stratosphere, there would be no air resistance to pull the drogue away and prevent it from wrapping around Baumgartner. Thus the system incorporated a time delay, arming about 38 seconds into the descent (38 seconds after its sensor detected 0 Gs for 1.5 seconds). Once it was armed, the system had two methods of deployment: (1) a manual button on a ring over Baumgartner’s glove, which would deploy the drogue if it were held down for 3 seconds (to avoid deployment by brief accidental pressure); and (2) the sensor on Baumgartner’s wrist that would automatically deploy the drogue if it sensed 3.5 Gs in any direction for a continuous period of 6 seconds. “Continuous” was key: to allow Baumgartner maximal opportunity to stabilize himself, any drop below 3.5 Gs would restart the 6-second count. “The most fun was doing all the testing to determine when we wanted that thing to fire,” Aikins said candidly in talking about personally undertaking the physical experiments necessary, which included both skydiving “out of control” and using a self-constructed, ground-based turntable. “Benchmarks were when I couldn’t draw my hands in due to centrifugal force and when I found that I could no longer spot the horizon.”
TRAINING Aikins noted that the team benefited especially from the input of Col. Joe Kittinger in developing Baumgartner’s training plan, which included: Vertical Wind Tunnel Training Before he made any parachute jumps in the suit, Baumgartner first became accustomed to the limitations of the garment by training in a vertical wind tunnel. Exit Training Baumgartner needed to create as little tumbling momentum as possible in his stepoff from the capsule, because in the thin air there would be no wind resistance to halt it via body positioning. Inertia training included fully suited bungee jumps from a crane.
Red Bull Stratos Scientific Summit
27