WEBVTT - TechStuff Jumps From Space 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:12.080 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from dot com. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.760 Hello again, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. My name 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.720 is Chris Poulette and I'm an editor at how Stuff 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.320 Works dot com. Sitting across from me, as always, is 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.840 senior writer Jonathan Strickland. He there, well, today, Chris, I 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.159 thought we would talk about something that happened recently in 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:29.840 the news, especially at the time that we're recording this, 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:36.680 since it is currently a mid October ish twelve, two 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.360 thousand twelve, and uh and earlier this week as of 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.800 the time we're recording this, a fellow named Felix baumb 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:51.800 Gardner did something pretty phenomenal. Yes, actually he fell nice, 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.360 he fell a lot. Yeah, he fell more than any 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.840 man has ever fallen before right in space. No one 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.640 and hear you fall as a matter of fact, Uh, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:05.399 you know you said that it's been in the news. 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.240 I think this is going to captivate people's attention for 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.640 a long long time, because I don't know that anybody 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:17.360 is ready to better this brand new record. And he said, 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.040 and and this record was set more than you know, 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.760 forty years after the last one. So uh so, yeah, 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.840 it's been a while. So what what we're talking about 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.400 is the Red Bull Stratos jump sponsored by Red Bull. 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.360 Was this crazy attempt to break some world records, and 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.240 many world records were broken. Actually three for you know, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.360 the four that they were aiming for they broke. If 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.680 you're curious about the one they did not break, it 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.840 was for longest free fall, uh. And I think they 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.760 were going by longest as in uh time. Really they 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.120 were looking at the time. It's kind of interesting because 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.360 according to what they were they were going by the 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.560 person who had the the record for the highest jump previously, 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.520 which was a uh that Air Force United States Air 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:16.360 Force colonel named Joseph Kittinger his name pronounced Kittinger on 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.799 the news report that I okay, I don't know that 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.519 er um at any rate he in in Uh. He 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.840 did several jumps for the Air Force to kind of 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.200 test what this How how could a human survive in 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:37.080 a high altitude jump? And one on one of those jumps, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.919 he fell for four minutes and thirty six seconds before 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.080 deploying his main shoot. However, uh, he did use a 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.600 drogue shoot, which is a smaller shoot not meant to 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.519 uh to slow you to the safe speed, but rather 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.080 to help guide your descent because well we'll get into 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:01.200 why that's important, but he had that deployed in his jump. However, Uh, 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.520 if you're really going to be a stickler, then uh 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.400 two years later that was in nineteen sixty two years later, 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.720 nineteen sixty two, the Eugene Andreev jumped from an altitude 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.399 of around eighty three thousand, five twenty three ft, which 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:21.440 is around twenty four hundred fifty seven meters uh over Russia, 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:27.880 and um he fell for eighty thousand, three eighty feet 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.880 or thousand, five hundred meters before deploying his shoot without 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.040 using a drug shoot. So depending on the way you 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.440 look at his is the longest free fall because there 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:43.600 was no drug shoot deployed anyway. Uh, baum Gartner's fall 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.080 did not last that long before deploying his shoot. It 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.120 was four minutes twenty two seconds if I recall correctly. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:54.560 So he did not break that record. However, other records 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.960 he definitely did break. And it was a remarkable achievement 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.840 on multiple fronts. I mean, just human endurance to be 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:08.160 able to handle that kind of uh battering about you 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.840 get in a jump of that size, as well as 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:15.600 the technical uh achievements that we made in order to 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.839 make this possible. So we wanted to talk a little 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:23.680 bit about why this is such a challenging thing to 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.320 take on and the kind of stuff he used to 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.800 achieve it. And and of course this was a huge effort. 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.440 I mean, this is not one guy going up in 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.719 a plane and jumping out, uh and deploying a shoot. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.200 I mean he there was there was a huge team 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.840 in place to bring this about. And of course, as 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.680 Jonathan has already mentioned, this is not an effort that 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.440 was backed by a government. This was completely private, um, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:55.600 which you know, in some respects makes things easier. Um. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.000 And yes, they didn't use any kind of spacecraft. They 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:03.360 did have a pressure rised capsule that was lifted into 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.680 place by a very very tall balloon. Yeah. Actually the 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.279 balloon got less tall as it got as it gut 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.120 further up in the atmosphere because of the changes in pressure. