Discussion of Chapter 13 of the book Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

1. Chapter 13: Withering Heights
Quirijn Frederix

3. SkyVentures vertical wind tunnel

4. Felix Baumgartner
Red Bull Stratos Mission
• Testing of modified emergency escape suit by
David Clark Company
• Provide engineers with information about
falling body in a pressurized suit in extremely
thin air and at supersonic speeds
• Testing if suit allows for tracking posture

5. Felix Baumgartner
I’m ... really but I’m proud primarily
of the
contribution interested in I’ll breaking
be making
for safer records.
space travel...

6. • Joe Kittinger
• Project Excelsior, 1963
• Testing a multi-stage
parachute system
• 31,333m
Skydiving records
• Felix Baumgartner
• 2012, Red Bull Stratos
• 38,969m
• 1,357km/h
푣푡푒푟푚푖푛푎푙 =
2푚푔
휌퐶퐷퐴
• Alan Eustace
• October 2014
• 41,419m
• Senior Vice President
of Knowledge, Google
Baumgartner
• 2012, Red Bull Stratos
• 38,969m
• 1,357km/h
푣푡푒푟푚푖푛푎푙 =
2푚푔
휌퐶퐷퐴
• Alan Eustace
• October 2014
• 41,419m
• Senior Vice President
of Knowledge, Google

7. Dangers of escape systems
Dan Fulgham
• Test of ejection system of X-20 Space plane in 1963
Plane went into flat spin at 177rpm 23g at arms
• Test on monkeys at 144rpm: Brain
separated from spinal cord
• Redout due to rupture of vessels in the
brain
Mirai Nagasu,
2010 Olympics

8. Project Excelsior
• Program from the US Air Force to test multi-stage parachute
systems because jets were flying higher and higher in the
1950’s
• First dummies were used, they exerted life threatening flat
spins up to 200rpm
• Tests happened around the Roswell area, caused many UFO
alerts
• Solution: Use of drogue chute
for stabilization
• During one test flight, Dan Fulgham
injured his head on the gondola,
it swole so much his wife didn’t
recognize him

9. Jon Clark
• Red Bull Stratos medical director
• High altitude parachutist for US Air Force
• Flight surgeon for Space Shuttle crew
• Investigated Columbia disaster
• Haughton-Mars Project (HMP)
• Devon Island, Canada
• Lunar/Mars expedition simulations
• His goal is not only to protect Felix
Baumgartner from the physical effects of
high altitude but to establish new protocols
for the benefit of future aviators and
astronauts

10. Columbia disaster
Is there any way the crew could have survived...?
• Bill Weaver, SR-71 crash in 1966 at
M = 3.2, 24,000m altitude
• Columbia: M = 17, altitude = 64,000m
equivalent of 600km/h at sea level
Crew suffered unusual injuries
Shock-shock interaction caused very intensive
forces

11. Escape system solutions
• Very complicated, escape systems usually work for specific
altitude, range, speed
• Ejection seats: only during first 8-10 seconds of launch
• Ballute: between balloon and parachute
• Capsule parachute system, for example on
Orion: Heavy and costly, parachute would
need its own heat shield

12. What about airplanes?
Why don’t they outfit every seat with portable oxygen supplies
and parachutes?
• 210-290km/h: Cheeks against skull, facelift
• 440km/h: Lips agape
• 560km/h: Nose cartilage deforms, skin starts to
flutter, waves from mouth to ear at 300Hz
• >560km/h: Force causes deformations that
can “exceed the strength of tissue”
• Airplane at 800-900km/h: Fatality

13. What about airplanes?
Windblasts
• 400km/h: blow oxygen mask off face
• 640km/h: Helmet gets blown off (as in the case of
Bill Weaver)
• 800km/h: Ram air rupture
elements in pulmonary system
• 960km/h: open epiglottis and
inflate stomach
• 960+km/h: Vibrations of metal
on ejection seat emulsified brain

14. What about airplanes?
Hypoxia
• At 10,000m: 30 to 60 seconds of “useful
consciousness”
• At 7,500m: 2 to 5 mins of
“useful consciousness”
• Pockets of gas inside cavities expand: unfilled
cavities, gas dissolved in cerebral fluid in brain
ventricles, air in stomach expands 3 times

15. Conclusion
• Dangers for human body at extreme altitude
and speed include windblasts, hypoxia and
shockwaves
• Designing emergency escape suits is very
challenging
• A lot of research needs to be
conducted still