On February 3, the crew of the International Space Station will “launch” a new project. They’ll be jettisoning a space suit equipped with sensors and a radio transmitter so that amateur radio operators can track it while it falls.
I can imagine some of the thinking that went into that sort of experiment. After all, who wouldn’t want to know how long it would take them to burn up in the atmosphere if they were to accidentally cut their safety line during a spacewalk? Compare that to how long it would take them to scramble a rocket launch together and, if they time it right, they could do a whole dramatic “Rescue In Space” sort of thing.
You probably wouldn’t want to cut it too close though. A launch delay would really ruin your plans. And it’d probably be a good idea to bring an iPod or something, loaded up with some books on tape and a solar powered charger.