I've been aware of it for a couple of weeks, but don't find it all that interesting.
-Also, that wasn't Captain Kirk.
You have drank the koolaide, and I'm not going to discuss Star Trek with you, as you clearly are confused about what Star Trek even is.
...I'd had you pegged as too mature to fall for the Fake Star Trek...
all we want is the series of the 90s back.;spock ;lalala ;spock
Google exec makes record skydive from edge of spacehttp://news.yahoo.com/google-exec-makes-record-skydive-edge-space-222428937.html (http://news.yahoo.com/google-exec-makes-record-skydive-edge-space-222428937.html)
AFP
By Rob Lever 20 minutes ago
(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/cqPJ0GB7xAKbzjIyU5Uc.g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY0NTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/b2deebd900b434c2cb91f9fd6d44c6e9b4a29331.jpg)
lan Eustace speaks during the grand opening of Google Kirkland October 28, 2009 in Kirkland, Washington (AFP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Washington (AFP) - A Google executive set a new record Friday by jumping successfully from near the top of the stratosphere -- some 135,000 feet, or 41,000 meters high, his project website said.
The record dive by 57-year-old Alan Eustace, who is a "senior vice president of knowledge" at Google, was conducted as part of the Stratospheric Explorer project to allow manned exploration of the stratosphere above 100,000 feet.
According to a statement from the Paragon Space Development Corporation, Eustace completed the four-hour mission over Roswell, New Mexico, using a specially designed space suit and balloon module to carry him to the stratosphere.
"Ascending at about 1,000 feet per minute, Alan achieved his target altitude in about two and a half hours," the statement said.
"He spent a short time, around a half hour, experiencing the wonders of the stratosphere before being released from the balloon. In rapid free fall, Alan experienced a short period of near weightlessness and within 90 seconds exceeded the speed of sound."
The previous record was set by Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner in 2012, jumping from a height of nearly 128,000 feet or 38,969 meters, also from New Mexico.
Eustace's free-fall into the atmosphere lasted about five minutes, and he deployed his parachute at around 18,000 feet "and floated gently to the ground," the statement said.
"Within four hours of launch, Alan arrived at the launch site where the team and guests toasted his achievement and safe return."
Paragon produced the recovery systems for the project, designed by the engineering firm ILC Dover with assistance from several other consultants and companies.
The New York Times, which first reported the news, quoted Eustace as saying, "It was amazing. It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before."
The Times said that Eustace was propelled from the module with a small explosive charge, sending him traveling briefly at supersonic speeds, creating a sonic boom heard by observers on the ground.
According to Paragon, the system has wide-ranging applications for the study of the science of the stratosphere.
These include the "development of means for spaceship crew egress, the study of dynamics of bodies at Mach 1, new high altitude aircraft suits, and setting of records for space diving, sailplaning and ballooning."
Without special equipment, humans cannot live at that altitude, according to Paragon, which says that "besides being unable to breath, exposure to the vacuum of space will cause fluids in the body to boil."
The space suit is similar to those used for the Apollo missions and on the International Space Station, the company said.
The missions by Eustace and Baumgartner offer hope for rescue and evacuation from troubled spacecraft. The US space shuttle was fitted with a crew evacuation system after the 1986 Challenger disaster.
The private firm World View Experience announced that it had obtained the rights to offer these dives for "near space" tourism and research. For $75,000, adventurers can duplicate the experience.
"World View will have voyagers floating peacefully to the edge of space for a one-to-two-hour space cruise within a luxury capsule complete with bar and lavatory, which is transported by a parafoil and high-altitude balloon," the company said.
"They can even share the experience in real-time with loved ones thanks to in-flight Internet access."
The missions by Eustace and Baumgartner offer hope for rescue and evacuation from troubled spacecraft. The US space shuttle was fitted with a crew evacuation system after the 1986 Challenger disaster.
That's some sort of escape capsule. Doing it in a box doesn't count.
