Skydive From Space Update 4

YES!!! It's back on!!!

If you remember from our post back in October 2010 'Skydive From Space Update 3', the Red Bull Stratos project was halted due to a petty lawsuit.
Just today, I was checking to see if there had been any changes and I read this on the Red Bull Stratos website:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON CLOSING OF LEGAL CASE
June 30, 2011

The legal action filed by Daniel Hogan and PerDan, LLC in the Superior Court for the State of California for the Country of Los Angeles entitled Per Dan, LLC, et al. v. Red Bull GmbH, et al., Case No. BC 436456 has been mutually resolved by the parties out of court and the lawsuit has been dismissed.

Now get on and make history.....

Felix Baumgartner, the man attempting to set the new record, with Joe Kittinger, who has held the record for over 50 years.
Pic from HERE

Readmore...

Drink Your Own Pee - NASA Style

Remember the opening shot of Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees into a cup, puts it through a machine, and drinks it? Would it greatly surprise you to know that NASA is working on giving this technology to the astronauts?


The process uses forward osmosis, which is “the natural diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane from a solution of a lower concentration to a solution with a higher concentration”. This allows you to urinate into a bag, and then use the syringe attached to the receptacle bag to turn your liquid waste into a sugary electrolyte drink.


I’m not certain whether I want to be the first to drink this. Some of you are probably finding this entire subject matter to be “gross”, and I think that is a perfectly human response. I would imagine that someone has to go against their natural instincts and actually try to drink the filtered urine.

[VIA]

Readmore...

Homemade Spacecraft

After the disappointing news that Red bull is stopping its Stratos project because of some dick, this video made me smile.
Seven-year-old Max Geissbuhler and his dad Luke Geissbuhler dreamed of visiting space. They formed The Brooklyn Space Program and armed with just a weather balloon, a video camera, and an iPhone, they basically did just that.

This isn't the first time someone has made a DIY spacecraft and captured the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.
Check out our post of Robert Harrison's weather balloon spacecraft.

Readmore...