WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Jumps From Space 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.680 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.759 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.480 How Stuff Works and I Heeart Radio and a love 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.560 of all things tech. It's time for another classic episode. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.600 This one's truly dated. This one came out on November seven, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.800 two thousand twelve. It is titled tech Stuff Jumps from 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.840 Space and Yes, this was when we were talking about 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:38.200 a space jump when a capsule that was raised up 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.720 by very strong balloons, uh, was taken to the very 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.960 edge of space and we got to experience what it 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.600 was like to jump out of it as we watched 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.199 in first person view, and it was absolutely exhilarating or terrifying, 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.760 depending on your point of view. In this episode, Chris 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.960 and I talked about that entire mission and what it 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.960 took to achieve eve it. I hope you guys enjoy. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.080 Earlier this week, as of the time we're recording this, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:11.759 a fellow named Felix baumb Gardner did something pretty phenomenal. Yes, 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:18.160 actually he fell nice, He fell a lot. Yeah, he 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.400 fell more than any man has ever fallen before, right 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:25.720 in space. No one can hear you fall. As a 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.600 matter of fact, Uh, you know, you said that it's 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.480 been in the news. I think this is going to 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:35.440 captivate people's attention for a long long time because I 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.520 don't know that anybody is ready to better this brand 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:43.559 new And he said, and this record was set more 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.720 than you know, forty years after the last one, so 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.680 uh so, yeah, it's been a while. So what what 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.480 we're talking about is the Red Bull Stratos jump sponsored 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:02.040 by Red Bull. Was this crazy the attempt to break 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.000 some world records and many world records were broken, actually 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.440 three three, you know, the four that they were aiming 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.240 for they broke. If you're curious about the one they 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.160 did not break, it was for longest freefall. Uh And 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.600 I think they were going by longest as in uh time, 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.080 really they were looking at the time. It's kind of 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.239 interesting because according to what they were they were going 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.520 by the person who had the the record for the 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.480 highest jump previously, which was a uh that Air Force 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.840 United States Air Force colonel named Joseph Kittinger and his 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.880 name pronounced Kittinger. And on the news report that I, okay, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.079 I don't know that Kittinger um at any rate he 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.600 in in. Uh. He did several jumps for the Air 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.600 Force to kind of test what this, how how could 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.560 a human survive in a high altitude jump? And one 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.880 on one of those jumps he fell for four minutes 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.560 and thirty six seconds before deploying his main shoot. However, Uh, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.400 he did use a drogue shoot, which is a smaller 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.800 shoot not meant to uh, to slow you to the 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.640 safe speed, but rather to help guide your descent because 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.119 well we'll get into why that's important. But he had 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.679 that deployed in his jump. However, Uh, if you're really 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.399 going to be a stickler, then uh two years later. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:31.680 That was in nineteen sixty two years later. So nineteen 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:36.840 sixty two, Eugene Andreev jumped from an altitude of around 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.280 eighty three thousand, five hundred twenty three feet, which is 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.440 around twenty five thousand, four hundred fifty seven meters uh 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:50.640 over Russia, and um he fell for eighty thousand, three 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.160 hundred eighty feet or four thousand, five hundred meters before 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.520 deploying his shoot without using a drugue shoot. So, depending 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.360 on the way you look, get his is the longest 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.680 free fault because there was no drug shoot deployed anyway, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.040 uh baumb Gardner's fault did not last that long before 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.840 deploying his shoot. It was four minutes twenty two seconds 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:17.239 if I recall correctly, So he did not break that record. However, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.479 other records he definitely did break. And it was a 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:26.400 remarkable achievement on multiple fronts. I mean, just human endurance 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.360 to be able to handle that kind of uh battering 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.240 about you get in a jump of that size, as 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.919 well as the technical uh achievements that we made in 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.200 order to make this possible. So we wanted to talk 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:46.560 a little bit about why this is such a challenging 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.039 thing to take on and the kind of stuff he 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.000 used to achieve it. And and of course this was 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.520 a huge effort. I mean, this is not one guy 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.520 going up in a plane and jumping out and deploy shoot. 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:02.839 I mean he there was There was a huge team 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.599 in place to bring this about. And of course, as 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.440 Jonathan has already mentioned, this is not an effort that 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:14.240 was backed by a government. This was completely private, um, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:19.360 which you know, in some respects makes things easier. Um. