eli5 why wouldn’t atronauts survive a fall from the ISS into the pacific?
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Technically they could. Slim chances, but still possible
1- They wouldn’t burn on the reentry. This only happens with massive objects because of the adiabatic compression in front of the object (and not because of friction, like some answers are claiming here… That’s a myth).
2- At some point, more height doesn’t mean more damage, because there’s a thing called terminal velocity, so, falling 500m, or 2000m it doesn’t really matter, and people have survived falls higher than that.
3- Falling on water isn’t a helpful factor. However, the “water feels like concrete” is an exxageration. It really depends on how the person lands: A “belly flop” from less than 1 meter feels like someone slapped you with a giant hand (and can even deal serious damage), an experienced diver can jump from 40~50 meters, but people can die (or at least break some bones) by jumping from barely 10 meters. The fact is that if instead of water the astronaut was aiming for some snow, or grassy field, his chances would be a lot better than a perfect fall on the water, but deppending on how the astronaut falled on the water, there’s still room to minimize some of the damage (We are talking about a body hitting water surface at terminal velocity, so we are still expecting a lot of damage).
4- There’s still the fact of how much the suit would help with the landing, if it would help reduce the terminal velocity, or cushion the fall on the ground, but I don’t even know if the suit would be relevant in this scenario.
5- There are other stuff to think about: After this fall, the person would be in no condition to swim, so even if he pulls this miracle, he would still fall to the bottom of the ocean like a piece of lead. So let’s say that somehow, there’s people nearby ready to catch him in the middle of the ocean, and bring him to a hospital.
So, yes… If all the stars align, and the Grim reaper is distracted when all this happens, the guy could survive, probably with fractures all over his body, but still alive.
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