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James May's flight to 'edge of space'

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    #21
    Just had a thought: does anyone here think that James May is being lined up by the BBC as the new Raymond Baxter? (note: if you don't know who R. Baxter is, you're too young)

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      #22
      Originally posted by zeitghost
      Nah.

      He's never tried to shoot down a V2 whilst flying a Spitfire...
      True although I get the impression that's be more to do with the lack of opportunity than desire.

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        #23
        Originally posted by Menelaus View Post
        Just had a thought: does anyone here think that James May is being lined up by the BBC as the new Raymond Baxter? (note: if you don't know who R. Baxter is, you're too young)
        Are they going to bring back Tomorrow's World?
        ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

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          #24
          Yesterday's World.

          TV Programme highlighting science and technology of yester-year that went nowhere.

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            #25
            Originally posted by zeitghost
            "a Scotsman called Cupid Love"

            Made up name!

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              #26
              Entertaining show, as is par for May.

              There were a few spectacular 'crap science' bits here and there, though.

              e.g. when he's in the U2 he says that exposure to the atmosphere at that altitude would 'kill you in seconds'. Which is nonsense.

              If you didn't try to hold your breath, a healthy human being can be exposed to a hard vacuum for several minutes without suffering permanent injury. You'd probably loose consciousness after a two minutes or so, but provided you were able to get back into a pressurised environment before you passed out, you'd be fine.

              I believe this has actually happened more than once (accidentally) in ground-based Soviet astronaut training.

              Your blood doesn't 'boil' as it's enclosed in an airtight cardiovascular system. You don't instantly 'freeze solid' because, in a vacuum it takes a long time to loose heat.

              Eventually you would, of course, die from lack of oxygen, but you most assuredly don't explode, your eyes don't pop out and you don't instantly freeze into a block of ice.

              You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

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                #27
                Originally posted by bogeyman View Post

                Eventually you would, of course, die from lack of oxygen, but you most assuredly don't explode, your eyes don't pop out and you don't instantly freeze into a block of ice.
                What would happen if your pressure suit cracked/split at the seams?
                ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

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                  #28
                  Originally posted by Moscow Mule View Post
                  What would happen if your pressure suit cracked/split at the seams?
                  Same as I described. If you were dumped into space in your birthday suit you wouldn't just instantly die.

                  You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

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                    #29
                    http://space.about.com/cs/basics/a/bodyvacuum1.htm

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                      #30
                      Originally posted by bogeyman View Post
                      Same as I described. If you were dumped into space in your birthday suit you wouldn't just instantly die.
                      I guess it's the same mechanism as an uncontrolled ascent from depth whilst diving.

                      If you're not careful you're going to hurt some spaces in the body (inner ears etc) and if you hold your breath it's going to hurt.

                      I also surmise that you'd be at risk of embolisms etc as any dissolved gases got bigger.
                      ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

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