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.719 And yes, they didn't use any kind of spacecraft. They 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.560 did have a pressurized capsule that was lifted into place 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.760 by a very very tall balloon. Yeah. Actually the balloon 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.640 got less tall as it got as it gut further 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.920 up in the atmosphere because of the changes in pressure. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.360 In fact, that's probably the first thing we should talk about, 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.360 is the air pressure and why uh, you know, why 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.680 there were so many things need to be in place 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.480 in order for him to have a successful jump. Um 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:55.800 air pressure changes at elevations, right, so uh, you know 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.960 it makes sense. You you figured when you think about 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.599 the Earth and you think about the atmosphere around the Earth, Well, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.320 if you're on the surface of the Earth, you've got 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.400 more atmosphere above you pressing down on you than you 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.440 would if you were quite a bit of the ways up. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:15.599 And so at sea level you have one atmosphere of pressure. Now, 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.920 if you're wondering, well, what does that mean in terms 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:24.360 of other units, that's that's just under fifteen pounds per 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:29.640 square inch or and you're welcome Europe that I did 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:35.000 this one point oh three kilograms per square centimeter. But 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:36.920 one atmosphere is a much easier way of saying that. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.560 So that's at sea level, and that's the average. Okay, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.279 So even even at sea level, that number of changes somewhat, 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:48.600 but the average is that number now at thirty five 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.240 thousand feet, which is, you know, around where a lot 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.279 of commercial air flights might be somewhere around in that area, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.880 which is ten See I did this all the way around. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.719 It's about three and a half pounds per square inch, 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.119 so remember it at C level fifteen pounds feet around 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.000 three and a half pounds. That, by the way, is 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:14.240 a point to five ms per square centimeter uh and 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:19.680 UH or point to four atmospheres. At around sixty two 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.560 thousand ft or nineteen thousand meters, the pressure has reached 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:28.000 a point where it's it's so um so much less 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:33.080 than what we experience that we can have some pretty 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:40.880 serious health risks. Um. You know, we're we've evolved on 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.680 this planet to to be able to survive in the 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:49.840 conditions of our environment. So you know, we're used to 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.960 having this certain amount of air pressure. Beyond that we 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.760 don't do so well. And if the pressure is too light, 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:02.000 then our our blood can actually start to have gas 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.360 form within it and then it'll will expand, which is 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.120 called ebulism. And it is not a good thing to 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.920 have happened to you. So that's why pressure is a 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.240 big deal. And of course we haven't even reached the 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.360 the height of the where the jump was because the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.760 goal for this jump was to jump out at around 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:30.240 a hundred and twenty thousand feet uh. In actuality, he 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.760 got all the way up to around a d one 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.120 hundred feet, which is thirty nine thousand, forty five, which 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.959 is just over twenty four miles up or thirty nine 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.880 kilometers for those of you who wanted to, you know, 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:49.240 not divide that number of meters there. Um, it took 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.520 about two hours from to get there. But at that 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.800 at that elevation, air pressure is less than one pound 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.440 per square inch or less than point oh seven kilograms 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:03.800 per square centimeter or or point zero seven atmospheres, so 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:08.280 you're talking about very little air pressure at all. And 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.640 because of that, both the capsule he was in and 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.080 of course the suit he was wearing needed to be 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:21.319 pressurized so that he would not have any major health 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.760 risks when he when he jumped out or just from 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:31.880 the ascent. So the capsule was was pressurized first, and 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.760 it was done that way so that he would not 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:39.120 have to pressurize his suit from the from the ground 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.960 as they started to ascend um. By having it in 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.360 the capsule, it took some of that that that power, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.600 that energy that was needed off the the actual suit, 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.760 which is good. You want to preserve that as much 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.960 as you can. Once they reached the float height, which 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.120 is where the balloon was not going to rise any 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.200 higher and not as high as it was going to go. Uh, 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.880 then that was when it was time to open up 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.120 the door and start off the jump. Well, that that's 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.840 where they had to depressurize the cabin and pressurize the suit. 