[FormerACLUmember]

You first.

[FormerACLUmember]

Suit also useful for surviving the stench when in the proximity of Daily Kos democrats.

[Lancey Howard]

Wow. I would do it. Now that I’m pretty old anyway.

[Gay State Conservative]

And your descent trajectory is so predictable that you’re certain not to land in the middle of the Pacific,1000 miles from the nearest land?

[BigBlueJon]

Space diving has already been perfected. Master Chief says, "Been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt."

[bolobaby]

Unfortunately, I had to stop subscribing or buying Pop-sci when they became more politically oriented than technology oriented.

[Cobra64]

Al Gore looking for global warming.

[digger48]

Boba Fett?

[Ditter]

hummmm...... no thanks......I’m good.

[CaptRon]

Project Manhigh. Col. Joe Kittenger became the first man to break the speed of sound without a plane.

[ECM]

I wrote a design doc for a video game based on a concept like this a number of years ago—maybe now it’s time to dust it off :)

[Sender]

How you gonna keep cool enough in that thing when it begins to glow? It would have to be a lot thicker IMHO.

[Fire_on_High]

Orbital skydiving was the plot device used in a Star Trek novel a while back where Kirk had to get to the surface of a planet ahead of the Klingons without using a shuttlecraft or transporter. Never thought I’d see anything about it outside of sci-fi tho!

[fzx12345]

Juan Rico unimpressed.

[glorgau]

Starship Troopers jump suit.

[denydenydeny]

There would also be a big liability problem if the chute doesn’t open. Imagine the kinetic energy of an adult human falling 60 miles: The landing would be a significant explosion, same principle as the so-called Rods from God.

[safisoft]

Funny this article comes up today. I am leaving on a 2 day trip. I am an airline pilot and an instructor pilot. I am checking out a new Captain in one of our newest aircraft types. The new Captain is the current record holder for the most jumps in a 24 hour period. She was on the Army Golden Knights team - and she is the jumper for the 2009 attempt at a new high altitude jump record.

[JohnBovenmyer]

As a primary reentry method it has one big problem. What happens to your luggage???

It might be useful as an emergency back up system small enough to be added to other craft, but whether even that would be cost effective would depend on how often you predict the need, on how expensive it is to routinely lug their added mass to and from orbit, and on how high you set the value of the lives otherwise lost. The first can hopefully be estimated, the second is straightforward, but the third is touchy. It shouldn't be computed after the fact, as we too often do with disasters, but before the fact based on economic considerations and on comparisons to other risks we routinely accept. There would no shortage of capable volunteers for dangerous work in space if we lowered the standards to those of the first Cosmonauts instead of the astronomical standards now applied. Yes, we should highly value life, but if we value it too highly we become risk adverse to the point of preventing progress and are left with the often greatly underrated risks of maintaining the status quo.

[Centurion2000]

what a rush ..... you can be sure some army guy will be thinking ... how can I use this combat?

[Centurion2000]

Starship Troopers drop capsules come to real life.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

Regards,
GtG