The majority of the time we, as humans, are terrible. We love conflict, seek out gossip, and bathe in self importance. However, occasionally we get it right. We do something awesome, create something magical, and defeat the odds. Sometimes it takes a serious beating to humble us from our pompousness, but every now and then we get there on our own.
That is what happened this weekend. As I’m sure you've heard by now, Felix Baumgartner set a new freefall distance record after jumping from a capsule floating at 128,000 feet. During his 24 mile fall he broke the sound barrier, becoming the first person to do so without the help of vessel. My favorite comment during the whole ordeal came when someone asked how he could achieve the speed of sound if terminal velocity of a falling human is only around 150mph. The response was that the weight from the size of the balls it takes to jump from that high up help. There is no doubt that what Baumgartner did was courageous. What is equally impressive is that Joseph Kittinger performed the record setting jump from 102,800 feet back in 1960, and then helped Baumgartner break the record this past weekend.
Although currently we are in a tight spot with high
unemployment, economic uncertainty, and strong political opposition we still
manage to get things right. We have a rover on Mars, are on the verge of
confirming the existence of the Higgs particle, and we have a manmade object
outside of our solar system. That list is a little heavy in the science
category but you can find amazing accomplishments all across the board, you
just have to look for them. Only a few people I talked to before Baumgartner’s
jump knew it was going happen, but afterwards it was all over the news. We do
amazing things every year and most of them go unnoticed by the mass public. I believe
a lot of coverage of the jump came simply from the fact Red Bull sponsored the
event and that Red Bull tried so hard to make it look like an authentic
space program mission even though it wasn’t. But honestly that doesn’t take
anything away from Baumgartner’s accomplishment or the fact that it was
very dangerous. Scientific data was taken during the entire process and will be
analyzed for weeks to come, meaning the Stratos stunt really was a win for both
Red Bull’s PR and scientific study. Also this is the type of marketing
execution Red Bull is known for, they have always gone big and brave and
it’s what makes them such a cool company. Online attendance probably would’ve
been much lower had a less trendy company such as Metamucil sponsored the jump.
The commentary would’ve been worse too, “Felix is now moving smoothly through
the air...speaking of moving smoothly try new Berry flavored Metamucil!”
All joking aside I am glad I witnessed the event. It was
neat watching it unfold and most importantly it piqued my curiosity about
breaking the sound barrier without some form of protection. I spent a couple of
hours reading debates and journals about everything from sound waves to planet rotation.
I then got family involved and we spent a night discussing it over dinner. That
is the real benefit in all of this. It gets people interested in science (a
topic we don’t discuss enough), opens our minds, and we all walk away learning
something. It’s been a good weekend for us, and actually it has
been quite a pivotal scientific year. We might just be getting things right.
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