[geeks] ultralight suicide mission

[Phil Stracchino]

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> many years ago i made the rough calc that if you killed your velocity,
> from a low orbit - 100-200 miles - in free fall you'd be going about
> mach 1 when you hit serious air.
> 
> this is trivial for vehicle reentry, tough but probably doable for a
> person.

You'd need to start out with a ribbon chute to shed speed.

> now killing your orbital velocity - that's a trick.  i've read the
> factlet that about half the energy needed to achieve orbit is needed
> to climb to altitude; the other half is needed to accelerate to speed.

That sounds about right.


-- 
 Same geek, same site, new location
 Phil Stracchino                     Landline: 603-429-0220
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net         Mobile: 603-216-7037
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater