fiery grave: Fore the fire, he would not be on fire and the suit has internal cooling protecting him from cooking, but fire could have burned through but the door would protect him from catching on fire.
Melting point of your average steel alloy is 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Reentry is at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Thats a difference of 500 degrees. More than enough to melt any steel slab infront of him.
Titanium bairly survives it with a melting point of 3,032 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even so with out full coverage the heat will end up affecting Spartan-117 due to it wraping around the object.
At those temps his flesh would be paraboiled in seconds even with a cooling system. Unless he is being covered constantly in liquid nitrogen or oxygen (super cooled gasses) his suit wouldnt offer him enough protection for such a venture.
fiery grave: The impact was absorbed by the gel layer, what this gel is made of and how much force it absorbs I cannot say.
So then why is it that the Spartans who did a freefall on Reach at a much lower altitude end up with broken bones, severed tendons and internal organ damage? They fell a shorter distance and were able to land in areas that provided some means of allowing them to slow down just before impacting the surface (trees, water..ect.). Pages 12- 15 and pages 123 - 125 in First Strike for reference.
If that happend to them (and they were already deep within the atmosphere) then why would it not hold true for Spartan-117?
fiery grave: And terminal velocity does not increase, that's the point, it is the max speed an object can fall with out any assistance (Ex. rocket or jet). if you drop a potato and a boulder they will fall at the same speed.
Terminal velocity is a term used to reference equal amounts of force exerted by gravity and air resistance on a falling object. Once equal the object will nolonger accelerate, but remain at a constant speed. This is determained by the gravity it is being pulled by, mass of the object, density of the fluid it falls through (or gas) and the amount of drag created by the surface area of the object.
I have already done several calculations for a door that would cover Spartan-117 completely with his arms and legs spread out in a star pattern. Aproximately 48 feet of surface area to create drag.
Please refer to my above posts for a finished calculation of his terminal velocity.
For future note, the terminal velocity for a baseball is 95 miles per hour or 42.47 meters per second. A average healthy weight male at 6 feet 1 inch tall has a terminal velocity around 120 miles per hour or 53.64 meters per second. This is falling through Earths atmosphere mind you.
Now the known terminal velocity of a combat ready Spartan-II on Reach: 130 meters per second or 290.80 miles per hour. That is with a 1.01 gravity compaired to Earths 1.00g. The only unknown factor is the density of the air on Reach which could have made them go faster or slower.
Even still with the measurements I made earlier I predict that Spartan-117 was traveling far faster when he hit the Earth than when the other Spartans hit Reach.