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Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

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Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#61
post #43
post #37

Could someone explain to me whether this is a marketing stunt and nothing more or whether there is some substance behind this? Put another way: Will any scientists or engineers (at least potentially) learn something interesting from this? It's cool no matter what, but it would be even cooler if there were some substance behind it.

Besides proving our thoughts on what happens to the human body going through the speed of sound, there's an aspect of safety as well. If successful jumping at 120,000 feet, that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency.

>that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency.

What? For exit plan you need a way to slowdown astronaut from orbit first.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#62
post #59

Does someone know the reason behind the poor quality of audio coming from Felix? You'd think they had the resources to put in a decent microphone, and data transfer -- judging by the high quality video -- shouldn't be a problem.

I often wondered about a possibly connected thing about airplane pilot's microphones: Why is it that pilots, when addressing the fliers over intercom always have terrible sound quality? You'd think that airlines could afford a high-quality microphone considering the cost of the plane and the pilot's time. Air traffic control should appreciate quality audio as well. There could be some ruggedness requirement to these…

One of the crazy things is that if you listen to ATC feeds long enough, you stop being aware of the 'quality issue'.

EDIT: if you're interested, you can go right here! http://www.liveatc.net/ I transcribed hours of this stuff as part of a research project. The first 4 or so hours were really rough. After that, it got easier, with the majority of issues being that seemingly one in 20 aircraft actually have horrendous audio pickup, and accents.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#63
post #59

Does someone know the reason behind the poor quality of audio coming from Felix? You'd think they had the resources to put in a decent microphone, and data transfer -- judging by the high quality video -- shouldn't be a problem.

I often wondered about a possibly connected thing about airplane pilot's microphones: Why is it that pilots, when addressing the fliers over intercom always have terrible sound quality? You'd think that airlines could afford a high-quality microphone considering the cost of the plane and the pilot's time. Air traffic control should appreciate quality audio as well. There could be some ruggedness requirement to these…

Maybe the raw sound input is run through a band pass filter that attenuates all noise outside of the human vocal range. This would make the voice sound "bad" but it would actually make it clearer to understand, especially in noisy environments.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#64
People, I've just made this little hack to show the location in a map:

Go to http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

and open the console to run:

  $("body").append('')
  $("body").append("")
then (once openlayers.js is loaded), run this:

  CreateMap = function ()
  {
      var lat            = 33.3405;
      var lon            = -103.7601;
      var zoom           = 14; 
      var fromProjection = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326");   // Transform from WGS 1984
      var toProjection   = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:900913"); // to Spherical Mercator Projection
      var position       = new OpenLayers.LonLat(lon, lat).transform( fromProjection, toProjection);
   
      map = new OpenLayers.Map({
      div: "Map",
      projection: "EPSG:900913",
      layers: [
          new OpenLayers.Layer.XYZ(
              "OpenStreetMap", 
              [
                  "http://otile1.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/osm/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://otile2.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/osm/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://otile3.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/osm/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://otile4.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/osm/${z}/${x}/${y}.png"
              ],
              {
                  attribution: "Data, imagery and map information provided by MapQuest, Open Street Map and contributors, CC-BY-SA  ",
                  transitionEffect: "resize"
              }
          ),
          new OpenLayers.Layer.XYZ(
              "Imagery",
              [
                  "http://oatile1.mqcdn.com/naip/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://oatile2.mqcdn.com/naip/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://oatile3.mqcdn.com/naip/${z}/${x}/${y}.png",
                  "http://oatile4.mqcdn.com/naip/${z}/${x}/${y}.png"
              ],
              {
                  attribution: "Tiles Courtesy of MapQuest. Portions Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech and U.S. Depart. of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency. ",
                transitionEffect: "resize"
              }
          )
      ],
      center: [0, 0],
      zoom: 1
  });
  map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.LayerSwitcher());
  
  
  //    map = new OpenLayers.Map("Map");
  //    var mapnik         = new OpenLayers.Layer.OSM();
  //    map.addLayer(mapnik);
   
      markers = new OpenLayers.Layer.Markers( "Markers" );
      map.addLayer(markers);
  
      marker = new OpenLayers.Marker(position);
  
      markers.addMarker(marker);
   
      map.setCenter(position, zoom);
  };
  
  CreateMap();
  
  
  setInterval(function()
  {
  	markers.removeMarker(marker);
  	var lat = parseFloat( $("#latitude").html());
  	var lon = parseFloat( $("#longitude").html());
  	
  	var fromProjection = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326");   // Transform from WGS 1984
  	var toProjection   = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:900913"); // to Spherical Mercator Projection
  
  	var position       = new OpenLayers.LonLat(lon, lat).transform( fromProjection, toProjection);
  	marker = new OpenLayers.Marker(position);
  	markers.addMarker(marker);
  	map.setCenter(position, map.zoom);
  
  },2000)

Now, at the bottom of the page, you have a map with a marker showing the current location.

Update: [Added] Go first to http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

Update 2: Replaced tiles, with the ones from MapQuest, code for mapquest extracted from: http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/mapquest.html

Update 3: fixed little bug introduced ;) Sorry! And placed the map below the video now, so it's easier to view.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#65
post #47

Joseph Kittenger's Project Excelsior jump: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

wow. is he that white haired guy in base station? seems he was also that guy who has set the previous freefall record in the 60s.

Yes, Kittinger is the man walking Felix through the procedures. This is the Dynamic Duo of high altitude jumping. I felt a shiver listening to them, this is a day I think I will tell my children about.

p.s. Kittinger is 84!

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#66
post #47

Joseph Kittenger's Project Excelsior jump: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

wow. is he that white haired guy in base station? seems he was also that guy who has set the previous freefall record in the 60s.

Yup, the same.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#67
post #55

3,749,231 watching now popele watching live on youtube, this must be a record? Update: 4,924,693 watching now Update: 5,056,344 watching now

3.2M now, never seen it so high.

Amazing, isn't it. YouTube started in 2005 and 7 years later it is a distribution platform for live high quality video to more people than watch most broadcast/cable TV.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#68
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides proving our thoughts on what happens to the human body going through the speed of sound, there's an aspect of safety as well. If successful jumping at 120,000 feet, that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency.

>that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency. What? For exit plan you need a way to slowdown astronaut from orbit first.

That might not be necessary... won't atmosphere provide enough lateral braking too? Either way, that's easier to do and requires far lesser equipment and prep than a re-entry capsule.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#69
post #37

Could someone explain to me whether this is a marketing stunt and nothing more or whether there is some substance behind this? Put another way: Will any scientists or engineers (at least potentially) learn something interesting from this? It's cool no matter what, but it would be even cooler if there were some substance behind it.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/science/scientific-values/

It is a pretty nice site, click around a bit.

Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today

#70
post #49
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but then I get worried that the same kids don't understand what sponsorship means, and that they'll assume that drinking Red Bull is what people like this do, and then they'll start up a very unhealthy and addictive habit (drinking lots of Red Bull). Which is pretty bad.

Because no one other than you can see through the marketing spin?

If marketing didn't work, they wouldn't do it.
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