First comes hot and cold. Space in the shade, -240, and on the sunllt side, +240.
Coming in from anywhere is much too fast, fuel braking would get expensive, but hitting the upper air layer in the direction of turn would provide air braking without much heat, and then hit the gas and back out, now much slower. A non orbital bounce off the air, at 20 miles, and out on a new flight path.
Coming from the Moon, wanting to dock with a geosyncronous base, a glance off the Earth, would slow you, and give the right orbit to meet the base, with only some fine control. 17,000 MPH for low orbit, but only 100,000 miles per day for Clarke Belt. As I recall, the speed limit was around 25,000 to the Moon, due to the need to stop.
So to get that down to the 4-5,000 to dock, a turn of braking, then a bump out again, and coast to the dock, slowing due to gravity all the way.
The rotation of the planet is 1,000 MPH, the slowest speed of air braking 6,000 MPH, 20 miles up.
Now we have a window, it is cold in space, or the upper air, but speed produces heat, air resistance increases, which kills speed, which decreases heating, till there is a curve where increasing air density and declining speed reach a constant 80 degrees all the way down,
Where the balloon guy started at zero speed, -94, and fell over 600 MPH, from ten miles, coming in at 20, 6,000 MPH, would decline to 2,000 MPH quickly, with little heating, but would have heating at lower levels, where free fall is 600 MPH, which is braking to 150 mph at lower levels, but coming in on a curve.
The balloon guy did it in five minutes. Bailing from a ship twenty miles up would be a half hour, dropping from 250,000 foot and 6,000 MPH to 150-250 MPH, at 20,000 foot, but coming in at 45 degrees.
A human would need a pressure suit, a half hour of air, and some way of dealing with the last mile problem. In the last mile they would go no faster than 150 MPH, air resistance, but would also be going forward at 150 MPH or so. Hence their fall toward the surface, down, would be slower than a skydiver.
I would want a bat suit, pressure and air, the ability to offer larger resistance higher up, and slow down and gain warmth, then switch to the glide position for the bottom three miles. Even with some flight control, three miles is not far, even if the glide path is ten miles, you might adjust to within a mile, enough to avoid some things.
Pop the chute at 7,000, you may be able to direct landing 1,000 foot.
Body size, upper air currents, jumping from 20 miles, at 6,000 MPH, within a hundred miles would be great jumping, every second puts you two miles farther east.
The first place I found this course was in Asteroids, who are known to bounce off the upper air, and back into space.
Later I found it used by the "Cigar" great ships that deliver the saucers.
I would think a jump suit would be a balloon, it would be large with no pressure and 14.2 psi on the inside, then get smaller as the outside reached 14.2 psi. It's surface area would slow it at high altitude, gain heat, contain heat, and moderate the rate of descent.
It would have to slow at a rate of 125 MPH, per mile, to lose 5,000 MPH in twenty miles down, and forty forward.
A human in free fall hits 150 mph, but what about a human in a balloon suit? how big does it have to be to reduce free fall to 50 mph? Would an egg suit call for a much smaller chute?
Ishtar came to the Earth in an egg. An egg suit filled with hot air, the numbers change, and landing impact.
Water landings would flatten the bottom, turn it all into a raft.
I would think a human suit, with a balloon cover, the human holds constant pressure, the balloon can grow, first from heat, then as needed for slowing through the last mile, and as a flotation device. The human suit is a harness for landing, the balloon slows descent and absorbs landing shock, it a chute needed?
How big of a balloon to reduce free fall to 20 MPH, which the balloon can absorb?
Now I need a space ship to test this.
14 Apr 2010, 6:45 pm
