Science

The Physics of the Red Bull Stratos Jump

A look back at physicist Rhett Allain's various analyses of the Red Bull Stratos Jump.
  • Space Jumpers in Star Trek
  • Launching of a test balloon
  • Data from a Stratos test jump
1 / 7
space-jumpers-in-star-trek

What If You Jumped From the Space Station?

This is one of the basic plot points in the last Star Trek movie. James Kirk along with two others jumped out of shuttle at about the height of the International Space Station (well, they jumped onto the planet Vulcan). If they started from rest (so, not orbiting) how fast would they go? Would the g-forces kill them? The calculation would be similar to the model for the Red Bull Stratos jump. The main difference is the atmospheric model for the density of air as a function of altitude. However, when you add this data for a greater height you find that these space people reach a maximum speed of 4900 mph. Why so much faster? These space jumpers have much more time to accelerate with very little air resistance. But what happens when the get into higher density air? This is where the problem occurs. Since they are going so fast, they quickly get into a part of the atmosphere with a significant density and extremely large air resistance. This will produce an acceleration around 20 g's (for at least a short period of time). Survivable, but just barely. Here is the post with all the details.