2
votes
1answer
336 views

Does the metal foam “whiffleball” orbital reentry idea make any sense?

Planetary Resources is a company speaking publicly about mining near Earth asteroids for resources. I'm interested the physicality of a claim they make in a video here: ...
26
votes
6answers
23k views

Could someone jump from the international space station and live?

Felix Baumgartner just completed his breathtaking free-fall skydiving jump from $120,000\,\text{feet} = 39\,\text{km}$ above the Earth, breaking the speed of sound during the process. I was wondering ...