Space Technology to Conquer Everest 93
Roland Piquepaille writes "These days, the European Space Agency (ESA) is busy sharing its space technologies. Last week, in "Space technology hits the slopes," it said that the ski maker Rossignol hopes to beat the world speed skiing record of 250 km/h by using skis stabilized by a mechanism developed for ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. And today, the ESA announced that a satellite-based Health Monitoring Kit developed by the Canadian company March Networks and co-funded by ESA, will help climbers to escalate Everest. Of course, this kind of technology can be applied at lower altitudes. This overview contains other details and references about the March Networks Health Monitoring Kit."
Re:Well.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes. [esa.int]
Re:Well.. (Score:2, Interesting)
In Solviet Russia, they used a pencil.
Re:Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, they used a pencil.
Bullshit. [snopes.com]
Re:Well.. (Score:2)
no. no. no. In Soviet Russia, a pencil used THEM!
Re:Well.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well.. (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.spacepen.com/usa/history/index.htm
I've posted on slashdot regarding the urban legond of nasa developing a spacepen. According to what i've read it was not developed by nasa at all but rather by Fisher which was sold to Nasa at $5.00 a pop.
Re:Well.. (Score:2)
What if he crashes? (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe they won't.
Re:What if he crashes? (Score:2, Informative)
With Everest, the problem everyone faces is that there's precious little air to breathe up there, so unless you're Andean or a Sherpa, you can only survive for a limited time without supplemental oxygen. No amount of monitoring will change this, although it may be abl
Re:What if he crashes? (Score:2)
Injury occurs in one or both of two places: either the skier's skis are still on and catch on the snow, starting a bone/joint/neck-breaking tumble,
Re:What if he crashes? (Score:5, Informative)
Believe me, you really don't want to fall over! I am an instructor, and felt confident even at those speeds, but the biggest danger is as the article says: the vibration. With modern parabolic/carving skis, the slightest angle on the ski will result in it trying to turn away; if this is not what you want, it could be curtains. Those small vibrations you feel skiing at a "normal" 30mph are multiplied dramatically at 90mph. It's not a thing I would recommend to any skier who is not an expert.
Re crashing, I would hope that one would simply slide a long way; so long as you don't catch an edge falling and start tumbling, you should hopefully be OK. A motorcycle rider will probably correct me here
Re:What if he crashes? (Score:2)
Tumbling is bad... that's why many times drunk/asleep crash victims survive - their bodies were limp, and didn't tense and begin bouncing and tumbling down the highway.
Yodel-a-e-hooo, Arghhh, slide, tumble (Score:3, Funny)
Some of the other data which might be included is yodeling between 3000 and 6000 metres and the screams of a quick descent at 9000 metres.
Re:Yodel-a-e-hooo, Arghhh, slide, tumble (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't find a link, but someone may've heard it.
Re:huh? (Score:1, Insightful)
I swear when I read the title it read: (Score:5, Funny)
I don't play EQ, so I don't know how the association could have been made. I saw the first line and the mention of the ESA and wondered what the hell did they want to do with EQ. Then I reread the headline.
me too, yers was the post I was looking for (Score:2)
the symbolyogly of "ever---st" for skimming geeks will be misread as saying everquest
how do you make a headline everyone will get, or alternately, how do you create a headline everyone will intertpet in their own useful way..
Re:me too, yers was the post I was looking for (Score:1)
I don't know, but it probably involves the use of space technology.
Re:me too, yers was the post I was looking for (Score:2)
Re:I swear when I read the title it read: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:I swear when I read the title it read: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:I swear when I read the title it read: (Score:2)
escalate? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean really, is it such a hard word? You scale a mountain. Or you climb a mountain. But escalate means something entirely different. A problem escalates. Not a mountain.
Re:escalate? (Score:1)
I think the technology will help the climbers make everest *even harder*, therefore *escalating* it from a 'really fucking hard' climb to a 'even superman shits himself at the thought' climb.