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.000 Actually pressurize the suit first, obviously very important step, but 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.640 then depressurized the cabin so that they could open up 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.560 the door, because you can't open that door otherwise there's 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.480 too much pressure on the inside. It's just like if 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.600 you're in an airplane and you have the emergency exit, 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.280 the emergency exit, if you are at altitude, it's going 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.400 to have so much tremendous amount of pressure on the 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.760 inside because the airplane itself is pressurized while the outside 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.640 is not. You can't open that door. You're just not 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.559 physically strong enough. Same thing here. UM. Once it was 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.480 de pressurized, he could open up the door. His his 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.320 suit had been pressurized. UM, and that was what gave 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.200 him that safety of at least from the environment. I mean, 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.480 there's so many other things you have to worry about, 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.559 but as far as air pressure goes, that was how 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.280 they took care of that. And of course all the 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.640 different parts of his suit were sealed so that there 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:05.360 wouldn't be any leaks like the The gloves had uh 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.920 these these rotating locks on them so that you could 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.120 not have them airtight with the suit, as as well 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.800 as the helmet. UM. This was really important because I 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:21.160 Kittinger had a jump where he had a hole in 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:26.520 one of his gloves and um, apparently the the glove 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.880 ended up for the pressure, it ended up sticking to 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:35.840 his hand enough so that it wasn't a huge problem. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.840 H And he did not report this to ground control 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.120 because of fear that they would cancel the jump. And 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.199 but by the time he landed there was a problem. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.120 His hand started to swell and apparently swelled to about 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.319 twice the size of normal UH due to the UH 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.240 the changes in pressure and and and and so that's 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.440 something you don't want to have happen if you can 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.800 avoid it. That's true, that's true. Yeah. The the suit 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:08.640 was actually made by a company from Massachusetts. David Clark. Um, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:16.600 they made suits for the Geminy missions as well as 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.040 Space Shuttle missions, Gemini missions. If that sounds like an 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.640 internal joke, it it sort of is. You gotta listen 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.040 to you. Previous Space podcast. We did a series on 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.439 the Gemini missions a few years ago. One of the 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.520 uh astronauts from that time kept pronouncing it Geminy, and 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.480 Jonathan's blood pressure just kept rising every time he said it. 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.880 Jimminy Cricket. Yeah, so yeah, it was the same company 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.040 that did that. They've they've made all kinds of suits 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:52.040 for aeronautics and space for decades now. So um, you 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.400 know they're they're well known, well respected firm to to 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.760 have done that. And obviously since the jump was successful 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.160 and no spoilers intended, but you know, well it's nice 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.960 to know. It's must say. You can't really spoil something 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.320 that already happened. Um, well know, if somebody's just now 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.000 hearing about this, yeah, well then you have been hiding 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.080 in a hole. You can you can watch actually watch 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.480 this live when it happened, and from about an hour 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:20.760 into it. I turned it on after he'd been on 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.800 for an hour because the ascent took just over two 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:28.120 hours to get to the right altitude. So UM, Jonathan 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:31.480 told me about how he felt when bum Gardner opened 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.079 the capsule door and started to step out, and they 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.520 call him fearless Felix, that's the nickname he is. Sheer 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.120 terror was what was going through me seeing his Yeah, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.760 well we'll get into it. But but to go back 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.760 to the suit, it also could withstand temperatures as low 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:53.600 as minus ninety degrees fahrenheit or minus sixty eight celsius 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.080 or over one degrees fahrenheit or thirty seven point eight 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.480 degrees celsius. So also very important because of course at 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.720 that elevation you were also talking about very very cold temperatures. 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.960 Um and in fact, there were parts of his fall 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.920 that were colder than others. It was interesting because it 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.760 it actually warmed up a little bit from um, I 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.640 forget fresh No no, no, no, no, not friction. I'm 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.680 just talking about the ambient temperature actually warmed up, like 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.240 there was a point in the atmosphere. Yeah. No, I 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.760 was watching and they talked about it too. They said, well, 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.400 you know, closer to the sun. I'm like, really, you're 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.000 not that much closer The Sun's ninety three million miles away. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.920 I think a few feet isn't a huge difference, but 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.760 but it was interesting. You could watch and the temperature 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.240 gauge was going up. It went really low and then 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.280 started creeping up again, just slightly, not like it wasn't 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.920 like skyrocketing, but at the height where he was jumping at, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.320 the temperature was around minus ten fahrenheit, which is minus 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:03.360 twenty three celsius. So I blame house. Yeah, methane production. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.360 Is that what you're talking about? Okay, I was trying 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.480 to see where you're going there. Note not based on 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.360 scientific fact, mostly because I just wanted to say cows. