Please, No More "Extreme" Sports

Are you like me and tired of all of the made-up "extreme" sports. Let's be honest. They're not sports. They're activities. Usually dangerous and stupid activities. I guess without them though the planet would be even more overpopulated so they do serve some purpose. That being said, let me introduce to you yet another "extreme" activity -- Space Diving.

They are preparing skydives from the edge of space to beat a record set by Captain Joe Kittinger of the US Air Force in 1960, who jumped from an altitude of 20 miles, reaching a speed of around 700 miles per hour in his 13 minute descent to the ground.

They aim to start with a jump from 22 miles to break Kittinger's record, then build up to 57 miles, which would be the first true space jump. If everything works as planned, paying customers might be able to start their fiery descent from space as early as 2009.

With the first planned death somewhere around July of 2009.

"It's almost a passion for me," says [Jonathan] Clark, who works at the Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

You know what I have a passion for? Making fun of people with stupid passions.

One problem under study is how to prevent divers from going into a spin, which could leave them unconscious. The team is still debating whether a head-first posture or the traditional spreadeagled horizontal position is likely to work best.

Being unconscious on a freefall from 50+ miles might be an issue.

Line of the article coming up...

By early next year, Space Diver aims to begin low-altitude tests with dummies, then people, starting at a modest altitude of about two miles.

...tests with dummies...it's just too easy.

(Telegraph)