[lutusp]

> The air pressure is proportional to either v or v² depending on the speed and atmosphere.

1. I think you mean "air resistance". Yes?

2. If so, then no, air resistance transitions from (linear) Stokes drag at low velocities to (aptly named) quadratic drag at higher velocities, as a function of velocity, but not a function of air pressure. So not "either v or v^2", but a combination of the two factors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)

[davidw]

It made my day to have my question answered by an honest-to-goodness rocket scientist. Thank you!

I think the numbers that best sum up the situation are provided by yardie and blaze33 though. I knew that stuff coming from space was obviously going to be moving faster than the guy's 0 velocity, but had no idea about the order of magnitude.

[bbrizzi]

Yes I did mean that, thanks for correcting me. I was never very good at fluid dynamics :)