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.600 In fact, that's probably the first thing we should talk about, 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.560 is the air pressure and why uh, you know, why 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.920 there were so many things need to be in place 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.599 in order for him to have a successful jump. Um. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:32.000 Air pressure changes at elevations, right, so uh, you know 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.200 it makes sense. You you're figured when you think about 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.840 the Earth, and you think about the atmosphere around the Earth, Well, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.520 if you're on the surface of the Earth, you've got 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.600 more atmosphere above you pressing down on you than you 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.640 would if you were quite a bit of the ways up. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:51.760 And so at sea level you have one atmosphere of pressure. Now, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.120 if you're wondering, well, what does that mean in terms 0:05:55.160 --> 0:06:00.599 of other units, that's that's just under fifteen pounds per 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.839 square inch or and you're welcome Europe that I did 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:11.200 this one point oh three kilograms per square centimeter, but 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.159 one atmosphere is a much easier way of saying that. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.760 So that's at sea level, and that's the average. Okay, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.599 so even even at sea level, that number of changes somewhat, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.800 but the average is that number now at thirty five 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.440 thousand feet, which is, you know, around where a lot 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.520 of commercial air flights might be somewhere around in that area, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.520 which is ten thousand seven. See I did this all 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.200 the way around. It's about three and a half pounds 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.640 per square inch. So remember it at sea level fifteen 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.880 pounds thou feet around three and a half pounds. That, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.120 by the way, is a point to five kilograms per 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:53.520 square centimeter UH and UH or point to four atmospheres 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.240 at around sixty two thousand ft or nineteen thousand meters, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.240 the pressure has reached a point where it's it's so 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.960 um so much less than what we experience that we 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:15.080 can have some pretty serious health risks. Um. You know, 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.559 we're we've evolved on this planet to to be able 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:25.160 to survive in the conditions of our environment. So you know, 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.880 we're used to having this certain amount of air pressure. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.000 Beyond that we don't do so well. And if the 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.960 pressure is too light, then our our blood can actually 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.160 start to have gas form within it and then it'll 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:45.320 will expand, which is called ebulism, and it is not 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:50.119 a good thing to have happened to you. So that's 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.760 why pressure is a big deal. And of course we 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.440 haven't even reached the the height of the where the 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.480 jump was, because the goal for this jump was to 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:05.200 about at around a hundred and twenty thousand feet uh. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.679 In actuality, he got all the way up to around 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.320 a d one hundred feet, which is thirty nine thousands, 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.960 which is just over twenty four miles up or thirty 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.080 nine kilometers for those of you who wanted to you know, 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:25.480 not divide that number of meters there. Um, we took 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.720 about two hours frohim to get there. But at that 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.960 at that elevation, air pressure is less than one pound 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.720 per square inch or less than point oh seven kilograms 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:40.640 per square centimeter or point zero seven atmospheres, So you're 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:45.600 talking about very little air pressure at all. And because 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.120 of that, both the capsule he was in and of 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.280 course the suit he was wearing needed to be pressurized 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.040 so that he would not have any major health risks 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.520 when he when he jumped out or just from the ascent. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:08.680 So the capsule was was pressurized first, and it was 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 done that way so that he would not have to 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.640 pressurize his suit, uh from the from the ground as 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.760 they started to ascend. Um, by having it in the capsule, 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.280 it took some of that that that power, that energy 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.440 that was needed off the the actual suit, which is good. 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.760 You want to preserve that as much as you can. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.959 Once they reached the float height, which is where the 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.240 balloon was not gonna rise any higher and not as 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.520 high as it was going to go. Uh, then that 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.680 was when it was time to open up the door 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.679 and start off the jump. Well that that's where they 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.080 had to de pressurize the cabin and pressurize the suit. 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.200 Actually pressurize the suit first, obviously very important step, but 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.880 then depressurized the cabin so that they could open up 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.760 the door, because you can't open that door otherwise there's 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:58.720 too much pressure on the inside. It's just like if 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.840 you're in an airplane and um, you have the emergency exit, 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.520 the emergency exit. If you were at altitude, it's going 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.600 to have so much tremendous amount of pressure on the 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.040 inside because the airplane itself is pressurized while the outside 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.720 is not. You can't open that door that you're just 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.680 not physically strong enough. Same thing here. Um, once it 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:18.640 was de pressurized, he could open up the door. His 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.120 his suit had been pressurized, um, and that was what 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.239 gave him that safety of at least from the environment. