whats the highest skydiving altitude? What is the highest theoretical skydive possible?
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Ilooklikemyavatar..exactly asked:
What are the challenges associated with skydiving from so high up?
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What are the challenges associated with skydiving from so high up?
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February 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Hi. Many years ago two skydivers set out to break two records, one for the longest free fall and one for the longest parachute decent. They jumped from a balloon. The heater in the suit of the longest parachute decent jumper failed and he froze to death. The other pulled at about 10,000 feet. I don’t know if the death nullified to record. They started at something like 100,000 feet.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:30 am
10,000 ft-13,000 ft
The higher you go the more dangerous it could be.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
“Capt. Joe W. Kittinger achieved the highest parachute jump in history on August 16, 1960 as part of a United States Air Force program testing high-altitude escape systems. Wearing a pressure suit, Capt. Kittinger ascended for an hour and a half in an open gondola attached to a balloon to an altitude of 102,800 feet, where he then jumped. The fall lasted more than 13 minutes, during which Capt. Kittinger reached speeds exceeding 600 miles per hour.”
February 28th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
No way I’d jump at 100,000+ feet. Pretty incredible. Good question!
March 1st, 2009 at 12:41 am
I thought I saw something while cruising through headlines not too long ago where someone was going to attempt from the outer layers of the atmosphere or something like that. Don’t recall the details but it looked rather interesting as well as very insane!
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Anything over 15000 you need to wear an oxygen mask. There was a guy who did the highest free fall in history a few months back was reported on cnn. I forget what it was at. But it was a crazy height.
March 6th, 2009 at 7:24 am
At 14,000 feet you need to have a pressurized suit. But under that you don’t. One big challenge is if your shute doesn’t open. I read about a guy who fell 2,000 feet when his shute did not open and landed flat on his face on the front lawn of a doctor! The guy never lost consciousness, and nearly every bone in his body was broken. When he got well, he went skydiving! SHEESH!
March 9th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Joe Kittinger holds the record for the highest sky dive, at 102,000 miles. The limitation right now seems to be how far a balloon can take you. So the higher the maximum altitude of the balloon, the higher you can skydive. At high altitudes, humans suffer from dyspnea, which is a shortness of breath. This is because at high altitudes, humans do not get enough oxygen into our blood stream (see link to hypoxia). At higher altitudes, the temperatures become impossible for humans. This can be overcome by wearing special suits that allow humans to survive the dangers of space. When people are able to be launched into orbit, it would negate the balloon limitations facing skydivers today. As long as the person does not re-enter the atmosphere at speeds too high, a skydive from space would be possible. Hope it helps.
Forgot this: Above 17,388 feet (5300m), humans have a difficult time breathing.
Read the links if you want more information on all this.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:14 am
humans can come up with inventions to over come any limitation such as bringing oxygen, heaters, and pressure suits so the only factor is how far away can you start without being outside of earths gravity. if you are to far for gravity to pull you back down you are not falling but floating.