- [Narrator] Most skydivers jump off a plane
flying 3.8 kilometers above the ground.
But imagine jumping off something even higher
like the International Space Station.
Unless you have a super suit like Tony Stark,
it's not gonna end well.
But let's pretend Iron Man lends you one.
Okay, ready?
Three, two, one, jump.
Wait, what?
That's right.
You won't fall straight down.
In fact it'll take you at least two
and half years before you reach the surface.
So what's going on?
Height isn't the main reason your fall takes so long.
In fact, if you fell like a normal skydiver
it would only take you about two hours.
But the thing is, you don't fall straight down,
you fall into orbit.
The reason is speed.
You see, the ISS might be called a station
but it's hardly stationary.
It's actually moving 12 times faster than a jet fighter.
If you shot anything at that speed on Earth,
by the time it was about to hit the ground it would miss.
In the same way, the ISS isn't floating in space,
it's falling towards Earth and missing.
And when you jump off the ISS, you're initially moving
at the same speed.
So you end up in orbit too.
At least for a while.
Now even though it's so high up, the ISS is pushing
through a very thin atmosphere.
So that friction against the atmosphere slows it down.
So the station fires engines to maintain speed
and keep from crashing into the Earth.
But sadly your super suit doesn't come with engines
strapped to your feet.
This has two consequences.
First, it means you can't maneuver and have to hope
that any of those 13 thousand chunks of space debris
don't empale you.
Second, without rockets to maintain your speed,
it'll slow you down and spiral toward Earth.
But it won't be quick.
The Chinese Space Station, Tiongong-1 for example
took about two years to fall out of orbit.
On the ISS, you're higher up.
So you'll take roughly two and a half years.
But once you strike the atmosphere your long wait is over
and it's go time.
As you re-enter, you have one goal, slow down.
You're traveling at hyper-sonic speeds.
So if you deployed a parachute now, it'll shred to pieces.
And that's not he only problem.
Falling through the atmosphere at such break-neck speeds
generates at least eight G's of force.
That's eight times the gravity you feel at sea level.
And if you're falling feet first,
that'll push the blood away from your brain
and toward your feet.
So you'll probably pass out,
unless you're one of those fighter pilots
who trained to withstand up to five G's.
Now if you don't pass out, you may worry about
the freezing temperatures up here.
But it turns out your suit's
more likely to melt than freeze.
You know how you can warm your hands
by rubbing them together?
Now imagine your super-suit rubbing against
air molecules in the atmosphere at least six times
the speed of sound.
You'll heat up to about 1,650 degrees Celsius.
Hot enough to melt iron.
In fact, the heat is so intense, it strips electrons
from their atoms, forming a pink plasma around you
that will ultimately destroy your suit.
If that's not enough of a problem,
the drag will rip off your limbs.
But thankfully Tony Stark has your back
and somehow your super-suit holds with you in tact.
At 41 kilometers up, you've now reached the world record
for highest skydive.
In 2014, Alan Eustace wore a pressurized spacesuit
as he rode a balloon up to this height.
He broke the sound barrier on his way down
before deploying his parachute.
And landed about 15 minutes after the drop.
But you'll be falling much faster than Eustace.
About three times the speed of sound.
So in reality you're not going to slow down enough
to safely deploy your chute.
That's where Iron Man can help us one last time.
By one kilometer up, you've reached the territory
of ordinary skydivers who don't need fancy suits to survive.
At this point, your parachute can do what it does best,
and it's finally time to land softly.
What a ride.
What sort of daring feat would you want us to try next?
Let us know in the comments below.
And thanks for watching.