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Man plans on launching himself 20 miles up in to the sky.

There better be a video of this.

edit: How the hell are some rockets gonna help a craft like that land safely from 20 miles up?
 
He's planning on using ROCKETS to slow his descent?

Not, say...parachutes?

The only time NASA touches rockets for descent is on places with low gravity, like the moon.
 
The machine is expected to produce 10g of force, that is enough to cause red and black outs; there is no way he is going to be able to maintain control of this thing while it takes off. 10g is about how much the shuttle produces and it's launch is computer controled.
 
The Russians use retrorockets for the Soyuz...but they use parachutes beforehand, the retrorockets fire for a short burst before touchdown on dirt (NASA either uses a nice long runway or an ocean).

@Googer:
The space shuttle pulls 2-3g, pulling astronauts back into their seats. It's for a good 10 minutes though. It's a pity the shuttle launch is all computer, the pilots don't have the thrill of throttling up the most powerful engines in the world. (read Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane, it's a funny book)
Pilots can pull 9g turns in aircraft with lots of training and whiz-bang flight suits (compress the legs and abdomen to force blood to the head). 10g for the duration of the ascent would be a problem. 10g at crossbow launch would be bad enough, as he would be severely disoriented.
If I'm doing my math and guestimations right, 1350 pounds of force pushing 500-ish pounds (250 for him+suit, 250 for craft including jet+fuel) would produce 2-3g, which is entirely feasible if he's crazy enough.
 
Originally posted by: Siddhartha
They laughed at the Wright Brothers......
Click to expand...

They did, but what this man is doing has already been done before and it usualy ends in failure. He is not a pioneer in any streatch of the imagination.
 
Wait, he's shooting a giant fiberglass arrow to test it?? Does he know where that's going to land or - more likely - does he have some 15-foot deer he's going to shoot it at?
 
I don't think a "$15,000 surplus Russian space suit" is going to keep him from burning up in the atmosphere unlesss he slows his descent drastically (which is highly unlikely). The guy is crazy, but it will be interesting if this spurs new development.

I doubt this will get approved, but the mechanics and OLD-NEW thinking about launching may spur new developments in Launching technology.
Aircraft Carriers with missile launchers could use a "crossbow" to further speed up missile launches. This could also save initial use of rocket fuel for longer range in missiles. If put on a magnetic repulsion track, that could limit friction on the "crossbow" as well. You could also have the same technology launch a ballistic missile into space, target its destination from space and drift down to the target. This wouldn't be a space weapon, but it would be close enough. Possibly in the future, this could allow for more efficient launches into space.
 
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