Onboard Diary

Project SpaceDiver... or how we learned to stop worrying and fall down to the Earth in 10 minutes

Through the Microsiervos website, we've heard of an interesting initiative originally published on Wired Science. It seems that the company Orbital Outfitters -which does development and construction of materials to be used in outer space- has its mind set on designing a new astronaut costume, which would allow jumping off and landing safely (and sound?) from a mere 36,500 metres height at least.

Geropaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

For what we've been told, the aim of the project isn't to break a record but to allow the evacuation of special suborbital spaceships in case of an emergency. And the thing is that with a leap from such an altitude, the secret ingredient is not in the sauce... but in the costume. Main problems? Lack of pressure and oxygen, temperature, friction... and the huge speed  you can reach during the fall: several thousands of kilometres per hour (blimey!) 

The costume shall include, among other things, the following requirements:

• Give vital support over the height of 150 km for 15 minutes
• Be light (less than 20Kg in weight)
• Allow parachute use 
• Offer free mobility

Ok, like we said: let's see who's the fearless tough guy who'd do the inaugural test to see if it works :^)