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.160 So yeah, So the suit had to be able to 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.120 withstand these cold temperatures as well. And uh, his suit 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:23.040 also had very It looked a lot like the space 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.400 suits you would see, uh you know in any NASA 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.040 presentation or if you watch any of those launches. It 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.240 looks a lot like those. Actually, it also looked a 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.840 little bit um just from appearance's sake, uh, sort of 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.800 like the stuff that race car drivers wear, probably mostly 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.720 because the you know the names and the de cows 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.240 and things, right. Yeah, So it also had it also 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.400 had a sun visor that that Felix could put down 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.680 or up if he needed to. Uh, and the the 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:59.000 visor itself was heated in order to have it u 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.280 avoid icing issues. You know, obviously if you're if you're 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.760 going through super cold temperatures and you've you know, we 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.240 give off a lot of water vapor, as it turns out, 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.440 and could there could be a lot of icing problems, 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.360 both on the inside and outside of a suit. And uh. 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.760 In fact, that was one of the issues that almost 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:22.160 seemed to be a big problem during the the ascent, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.440 because it looked like, according to Felix, that the face 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:31.280 plate was not heating properly. And uh, you know they 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.120 I think the first time I heard about that was 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.280 when he was around eighty thousand feet or so and 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.120 still rising, obviously still climbing. And and then you hear 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:45.080 the people on who are speaking during the whole ascent, 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.120 you know, the people who are relaying information to the audience, saying, everyone, 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.960 here's trying to find out what options we have, And 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.200 I'm like, wow, what options do you have? And the 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.200 the option, the biggest, like last ditch option thing, you know, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.400 in order to get him back to Earth safely. You 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.280 you you ditch the jump. But the capsule itself was 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.959 connected to the balloon and hat and could disconnect and 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:16.520 had its own parachute. So the worst case scenario, uh, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.520 action would be to cut the tie to the balloon, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.280 to deploy the parachute on the capsule and have the 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.560 capsule come down to Earth. Now that was not ideal, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.080 uh most well, first of all, you're aborting the jump, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.359 so that's not ideal. But also it would have been 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.320 a bit of a rough landing. Now, the capsule itself 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:45.320 had a crash sections built into it, crash pads to 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.239 absorb some of that impact if it were to um 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.600 to have to land now. And and of course they 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.360 did detach the capsule at the end of the jump anyway, 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.639 because they wanted to retreat the capsule. But um uh, 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.600 you know, it's deaf. Would not have been a soft landing. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:03.879 It would have been a little rough. And it's interesting 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.080 because the inside the capsule again looked very much like 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:12.760 the Gemini capsules. Um it was. It was a tiny 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.680 little thing. Really. The capsule was six ft tall or 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.320 one pot eight meters and it weighed pounds or one 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:25.399 thousands And yeah, I mean you take a look at 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:27.120 this and you're like, wow, this looks like it would fit, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.359 you know, in a in a special casing on the 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.600 top of a rocket. It really did look like some 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:39.080 of those early NASA spacecraft. True enough, So should we 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:43.000 talk about the about the jump? Sure? Um, I mean 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.960 there's other there are other things actually before I want 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.440 to talk about the balloon. I want to talk about 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.479 the balloon because the balloon is crazy, so it has 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.320 its own story, actually five or so of them. Well, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.840 the the weird thing I thought, the strangest thing to 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:03.199 me about the balloon was how incredibly thin that material was. 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.359 So uh it's it was made out of polyethylene plastic 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:16.560 film and it was point zero zero zero eight inches thick. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:22.040 That's pretty thin. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty thin. Or point 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.480 zero zero zero two point zero zero zero two centimeters thick. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.800 There we go, We're gonna get that number right, um, 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.840 but yeah, super super thin. They called it a forty 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:39.240 acre dry cleaner bag because it was essentially made of 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.160 very similar stuff. Now, if you're thinking like, how could 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.840 that possibly bear the weight of this capsule, which you 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.640 know weighs quite a bit, uh, the real the way 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.199 they did it was they used this load tape that 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.800 was connected to the balloon, and the load tape was 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.960 actually what bore the load of the capsule. The tape 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.919 also had in it a special reflective material so that 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.800 the balloon would show up on radar, very important for 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:12.280 any aircraft in the area, although of course the mission 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.120 was working along with air traffic controllers to make sure 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:17.520 there wouldn't be any problems on that because you know, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.439 you can't really direct where a balloon is going to go. 