If an astronaut had a parachute under his space suit...?

Question

would he be able to fall to earth from outer space and make a landing or is there a barrier in which he would burn to a crisp entering the atmosphere

Answer 1

Let's look at the problems he would face (in order)...

1) In space, the suit is only good for a few hours duration, after which he will be rather dead; if he lived, then...
2) To reenter the atmosphere, he needs a way to change his orbital speed to reenter - and space suits don't have rockets built in; if he had rockets, then...
3) Need to hit the atmosphere at exactly the right angle, because too steep and he's charcoal (no matter what) and too shallow and he skips off like a rock on a pond. Kinda need a decent computer for that; if he was a mathematical genius then...
4) Need to be able to absorb the heat of reentry. Multiple thousands of MPH turns almost any material into ash very quickly. So either his suit is designed to wear away (ala the Apollo reentry capsules; very heavy, thick, and stiff) or made out of shuttle tiles (very light, yes, but still thick and stiff); but assuming he has a magic material...
5) Still has to get the parachute out from inside the suit (where it has been protected from burning up) and deployed. So, while falling to earth at terminal velocity, he has to take off his suit and deploy the parachute. This might be the easiest part of the whole escapade!

Basically, forget it. The astronaut would need a space ship, not just a suit and a parachute.

Answer 2

There's no real "barrier". Just that He'll start falling to earth WITHOUT air resistance while in space...pick up great speed, then as the atmosphere "thickens" as he gets closer to Earth, he will feel air resistance. The tremendous speed that he picks up first is much more than the usual sky diver, so increasing air friction would burn him up. A space capsule and even the shuttle, fall through this with heat resistant panels on the bottom of the ship, then when it finally starts hitting enough resistance to slow a little bit (so you won't tear you're chute right off)...they then can deploy a chute or glide home like the shuttle...but only after some real high heat (of friction).

Answer 3

If he had a parachute under his space suit he would rupture containment getting it deployed. OK, he has it over his spacesuit. Nothing much happens until he reaches about 50 torr of air pressure. By that time, assuming he was geostationary more than 50 miles up, he is falling supersonic. Bummer.

If he was in orbit he deorbited moving at rather less than 5 miles/second. A parachute won't fix that. Calculate the average velocity of nitrogen molecules in air at room temp and compare that to 5 miles/second. What temperature does the atmosphere appear to be to the astronaut? Toasty!

Answer 4

I think that before there was enough air to inflate the chute and slow his fall, he would burn up from friction. There doesn't have to be a lot of air to cause friction (meteors burn up at around 50 miles up, and the air is very thin up there) but you need a lot more air to use a parachute.

Answer 5

He would be going *much* too fast for a parachute at about 17 479 miles per hour. Parachutes work at about 130mph. You have to drop a lot of speed and this makes for a lot of heating. He will cook before slowing enough for a parachute to open.

Answer 6

He wouldn't fry, or burn to a crisp. He'll evaporate, nothing left.
And I forgot to said; If he's in the outer space, there would be no reentry, he's weightless he'll would be flying in space forever.

Answer 7

He would fry.
The Columbia space shuttle only had cracked ceramic heat shied tiles, able to withstand 10,000 degrees F, and it burned up on reentry.

Answer 8

He would fry from reentry heating long before there was enough density for his chute to open

Answer 9

his parachute will not work in space due to absense of air. they would both burn up during re-entry.

Answer 10

Relly depends were he is....inside or outsie the main layers of the atmosphere