/sci/ - Science & Math

>When President Idi Amin came to power in a 1971 coup (at the Space Race climax of the Apollo lunar landings), he shortly thereafter announced an impossibly optimistic human spaceflight program, that never progressed beyond an attempt at astronaut training on an obstacle course made up of used automobile tires.[4] In June 1999, this effort received dubious recognition as one of the Time 100 magazine feature's "100 Worst Ideas of the Century".[5]
>Idi Amin's government also developed an interest in UFO activity, and he even claimed to have personally witnessed a UFO over Lake Victoria in 1973.[6] In 1971, at the beginning of his regime, United Nations ambassador Grace Ibingira advocated an early form of post-detection policy to prevent Cold War provocation of hostilities with UFOs.[7] Near the end of the Amin era, Uganda also became the only other country to support Eric Gairy of Grenada's efforts for UN recognition of the phenomenon with a dedicated agency and declaring 1978 as the International Year of UFOs.[8]

>The program has been sustained by donations from around the world, and from 2011, funding has also been supplied by the Ugandan government. A spokesman for the Department of Science and Technology said: "I applaud their ambition ... It provides an opportunity for Africans in general and Ugandans in particular to participate in space science and research instead of being spectators." Flight engineers from the Civil Aviation Authority have been assigned to review and advise the team.[20] However, the head of safety at the Civil Aviation Authority subsequently reported to a Parliamentary science committee that all space activities are illegal in Uganda.

>The record for peak experimental horizontal g-force tolerance is held by acceleration pioneer John Stapp, in a series of rocket sled deceleration experiments culminating in a late 1954 test in which he was clocked in a little over a second from a land speed of Mach 0.9. He survived a peak "eyeballs-out" acceleration of 46.2 times the acceleration of gravity, and more than 25 g0 for 1.1 seconds, proving that the human body is capable of this. Stapp lived another 45 years to age 89[17] without any ill effects.[18]
>The highest recorded G-force experienced by a human who survived was during the 2003 IndyCar Series finale at Texas Motor Speedway on October 12, 2003 in the 2003 Chevy 500 when the car driven by Kenny Bräck made wheel-to-wheel contact with Tomas Scheckter's car. This immediately resulted in Bräck's car impacting the catch fence that would record a peak of 214 g0.[19][20]