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.080 I mean, there's so many other things you have to 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.360 worry about, but as far as air pressure goes, that 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.120 was how they took care of that. And of course 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.679 all the different parts of his suit were sealed so 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.680 that there wouldn't be any leaks, like the the gloves 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.440 had uh, these these rotating locks on them so that 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.920 you could not have them airtight with the suit as 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.600 as well as the helmet. UM. This was really important 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.480 because Kitteninger had a jump where he had a hole 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:02.400 in one of his gloves and UM apparently the the 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.079 glove ended up for the pressure, it ended up sticking 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:12.040 to his hand enough so that it wasn't a huge problem. 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.040 H And he did not report this to ground control 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.320 because of fear that they would cancel the jump. And 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.439 but by the time he landed there was a problem. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.360 His hand started to swell and apparently swelled to about 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.480 twice the size of normal H due to the H 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.480 the changes in pressure and and and and so that's 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:35.679 something you don't want to have happen if you can 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.000 avoid it. That's true. That's true. Yeah. The the suit 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:44.840 was actually made by a company from Massachusetts, David clark Um. 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:52.839 They made suits for the Geminy missions as well as 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.280 Space Shuttle missions. Gemini missions. If that sounds like an 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.840 internal joke, it it sort of is. You gotta listen 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:03.240 to you previous Space podcast. We did a series on 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.679 the Gemini missions a few years ago. One of the 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.760 UH astronauts from that time kept pronouncing it Geminy, and 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.679 Jonathan's blood pressure just kept rising every time he said it. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:19.080 Jimminy Cricket. Yeah. So yeah, it was the same company 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.280 that did that. They've they've made all kinds of suits 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:28.240 for aeronautics and space for decades now. So um, you 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.600 know they're they're well known, well respected firm to to 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.000 have done that. And obviously since the jump was successful, 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.720 no spoilers intended, but you know, well it's nice to know. 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:44.200 It's must say, you can't really spoil something that already happened. Um, well, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.560 now if somebody's just now hearing about this, yeah, well 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.000 then you have been hiding in a hole. You can 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.880 you can watch actually watched this live when it happened, 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.120 and uh, from about an hour into it. I turned 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:57.720 it on after we've been on for an hour because 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.200 the ascent took just over two hours to get to 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.040 the right altitude. So, um, Jonathan told me about how 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:09.240 he felt when bum Gardner opened the capsule door and 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.680 started to step out, and they call him fearless Felix. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.959 That's the nickname here is sheer terror was what was 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.440 going through me seeing his Yeah, well we'll get into it. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.160 But but to go back to the suit, it also 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.520 could withstand temperatures as low as minus ninety degrees fahrenheit 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:33.000 or minus sixty eight celsius or over one degrees fahrenheit 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.720 or thirty seven point eight degrees celsius. So U also 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.280 very important because, of course, at that elevation you were 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.360 also talking about very very cold temperatures um and in 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.040 fact there were parts of his fall that were colder 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.920 than others. It was interesting because it actually warmed up 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:56.800 a little bit from um I forget no, no, no, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.000 no, no no, not friction. I'm just talking about the ambient 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.800 temperature actually warmed up, like there was a point in 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.880 the atmosphere. Yeah. No, I was watching and they talked 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.240 about it too. They said, well, you know, closer to 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.720 the sun. I'm like, really, you're not that much closer. 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.040 The Sun's ninety three million miles away. I think a 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.640 few feet isn't a huge difference. But but it was interesting. 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.120 You could watch and the temperature gauge was going up 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.640 and went really low and then started creeping up again, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.680 just slightly, not like it wasn't like skyrocketing, but at 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.800 the height where he was jumping at, the temperature was 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.840 around minus ten fahrenheit, which is minus twenty three celsius. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.840 So I blame cows. Yeah, methane production, is that what 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.040 you're talking about? Okay, I was trying to see where 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.400 you're going there, not based on scientific fact, mostly because 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.800 I just wanted to say cows. So yeah, So the 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.000 suit had to be able to withstand these cold temperatures 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:57.760 as well. And uh, his suit also had very it 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.080 looked a lot like the space suits you would the 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.440 uh you know in any NASA presentation or if you 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.800 watch any of those launches. It looks a lot like those. Actually. