eli5 why wouldn’t atronauts survive a fall from the ISS into the pacific?
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because the ISS is high up. REALLY high. basically in space.
and when you fall from high up (but still kinda close to earth), then gravity accelerates you towards the ground. the higher up you start, the longer your fall and the longer you fall the more you accelerate. at some point air resistance (just stick your head out of a car window – when you’re not the one driving! – and you will feel it, now imagine that a hundred times stronger) will slow you down so much you reach what is called a “terminal velocity” – but while slowing you down this friction also heats you up, thats why space shuttles got heat shields, else they’d burn up. the more resistance you give, the worse the heat is, the less resistance you offer the higher your speed gets.
when you hit water at high enough speeds it doesnt have time to move away quickly enough and it’s actually quite hard. you can experience this by hitting a calm water surface with your flat hand fast enough. again imagine it 100 times stronger.
at the speeds the astronauts would impact the pacific it wouldnt matter if they hit rock, sand or water. they need some sort of braking mechanism beforehand.
and something protecting them from the heat.
and something that allows them to breathe during the fall.
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