By Latif Tabanli and Ajitesh Sharma
Photo by Kamil Pietrzak on Unsplash
Introduction
Imagine this: You’re standing on a platform, looking down at the Earth from 24 miles above. You’re in a pressure suit that barely lets you breathe, but you know what to do. Step off into the void, falling faster than sound can travel. Would you be able to do this outstanding stunt?
Felix Baumgartner did, in October 2012, he jumped out of the Red Bull Stratos (a satellite) situated 24 miles or 127,852 feet from the ground in New Mexico. He fell out of the Stratos, with only his pressure suit and his parachute, and a huge smile on his face. Let’s rewind a bit and talk about what a free fall is.
An Overview of Free Fall
There are two different types of freefall, true freefall, and partial freefall.
True Free Fall is where an object is moving, only with the presence of gravity, nothing else. No air resistance, no friction, no external force. True freefall is most commonly experienced in space, where there is no air resistance, but only gravity. For example, the solar system is in true freefall, because the planets are only affected by the sun’s gravitational field, moving by orbiting around the sun. Felix Baumgartner didn’t achieve true freefall though, as he wasn’t as in space (which is 62 miles up according to the Karman Line). Instead, Felix achieved partial freefall, as he was still experiencing another force while falling, Air Resistance.
At the start though, when the atmosphere was less dense, there was pretty much no air resistance, making it really close to true freefall, but as he descended down, the air resistance increased, causing it to turn into partial free fall.
The Planning
The preparation and planning of the jump was a big challenge though. In a CNN interview, Felix Baumgartner exclaimed, “Sometimes we’d go into a meeting with three problems and then leave that meeting eight hours later with another five … and no solution for the previous problems.” At first, he approached the energy drink company Red Bull to sponsor the mission, but they rejected it. However, after he partook in 32 BASE jumps to prove that he was worthy of the challenge, Red Bull accepted his offer and began the project.
Felix Baumgartner even got into a lawsuit over idea theft, with Daniel Hogan claiming that Felix had copied his idea–fortunately, the lawsuit was soon resolved
Additionally, he needed the thing that would actually take him 24 miles up. And the answer to that was the mighty helium balloon! Not a normal one though, the helium balloon that carried Felix up took a grueling six years to create, cost 20 million USD, the size of 33 football pitches, and was as tall as the Statue of Liberty (305 feet!) Felix also needed a suit so he wouldn’t freeze up in space or burn up during reentry. The suit had to survive against -72 degree Celsius (-97.6 Fahrenheit) while not being too heavy so he could still move, among other things.
Execution
After enough practice and preparation, Felix did the monumental jump on October 12th, 2012. He wore an Equivital LifeMonitor so researchers on the ground could monitor his health as he descended and his specialized pressure suit, which as he recalled it “--like breathing through a pillow the whole day, not connected to the world, sort of a prison.”
While falling down, he broke the sound barrier at 1.25 times the speed of sound achieving the world record for fastest human free fall. The whole jump took 10 minutes, but it was supposed to take roughly 5-6 minutes, which increased the tension down on the ground. He also spun all over the place while falling, thinking that he would die. Luckily though, he re-stabilized, eventually deploying his parachute and reaching the ground as a redbull legend with world records broken.
Additionally, the event was live-streamed by Red Bull and actually broke the record for most people watching a YouTube Live Stream, with 8 million people at once. It’s possible that even more would have watched if it were not for YouTube’s server capacity. That was 2 records broken from one crazy stunt!
Scientific Benefits
This wasn’t all a publicity stunt though, this helped provide information for supersonic speed researchers about what would happen when a human would go past the speed of sound. It also helped researchers find new ideas for high-altitude parachutes, which could be used in stratospheric cruising aircrafts as well.
Currently, the Red Bull Stratos and his suit are in the collection of the National Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum situated at the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia for people to gaze at.
Works Cited
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, May 16). Red Bull Stratos. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Stratos
Fawcett, K. (2014, March 31). Felix Baumgartner's Spacesuit From His Death-Defying Stratospheric Jump Joins the Smithsonian Collections. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/felix-baumgartner-spacesuit-from-his-death-defying-stratospheric-jump-joins-smithsonian-collections-180950326/
May, A., & Dobrijevic, D. (2022, November 14). The Kármán Line: Where does space begin? Space.com. https://www.space.com/karman-line-where-does-space-begin
Howorth, A. (2022, October 14). Felix Baumgartner: 10 years on, the man who fell to Earth is still awed by experience. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/sport/felix-baumgartner-red-bull-sky-dive-spt-intl/index.html