Space diving?

[slayera]

With the right equipment could someone survive a bale-out of something like SpaceShipOne? How about the ISS or someother in Earth orbit? Now that I would pay for. Heck, while I am asking, could you bunge jump? How 'bout a title covered surf board? Anyone have any ideas for 'space sports'? Once you get the tourist onboard they have to have something to do.

 

[glutomoto]

how about an orbital bail out.<br /><br />http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/moose_000923.html<br /><br />maybe the shuttle could test the moose, and probably could use them.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Aetius]

That would be Project Manhigh from the 1950s:<br /><br />http://www.wpab.af.mil/museum/space_flight/sf11.htm<br /><br />I would absolutely love to jump from that height, and see the Earth from space as I fall towards it. Awesome!

 

[CalliArcale]

A good place to look for information would be this fascinating page from Encyclopedia Astronautica.<br /><br />Bail Out!<br /><br />There are some pretty wild concepts listed. The ones that will interest you the most in terms of extreme space sports are MOOSE, Paracone, SAVER, Airmat, ENCAP, and EGRESS, which all leave the passenger exposed to the vacuum of space, and thus require a suit. Talk about a wild reentry. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />(BTW, I'm not sure you *could* bail out of SpaceShipOne successfully, at least not until it's nearly done with its flight, at which point it's like baling out of a normal airplane. It's a suborbital vehicle, so its flight is so brief that you'll have almost no time to get out of a situation before you're in a completely different situation, probably requiring different bailout tactics. But EGRESS might work; it's similar to what high-altitude supersonic military aircraft use.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>