This month, the nascent era of private spaceflight takes a major step forward. SpaceX is about to launch Polaris Dawnhis second fully civilian mission (after Inspiration4 in 2021) and the first in their Polaris program.
Original announced in 2022Polaris Dawn is designed to push the boundaries of SpaceX technology and pave the way for a longer-term human presence in space. It is the first of three missions funded by billionaires Jared Isaacman, which also funded Inspiration4. Although the launch date has been pushed back a few times over the years, the launch will now take place no earlier than July 12, 2024. according to a recent interview with Isaacman.
The mission’s plans include the first commercial spacewalk, ambitious research into human health in space, tests to equip the spacecraft with Starlink WiFi and reaching high Earth orbit. more than 800 miles above Earth– the furthest a human has been from our planet since then the Apollo era. SpaceX considers the mission an early one Pathfinder for their Starship spacecraftan ambitious science fiction-esque project intended to take hundreds of people to lunar orbit, the moon, and perhaps even Mars.
Polaris Dawn will use the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for transport four team members to space: Isaacman, former Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. This crew will spend about five days in orbit around Earth, flying so high above our planet that it will actually fly through Earth van Allen radiation belts, rings of energetic particles trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field. No one has gone through the Van Allen Belts since the Apollo program ended in the early 1970s.
The crew of Polaris Dawn plans to take advantage of this and collect medical data to better understand how the radiation environment affects the people who travel through it. They also get to work a range of other health surveysincluding measuring the gas bubbles in their blood to study decompression sickness (colloquially known as “the bends”).
One of the wildest experiments, however, aims to understand the “space-associated neuro-ocular syndrome” or SANS. This is “one of the biggest challenges associated with long-duration spaceflight,” Poteet explains an interview with NASASpaceflight Live. When an astronaut is in microgravity, the pressure of the spinal fluid (all the mucus that surrounds your brain and important nerves like those in your spine and eyes) changes, sometimes resulting in disturbing symptoms like blurred vision. The crew will measure this pressure using a number of non-invasive techniques, but Poteet also hopes to be the guinea pig for the first invasive measurement of spinal fluid pressure in space, where he would have a measuring mechanism surgically implanted before flight.
However, that won’t be the biggest scoop for the mission. Polaris Dawn plans to perform the first spacewalk ever conducted on a private mission – that is, the first conducted outside the domain of NASA or any other government agency. The first NASA spacewalk happened in 1965 on Gemini IV, when astronaut Ed White spent 21 minutes outside his spacecraft. Since then, space walks have become a household name permanent part of operations on the International Space Stationand even have been used to repair the Hubble Space Telescope during a Space Shuttle mission.
The Polaris Dawn crew will prepare SpaceX’s newly designed EVA suits to protect them from the deadly vacuum of space, where they will spend about two hours going through the entire process of going outside and getting back into the spacecraft. Historically speaking NASA’s spacesuits have been a large affair, very limited in who can actually wear them. SpaceX’s goal is to create an EVA suit that is more flexible – literally and figuratively – to make the spacewalk experience more accessible for different heights and body types, with the ultimate goal being “a base on the moon and a city to the ground’. Mars” according to their website. “We’re trying to inspire people to think about this extraordinary world we could live in tomorrow, where people live on Mars,” he said. Isaacman on the Today show.
Last but not least, the mission aims to test Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-based internet, from a spacecraft, as a way to provide internet connectivity even beyond Earth. Like Inspiration4, the mission also raises money for St. Jude Children’s Hospitaland Mennon will stream herself reading her children’s book while in orbit, to hopefully spark children’s interest in science.
The crew has been training for all these ambitious goals for a few years now Parachuting Unpleasant high altitude mountain climbingeven centrifuge training à la NASA astronauts. Even if they’re ready to go to space, however, the launch date will depend most on the technology to actually get them there — and there’s certainly a chance the mission’s launch will be delayed again after this month. But when it does actually take off, it will certainly be a milestone in humanity’s quest to venture further into space and will provide useful information for planning future efforts. “We want to share the lessons learned with everyone,” Poteet said. NASASpaceflight Live. “This is about allowing all of humanity to be involved, to go to the moon, to go to Mars.”