Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: 30 years ago, we discovered man-made chemicals had punched a hole in the ozone layer. Is that hole here to stay, waiting around to kill us? Today, we're trying hard to find out. Morgan Sandercock is about to test an experimental plane, perfect for sampling ozone.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Copy that. So I felt pressure rising.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) We think we can go as high as 90,000 feet.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Jim, you ready to go?

JIM PAYNE: (ON RADIO) We're ready.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) That's the big boy territory. That's where things can go wrong very, very quickly. If we lose cabin pressure, then, the pilots could very easily pass out. And we don't have any automatic systems to recover from that.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) Getting ready to roll.

NARRATOR: Now, a glider might sound like a dangerous choice so high up. But gliders don't have engines, which means they can't pollute the team's samples.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Confirm [inaudible] off.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) [inaudible] is off. Wing wheel is off.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Been running at 11:32.

MAN: (ON RADIO) 11:32. Written down in GPS 5.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airborne. [music playing]

NARRATOR: The Perlan glider uses air rising over the Southern Andes to reach extraordinary heights.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airspeed, 70 knots. Looking beautiful.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah?

MAN: (ON RADIO) Really high.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Traffic.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah.

NARRATOR: 52,000 feet up makes this the highest glider flight ever. But you've got to get this high to get a great picture of the ozone layer. The good news is that thanks to a global ban on ozone-harming chemicals, it looks like the hole is healing up. Our shield is regenerating.

15 Signs You are the New Rich

View All

16 minutes of even more useless information..

Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. I mean, fruit flies don’t fly like a banana. Even bananas probably don’t fly like bananas. Not like I’ve seen a banana fly. Have you seen? I’m just saying that fruit flies like a banana. Okay, I’m s…

Would you buy this $28,000,000 private jet?

This is what a 28 million dollar plane looks like. Let’s go inside. When you come in, the first thing you see is a Club 4 configuration. This is excellent for business meetings and meals. The owner will usually sit in this seat right here. This is so tha…

What Happens When an Astronaut Drops Something in Space? | Short Film Showcase

My name is Vanguard. My body is an aluminium sphere sixteen point five centimeters in diameter, and I weigh one point four seven kilograms. In 1958, I was the first solar-powered satellite to be launched into outer space. I had value, I served a purpose, …

15 Things You Didn't Know About LOUIS VUITTON

15 things you didn’t know about louis vuitton. Welcome to alux.com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Hello, Alexers, and welcome to another exciting original video presented by alux.com. Today, we’re going to look at the number on…

Beginnings of Islam part 2

Where we left off in the last video, we saw Muhammad being born into a tribal Arabia. He’s born into a powerful tribe, the Quraish, who are in control of Mecca. But his early life is difficult. His mother dies when he’s six; his grandfather, who’s taken c…

Finding definite integrals using area formulas | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

[Instructor] We’re told to find the following integrals, and we’re given the graph of f right over here. So this first one is the definite integral from negative six to negative two of f of x dx. Pause this video and see if you can figure this one out …

Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock

More Articles