[via the Register] One for Mark Wade's "Bailout!" section?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06...troopers_r_go/

Spacesuit entrepreneurs plan parachute jumps from orbit
The ultimate in high fashion
By Lewis Page
Published Wednesday 27th June 2007 20:29 GMT



A former Nasa flight surgeon who lost his astronaut wife in the Columbia
space shuttle disaster has teamed up with a self-described "bad boy"
space commentator to mount trials in which humans would descend from
orbit skydiver-style.

Laurel Clark, a mission specialist, died along with her fellow crew
members when the shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry in 2003. But
her loss didn't dent husband Jonathan's enthusiasm for the space
industry - in fact, it has inspired him to develop a novel new plan for
re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The one-time Navy doc, Nasa medic and spec-ops-trained parachutist has
joined swashbuckling aerospace analyst Rick Tumlinson's company, Orbital
Outfitters. The men intend to develop space suits, parachutes and other
accoutrements that will ultimately allow a suitably equipped human to
skydive - or "space-dive" - safely to Earth from orbit.

The entrepreneurs reckon this kit will become a must-have safety feature
in any spacecraft, just like lifejackets aboard ships or escape sets in
submarines. They also think that space-diving might become the ultimate
adrenaline sport of the future.

For now, Orbital Outfitters has a contract to supply basic pressure
suits to XCOR Aerospace. XCOR is a private commercial space operation
looking to develop a suborbital rocket-plane called Xerus.

Xerus crews and suborbital tourist passengers will be provided with
"Industrial Sub-Orbital Space Suits" (IS-3s) from Tumlinson's firm,
which will keep them safe in the event of a depressurisation. IS-3 suits
will also be integrated with a parachute harness, but won't be suitable
for space-diving from orbit.

One unique feature that Orbital Outfitters intends to offer is "a
'coolness' factor not present in space suits of the past".

"In fact," the company admits, "certain areas of the visual design are
drawn from science fiction."

Indeed, the firm uses the title of a famous Heinlein sci-fi novel as its
motto: "Have Space Suit, Will Travel." (Though, in fact, their plans are
more reminiscent of Heinlein's other classic Starship Troopers, in which
power-armoured "mobile infantrymen" plunged into battle from orbiting
spaceships*).

To deliver the coolness, Oscar-winning Hollywood SFX man, Chris Gilman,
who designed the space suits for the movie Armageddon, serves as the
company's CEO.

Nothing less than, um, high fashion will do for this market, it seems.

"With billionaires funding the [new wave of space startups] and
passengers paying up to $200k for a ride, safety is important,” says
Tumlinson. “With these sorts of players, we intend to also make it chic.”

As for the space-diving test programme, full details have emerged in a
Popular Science article to be published in the July edition. Tumlinson
and Clark want to start with a record-breaking plunge from 120,000 feet
by 2009. The previous highest-ever jump was from a balloon at 102,800
feet by US airforce captain Joseph Kittinger in 1960. For this sort of
leap, all that's required is a pressure suit, breathing apparatus, a
drogue chute to prevent uncontrolled spinning and a regular parachute
for landing.

Orbital Outfitters reckon that's a piece of cake; the hard bit will be
getting their test jumper up there. XCOR haven't got anything suitable
ready to go. Tumlinson has a relationship with John Carmack, creator of
Doom and Quake, who founded a spaceship firm called Armadillo Aerospace
in 2001. Thus far, however, Carmack's ethanol rockets have ascended to
only 164 feet. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' "Goddard" ship flew to 285
feet last November, but this still leaves a way to go.

Assuming they can achieve a 120,000-foot dive, the space suit makers
next plan is for a 60-mile drop. This will be a lot tougher. The
space-diver on that one will need a vacuum manoeuvring system to keep
oriented in the early part of the descent, and will suffer 4.4 Gs of
deceleration coming into the lower atmosphere. More worryingly, his or
her suit will need to withstand oven-level 240 degrees-C temperatures.

But that's no problem, say the spacedive promoters. An aerosol-can-esque
cold-gas system will do for steering in space, and they reckon they can
make a tough enough heatproof suit. The G-forces are less than fighter
pilots undergo routinely.

There is some worry, however, about transonic shockwaves that the
60-mile spacediver will experience while transitioning from 2,500mph
down through the sound barrier. But Clark reckons it's pretty likely
things will be OK. He says that an SR-71 "Blackbird" spy plane cracked
up in 1966 while flying at more than Mach 3. The pilot - though he did
black out - was fine, despite having left the plane at three times the
speed of sound.

If they get that done, the spacesuit makers reckon the next thing will
be a full orbital space-dive from 150 miles up and travelling at
18,000mph. There aren't any private ships even on the drawing board that
could go so high and fast - even dotcom fortunes can't match the Nasa
budget - so this is a long way in the future.

Just for the record, though, coming down from that sort of flight
profile means 8.2 Gs and more than 1600 degrees-C. The Orbital
Outfitters engineers think that a shuttlecock-shaped rigid heat shield
made of carbon or fibreglass ought to do the job, although this is
almost a personal re-entry vehicle rather than an actual suit: more on
the lines of the capsules that Heinlein's "cap troopers" rode down in,
before ditching them and parachuting the last bit.

Apparently, analysts at Nasa's famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
say the numbers are correct. Robert Manning of JPL said that he doesn't
see "anything fundamentally wrong with what they’re doing ... It’s just
scary as hell.”

Orbital Outfitters are looking for volunteer jumpers, apparently, though
their plans aren't terribly advanced as yet and financing is uncertain.
Prospective space-divers should be aware that they will probably be
charged a large fee.

The PopSci writeup can be read online here
(http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviatio...bccdrcrd.html).



*Sadly the cool motorised armour, drop capsules, hand flamers etc didn't
appear in the film. But we thought the knife-throwing lesson by Sergeant
Zim was actually improved.





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