24 hours in Vegas, $5000.
Chance of becoming a crispy critter, say three in five.
Being able to say for the rest of your life that you did a freefall jump FROM ORBIT– priceless.
Regarding return from orbit without a spacecraft.
Today’s “That’s crazy! Is tomorrow’s “I wish I had thought of that.”
Not in reference to the Moose design, but to the concept;
This is not only doable, but is going to be done.
The idea is being worked on again by a serious and credentialed team. Agreements are being signed, rides put together, research is underway – all very Real.
Expect the first “Space Dive” (trademark) in early 2008. Altitude (not “space” at first) above 120k feet. To be followed by incremental increases – yes, all the way to orbit.
Investors and sponsors are being sought.
Stay tuned.
Rick Tumlinson
(my bio is findable)
Crowbar I believe that was the code name for a nuclear powered ram jet cruise missilehat would fly low over the soviet union. As it travled along it would dump Hydrogen bombs over the side. when the last bomb wa gone the ram jet cruise missle would fly low over Russia srewing radioactive waste out of the back. Never could think of a safe way to test it and beside to get it over Russia, you would have to fly it ove your alies first. [which might upset them?]
The Atomic powered bomber designed to give unlimited range. They even managed to fly a atomic reactor in the air with a modified [ten tons of lead shielding]B-36. It came in two versions a close system were the thrust was heated In a close system and the open system that what came out of the engine was highly radioactive. One problem both systems had was the problem of what would happen when one of these Bombers would crash!
The soviet union was not to be left out. The first was the 100 megaton [100 million tons of tnt]H Bomb. The designed it and built it but for the first drop test only boosted the bomb to 50 mega tons. after it went off they were so frightened of the thing, they droped it all together.
the best would have been a automated freighter sailing back and forth alng the cost. It would have been packed with radioactive material. If the soviet Unin was about to fall to the west the ship would have been detonated poising the whole world. This was one of the reasons that Kruchieve was kicked out!
Project Pluto was the radioactive bomber plan. I believe they were supposed to fly over the North Pole, thus eliminating the worry of irradiating your neighbors.
But poor Santa Claus…