Quote:
Originally Posted by Cutty72
At what altitude do you start getting above the atmosphere where there will be a heat issue?
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Its not the fact that you are hitting atmosphere, but when something enters earths atmosphere from orbit it is usually travelling at a fairly high rate of speed. Its the high rate of speed vs atmosphere that causes stuff to burn up. In this case he started falling from 0mph and accelerated from there until he hit terminal velocity (maximum speed at which his shape was able to cut through the air), at that point the air would eventually slow him down keeping him at his max velocity.
When something enters from space it is above its max velocity and air slows it down tremendously with heat caused by friction with air molecules being a byproduct.
I asked the same question yesterday and the internet gave me the answer