Also, usable only during launch. No reentry situations need apply.
Green, I thought you kept up with this stuff...
A particular significant enhancement was bailout capability. This is not ejection as with a fighter plane, but an Inflight Crew Escape System[14] (ICES). The vehicle was put in a stable glide on autopilot, the hatch was blown, and the crew slid out a pole to clear the orbiter's left wing. They would then parachute to earth or the sea. While this may at first appear only usable under rare conditions, there were many failure modes where reaching an emergency landing site was not possible yet the vehicle was still intact and under control. Before the Challenger disaster, this almost happened on STS-51-F, when a single SSME failed at about T+345 seconds. The orbiter in that case was also Challenger. A second SSME almost failed due to a spurious temperature reading; fortunately the engine shutdown was inhibited by a quick-thinking flight controller. If the second SSME failed within about 69 seconds of the first, there would have been insufficient energy to cross the Atlantic. Without bailout capability the entire crew would be lost. After the loss of Challenger, those types of failures were made survivable. To facilitate high altitude bailouts, the crew began wearing the Launch Entry Suit and later the Advanced Crew Escape Suit during ascent and descent. Before the Challenger disaster, crews for operational missions wore only fabric flight suits.
Google exec sets records with leap from near-spacehttp://news.yahoo.com/google-exec-sets-records-leap-195718777--spt.html (http://news.yahoo.com/google-exec-sets-records-leap-195718777--spt.html)
AP - Sports October 24, 2014 10:03 PM
ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) -- Google executive Alan Eustace broke the sound barrier and set several skydiving records over the southern New Mexico desert early Friday after taking a big leap from the edge of space.
Eustace's supersonic jump was part of a project by Paragon Space Development Corp. and its Stratospheric Explorer team, which has been working secretly for years to develop a self-contained commercial spacesuit that would allow people to explore some 20 miles above the Earth's surface.
Friday's success marked a major step forward in that effort, company officials said.
''This has opened up endless possibilities for humans to explore previously seldom visited parts of our stratosphere,'' Grant Anderson, Paragon president and CEO, said in a statement.
The technology that has gone into developing the balloon, the spacesuit and the other systems that were used in Friday's launch will be used to advance commercial spaceflight, namely efforts by Arizona-based World View Enterprises to take paying tourists up in a high-altitude balloon and luxury capsule starting in late 2016.
As more people head into the stratosphere, the spacesuits could be adapted for emergency rescues or other scientific endeavors, officials said.
After nearly three years of intense planning, development and training, Eustace began his ascent via a high-altitude, helium-filled balloon just as the sun was rising. It took more than two hours to hit an altitude of 135,890 feet, from which he separated himself from the balloon and started plummeting back to Earth.
Wearing his specially designed spacesuit, Eustace hit a top velocity of 822 mph during a freefall that lasted 4 1/2 minutes.
Jim Hayhurst, director of competition at the United States Parachute Association, was the jump's official observer. He said Eustace deployed a drogue parachute that gave him incredible stability and control despite the massive Mach 1.23 speed reached during the freefall.
Eustace didn't feel it when he broke the sound barrier, but the ground crew certainly heard the resulting sonic boom, Hayhurst said.
''He just said it was a fabulous view. He was thrilled,'' Hayhurst said of his conversation with Eustace after he landed.
The supersonic skydive happened with little fanfare, out of the media spotlight, unlike the 2012 attempt by daredevil Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team. Baumgartner, who was taken aloft in a capsule with the help of millions of dollars in sponsorships, had set the previous altitude record by jumping from 128,100 feet.
Watching Eustace and his team prepare was historic, said Hayhurst, likening the scene to what it must have been like to watch Ryan Airlines Corp. build the Spirit of St. Louis in the late 1920s.
''This was a bunch of quiet engineers doing the job,'' he said. ''This is a scientific endeavor. This is a stepping stone to space.''