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:11.160 It also looked a little bit um just from appearance's sake, Uh, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.920 sort of like the stuff that race car drivers wear, 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.360 probably mostly because the you know, the names and the 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.520 decos and things, right. Yeah. It also had it also 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.600 had a sun visor that that Felix could put down 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.880 or up if he needed to. H and the the 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:34.680 visor itself was heated in order to have it, uh 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.520 avoid icing issues. You know obviously if you're if you're 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.920 going through super cold temperatures and you've you know, we 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.440 give off a lot of water vapor as it turns out, 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.040 and it could be there could be a lot of 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.360 icing problems, both on the inside and outside of a suit. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.080 And uh, in fact, that was one of the issues 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:57.760 that almost seemed to be a big problem during the 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.520 the ascent, because it looked like, according to Felix, that 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.400 the face plate was not heating properly. And uh, you 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.080 know they I think the first time I heard about 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.560 that was when he was around eighty thousand feet or 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.920 so and still rising, obviously still climbing. And and then 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:20.320 you hear the people on who are speaking during the 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.120 whole ascent, you know, the people who are relaying information 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.520 to the audience, saying, everyone here is trying to find 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.520 out what options we have. And I'm like, wow, what 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.960 options do you have? And the the option, the biggest, 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.800 like last ditch option thing, you know, in order to 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.640 get him back to Earth safely. You you you ditch 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:44.120 the jump, right, But the capsule itself was connected to 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.640 the balloon and hat and could disconnect and had its 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:54.840 own parachute. So the worst case scenario, uh, action would 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.120 be to cut the tie to the balloon, to deploy 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.160 the parachute on the capsule and have the capsule come 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:06.880 down to Earth. Now that was not ideal, uh most well, 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.320 first of all, you're aboarding the jump, so that's not ideal. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.199 But also it would have been a bit of a 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:18.359 rough landing. Now, the capsule itself had a crash sections 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.960 built into it, crash pads to absorb some of that 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.919 impact if it were to to have to land now 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.320 and and of course they did detach the capsule at 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.520 the end of the jump anyway, because they wanted to 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:36.520 retreat the capsule. But um uh, it's it definitely would 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.840 not have been a soft landing. It would have been 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:40.800 a little rough. And it's interesting because the inside the 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:46.760 capsule again looked very much like the Gemini capsules. Um 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.160 it was. It was a tiny little thing. Really. The 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.439 capsule was six ft tall or one eight meters and 0:17:53.480 --> 0:18:00.880 it weighed pounds or one thousands. And yeah, I mean 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:02.320 you take a look at this and you're like, wow, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.879 this looks like it would fit, you know, in a 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.479 in a special casing on the top of a rocket. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.160 It really did look like some of those early NASA spacecraft. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:18.920 True enough, So should we talk about the about the jump? Sure? Um, 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.080 I mean there's other there are other things. Actually before 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.280 I want to talk about the balloon. I want to 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.400 talk about the balloon because the balloon is crazy, so 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.520 it has its own story. Actually five for some of them. Well, 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.080 the the weird thing I thought, the strangest thing to 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.399 me about the balloon was how incredibly thin that material was. 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.560 So uh it's it was made out of polyethylene plastic 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:52.800 film and it was point zero zero zero eight inches thick. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.280 That's pretty thin. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty thin. Or point 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:03.680 zero zero zero two point zero zero zero two centimeters thick. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.040 There we go. I'm not gonna get that number right, um, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.080 but yeah, super super thin. They called it a forty 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:15.440 acre dry cleaner bag because it was essentially made of 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.320 very similar stuff. Now, if you're thinking like, how could 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.040 that possibly bear the weight of this capsule, which you 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.880 know weighs quite a bit, uh, the real the way 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.399 they did it was they used this load tape that 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.000 was connected to the balloon, and the load tape was 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.160 actually what bore the load of the capsule. The tape 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.119 also had in it a special reflective material so that 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.000 the balloon would show up on radar, very important for 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.520 any aircraft in the area, although of course the mission 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.360 was working along with air traffic controllers to make sure 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.720 there wouldn't be any problems on that because you know, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.639 you can't really direct where a balloon is going to go. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.160 You are, you are at the mercy of the winds. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.040 Although this was over the desert in the southwestern United States, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:08.639 it was populated areas right near Roswell, New Mexico. So 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.720 it's really just the military and aliens that were there. 