LabVIEW helps Baumgartner break the sound barrier

On Monday, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner leapt from a platform more than 38 km high. The near five-minute freefall was viewed live by over 8 million viewers on YouTube alone, during which ‘Fearless Felix’ broke the sound barrier with his body and landed gently in Roswell, New Mexico. Baumgartner and his team spent many years preparing for the record-smashing jump - and the technology they used to ensure his safety included NI LabVIEW software.

Baumgartner’s survival wasn’t guaranteed. If he managed to avoid an unstoppable spin (he narrowly did), his life depended on the integrity of his pressure suit. At over 32,000 m, the temperatures plummet to 55 degrees below zero Celsius. The atmosphere was so thin that his blood would have vaporised if his equipment failed.

Testing his pressurised jumpsuit and helmet was a larger goal of the mission. His suit, equipped with sensors and recorders, measured everything from his speed to his heart rate. Back at mission control, his team used LabVIEW to monitor various I/O data such as altitude, pressure and oxygen levels. In the future, such equipment could save an astronaut’s life if a spacecraft malfunctions.

Source: NI Community