Although quite _why_ you'd want to do that, I don't know. But hey, that's the only way that sentence makes sense, so it must be right.
Re:escalate? (Score:2)
escalader = climb/scale
Re:escalate? (Score:2, Funny)
OT [Re:escalate?] (Score:1)
Usually prices/hostilities/tensions escalate.
Re:escalate? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:escalate? (Score:1)
splat (Score:1, Troll)
Escalate Everest? (Score:1)
oh, I get it. scale. ah.
Great for autopsies (Score:5, Interesting)
Forgive my sarcasm, we did this in 1998 and 1999 (Everest Extreme" [meditac.com]), except we were sending the data in real time over 900mhz radio to the doctor at base camp and via sat back to the hospital in the USA. And it was gathered 24/7 because they were wearing the monitors, not some box of medical tools to be used briefly. That way, if someone was having trouble, we could actually tell what was wrong and where to find the climber (GPS is handy that way).
The things that kill on Everest are getting lost/falling off in bad weather and hypothermia (dehydration is actually the biggest medical problem, but it doesn't usually kill).
When people climb Everest (Score:3, Interesting)
It's interesting to note that quite a few people have made it to the peak of Everest, and then died on the way down.
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:4, Interesting)
I think this may have to do with the psychology of the person. Maybe they get some sort of idea that once they get to the top, there will be blondes in bikini's there to meet them (Oxygen deprivation will do that to ya) and then everything will be fine, so they press on, when they should rest. They make it to the top but then don't have the energy to get down.
Perhaps these real-time life sign monitoring eqiupment can be used to help prevent that. Climbers of Everest pay some hefty fees just for the privlidge of the climb. Maybe we could have a doctor or two in a chateau at the bottom looking at everyones lifesigns in realtime? Could save a couple lives, especially with the last few seasons being particually deadly. Hey, why not. They're rich white folk. (well, mostly white)
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:2)
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:1, Informative)
On most large mountains (himalayas, denali, aconcagua etc) the standard approach involves spending a couple of weeks acclimatising and moving your gear up the mountain. This involves lots of going up and down with huge packs. Very gruelling.
Then you wait for a break in the weather, get yourself to the high camp and prepare yourself for "summit day". You start before dawn, you are freezing cold, you may be on bottled oxygen but the lack of o2 still makes you feel absolutely knackered.
Th
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:1)
So as long as they don't impregnate someone at the top, its a gene that will eliminate itself. See, these are the kinds of things that would spice up the Darwin Awards [darwinawards.com].
Of course it will pale in comparison to Phase 2, when the European Space Agency augments the Skis with a JATO pack for the return trip, and possibly suborbital flight.
Re:When people climb Everest (Score:1)
Interesting, perhaps, but not surprising. If you include the descent as part of the whole expedition, then the summit is really just the halfway mark. And the descent can be just as risky, if not as strenuous.
Gyroscopes? (Score:2)
Misreads (Score:2)
Serious gaming addiction problem?
Re:Gauri Shankar is the name. (Score:2)
I don't get the callousness of Slashdotters any more. Well, maybe I do. We're all too focused on the latest technology to wake up and look at what's happening in the world.
You want to know what King Gyanendra is doing? Read the news. He's supressing thousands of protesters in Kathmandu who want their democracy back. You want to see human rights violations? Look at Nepal right now. http://www.nepalnews.com/
But no. The American election is too imporant. Iraq's all the rage, for the supporters a
Remeber Gauntlet? (Score:1)
yellow elf needs food badly
green warrior is about to die!
That way I always know when to eat and passers by can get a chuckle before I expire.
Wow (Score:1)
Space Technology to Conquer Everquest
More... coffee... needed...
Re:Wow (Score:1)
Space Technology to Conquer Everquest
Nope.
- Scott
ESA Technology? (Score:2)
Spam Technology to Conquer Everest (Score:2)
`Course I just got done fiddling w/ my CRM114 installation and then reading O'Reilly's comments on Gmail, so spam was on my mind (Turkey Spam, not Ham Spam, of course