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.200 By the way, I'm totally joking. The whole Roswell alien 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:21.639 thing is absolutely ludicrous. But anyway, um so, yeah, and 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:26.480 that balloon was created by a t a aerospace and uh, 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.320 here's some here's some stats on the balloons. Some some 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:32.679 for people who are curious about how big. This was 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:38.800 so uninflated it was five hundred ft long or one 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:44.159 point six meters now at the height once it was inflated, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.520 and which takes about an hour. Takes aboun hour to 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.680 inflate this balloon with helium. They used helium because it's 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:54.920 a non flammable very important if you've been wondering why 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.199 there's a helium shortage. Yeah yeah, talk about that's a 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:01.439 big balloon. That's a big balloon can fill up with helium. 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.760 Yeah yeah. The Yellow HC might have a few things 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.399 to say to Felix. Explain to your kid why she 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.520 can't get a door A balloon now you know. So, yeah, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:12.359 just get the door. A balloon filled with hydrogen. I 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.760 can't imagine how anything bad happening from that. Take it 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:19.520 to a birthday party, don't do that. Hydrogen is highly flammable. 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:23.000 That's why they went with helium the candles. So the 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.639 height of balloon once it was fully inflated at takeoff 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.840 was about five or one hundred sixty seven point six meters, 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.360 and once it reached its altitude, the height was more 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.399 like three hundred thirty four point eight two ft or 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.439 a hundred two point one because, again, as it got 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.679 higher up in the atmosphere, the atmospheric pressure decreased, the 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:51.399 balloon started to um The height began to decrease, but 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:56.280 it's it's diameter increased. They began to round out quite 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:57.960 a bit, because when you first looked at it looked 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.120 like a tear drop. It was kind of tall and skinny, 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.639 really compared compared to what we think of when we 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.120 do think of birthday party balloons. You know, I mean 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.639 those are tear drop shaped too, but not this is 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.920 a lot longer than that, right, So once it got 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:17.520 up to the room here, yeah, yeah, it definitely rounded 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.320 out as it got higher up and uninflated. It weighed 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:27.119 a smelt three thousand seven eight pounds or one you 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.119 just wanted to say, smell I did. And yeah, and 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:32.480 it also had a vent so that it could vent 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.600 off helium. Now this is also really important. You know 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:40.639 what bugs me those other balloons It didn't It didn't 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:46.000 vent anger invented helium. Yeah. Now, the the reason for 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.440 the vent is very important because the helium was expanding 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:54.160 as the balloon was climbing, right, so at there does 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.080 come a point where there's a possibility that that expansion 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.560 could damage the balloon itself and tear the balloon. So 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.080 the balloon needed to have a way of venting out 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.800 excess helium in order to avoid that. And in fact, 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.960 they did vent helium at least once or twice, especially 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.080 once they passed that hundred twenty thousand feet mark, because 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:17.160 out of again was their goal, and they went right 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:21.359 by it and kept on going. Um. So, you know, 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:23.280 there was a point where there was some concern about 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:28.240 making sure that the the balloon and capsule maintained integrity 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:31.680 because it was starting to go beyond what they had planned. 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:35.080 So as long as they didn't run into any wire 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.639 coat hangers, because that seems to be the downfall of 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:42.960 most dry cleaner bags. Yeah, that's exactly the problem. Uh Yeah, 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:45.560 they and they also had some pretty some other pretty 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.840 cool equipment involved in this. They had nine high definition 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:55.240 cameras that were mounted on both the suit and on 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.879 an inside the capsule. So they had cameras mounted on 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:01.560 on these arms pointed back at the capsule, so you 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:03.480 could get these great views of the capsule as it 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:06.680 was going up, also as the door opened, which that's 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:09.400 the part where I was terrified, and I'll talk about 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:11.919 that in a second, But there are also cameras on 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.879 the suits they could capture footage during the actual jump. 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:20.399 And plus beyond that, they had a helicopter that was 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:26.359 using a camera mounted on a stabilization gyroscope to track 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.560 Felix's movements. And they had ground cameras on these huge 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:38.320 trucks with these uh these enormous um basis that were motorized, 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:42.119 so they could track the progress of the balloon. And 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:45.920 it's phenomenal to me because you think that's a balloon 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:49.600 that is more or less twenty four miles up in 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:53.800 the air. So to have a camera that can capture 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:59.119 something that's that far away is pretty amazing. You know. 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:01.200 You think about that for a second, you're like, well, yeah, 0:25:01.400 --> 0:25:04.400 I've got a digital zoom on my camera because at 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:07.119 the one point seven and well, this camera can capture 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:11.000 something that's twenty four miles away. Well, tracking the balloon 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:14.960 was a whole lot easier than tracking Felix after he 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.720 stepped out of the capsule. Right, he's much first of all, uh, yeah, 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:22.920 he doesn't have that reflectively smaller, although not that much smaller. 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:25.959