In a vacuum, a conventional circuit breaker -- which measures heat across a load -- doesn't work, because there, there's less or no atmosphere there to draw the heat off, so a conventional circuit breaker would trip.

ENGADGET: Art Thompson, Red Bull Stratos' technical project director, talks circuit breakers, wind shear and biomedical data

"When you slide that door open, all of the electronics are exposed to the near-vacuum, so we had to develop a solid-state breaker that was monitoring actual loads across that circuit, " Thompson said.

ENGADGET: Art Thompson, Red Bull Stratos' technical project director, talks circuit breakers, wind shear and biomedical data