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.000 You are you are at the mercy of the winds. 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.800 Although this was over the desert in the southwestern United States, 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.439 it was populated areas right near Roswell, New Mexico, so 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.520 it's really just the military and aliens that were there. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.960 By the way, I'm totally joking. The whole Roswell alien 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:45.439 thing is absolutely ludicrous. But anyway, um so, yeah, and 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:50.280 that balloon was created by a t a aerospace and uh, 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.080 here's some here's some stats on the balloons, some some 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.439 for people who are curious about how big this was. 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:03.560 So uninflated it was one ft long or one point 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.959 six meters now at the height once it was inflated, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.280 and which takes about an hour. Takes an hour to 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.480 inflate this balloon with helium. They used helium because it's 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:18.920 a nonflammable very important. If you've been wondering why there's 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:23.200 a helium shortage, Yeah yeah, talk about that's a big 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.440 balloon fill up with helium. Yeah yeah. The yell HC 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.359 might have a few things to say to Felix. Explain 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:31.240 to your kid why she can't get a door a balloon, 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:35.359 now you know? So, yeah, just getting the door balloon 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.840 filled with hydrogen. I can't imagine how anything bad happening 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.400 from that. Take it to a birthday party. Don't do that. 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.439 Hydrogen is highly flammable. That's why they went with helium 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:48.359 the candles. So the height of balloon once it was 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.960 fully inflated at takeoff was about five or one hundred 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:58.320 sixty seven point six meters, and once it reached its altitude, 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.200 the height was more like three hundred thirty four point 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.399 eight two ft or a hundred two point one because, again, 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.280 as it got higher up in the atmosphere, the atmospheric 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:14.320 pressure decreased, the balloon started to um. The height began 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.320 to decrease, but it's it's diameter increased. They began to 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.320 round out quite a bit because when you first looked 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:23.440 at it looked like a tear drop. It was kind 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.000 of tall and skinny, really compared compared to what we 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.080 think of when we do think of birthday party balloons, 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:32.840 you know, I mean those are tear drop shaped too, 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.320 but not this is a lot longer than that, right, 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.400 So once it got up to the mushroom here, yeah, yeah, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.280 it definitely rounded out as it got higher up and uninflated. 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.600 It weighed a smelt three thousand seven eight pounds or 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.879 one thousands you just wanted to say smelled, I did. 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.639 And yeah, and it also had a vent so that 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.760 it could vent off helium. Now this is also really important. 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:05.320 You know what bugs me? It didn't It didn't vent anger, 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.879 it vented helium. Yeah. No. The the reason for the 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.560 vent is very important because the helium was expanding as 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:18.160 the balloon was climbing, right, So at there does come 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:21.120 a point where there's a possibility that that expansion could 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.639 damage the balloon itself and tear the balloon. So the 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.480 balloon needed to have a way of venting out excess 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.760 helium in order to avoid that. And in fact, they 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.920 did vent helium at least once or twice, especially once 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:39.320 they passed that hundred twenty thousand feet mark, because again 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:41.399 was their goal, and they went right by it and 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:45.520 kept on going. Um, so, you know, there was a 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.040 point where there was some concern about making sure that 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:52.680 the the balloon and capsule maintained integrity because it was 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.960 starting to go beyond what they had planned. So as 0:23:57.200 --> 0:23:59.439 as long as they didn't run into any wire coat hangers, 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.160 because that's was to be the downfall of most dry 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:07.280 cleaner bags. Right, Yeah, that's exactly the problem. Jonathan from 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:11.439 two thousand nineteen here to interrupt this classic episode before 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:14.000 we take any more leaps, we're gonna take a quick 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:24.360 jump over to a break to thank our sponsor. They 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:29.040 had nine high definition cameras that were mounted on both 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:33.919 the suit and on an inside the capsule. So they 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.119 had cameras mounted on on these arms pointed back at 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:39.080 the capsule, so you could get these great views of 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:41.679 the capsule as it was going up, also as the 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:44.480 door opened, which that's the part where I was terrified, 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:47.080 and I'll talk about that in a second. But there 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:50.240 are also cameras on the suits they could capture footage 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:54.840 during the actual jump and plus beyond that they had 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:59.439 a helicopter that was using a camera mounted on a 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:04.680 stable as Asian gyroscope to track Felix's movements, and they 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:09.880 had ground cameras on these huge trucks with these uh, 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:15.879 these enormous basis that were motorized, so they could track 0:25:16.240 --> 0:25:19.639 the progress of the balloon. And it it's phenomenal to 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:23.160 me because you think, that's a balloon that is more 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:27.720