Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman during a spacesuit test.
John Krause/Project Polaris
SpaceX is preparing to launch its next private mission at the end of this month, which will include the first attempt to send astronauts into space.
Polaris Dawn Mission – First of Three Flights for Billionaires and Billionaires Shift4 Founder Jared Isaacman purchased the satellite from SpaceX in 2022 for use in his manned space program “Polaris Program”, which will launch in 8 It was launched from Florida in the early morning of March 26th.
“We don’t have the freedom to start at any time of the day, but I think it will work out (yes) Very close to dawn, which is very appropriate given the mission,” Isaacman told CNBC’s “Space Investing” last month.
Isaacman will command the mission, just as he did when leading the historic Inspiration4 flight in 2021. He was joined as pilots by Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, two SpaceX employees who served as the flight’s medical officer and mission specialist, respectively.
The multi-day trip is not a destination, but a free-flight mission tracking the crew’s desired orbit away from Earth.
“We’re going to extremely high altitudes that humans haven’t reached in over 50 years,” Isaacman said.
Dawn of the North Star cast and crew (from left): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
But the heart of Polaris Dawn is the planned spacewalk.
Extravehicular activities (EVA) have been a regular part of NASA astronaut missions for years, such as when the agency needs to perform maintenance outside the International Space Station. But no private company has tried EVA before.
Isaacman said he knew performing a spacewalk meant he and his crew would be “surrounded by death,” and they trained extensively for it.
“The only thing that comes close is a vacuum chamber, where you almost feel as close as if you were in a vacuum condition or space. … That definitely gives you a real sense of the pressure changes, the temperature changes, the psychology of being in a very harsh environment.” Pressure,” Isaacman said.
five day mission plan
Polaris Dawn mission crew (from left): Medical Officer Anna Menon, Pilot Scott Poteet, Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis.
Project Polaris/John Krause
Isaacman also detailed the daily schedule for Polaris Dawn, which will remain in space for up to five days.
The first day of the mission is to search for times when the risk of orbital debris from micrometeorites is minimal, which will determine exactly when Polaris Dawn will launch. Isaacman said the crew will conduct extensive checks on the resiliency of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule after reaching the 190-kilometer by 1,200-kilometer orbit.
“It’s important to know there’s nothing wrong with the vehicle before you get to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers,” Isaacman said.
The spacecraft will also pass through a high-radiation zone known as the “high-radiation zone” in advance. South Atlantic Anomaly.
“Ideally, you want to shoot at the lowest altitude possible because even at 200 kilometers the radiation levels are much higher there… The two or three times we crossed the South Atlantic Anomaly at high altitude were almost “The payload of this mission is equivalent to three months on the International Space Station,” Isaacman said. “
The second day will focus on some of the science and research accomplished by the Polaris Dawn project, which will conduct a total of about 40 experiments. The crew will also prepare for the spacewalk and test extravehicular activity suits.
“So we can make sure that… there are no surprises in microgravity compared to what we test on Earth,” Isaacman said.
Day three is the big day: EVA.
spacewalk
So who among the astronauts will perform the spacewalk?
“There were four of us working on it — there was no airlock inside the spacecraft, it was vented into a vacuum,” Isaacman said.
Two crew members will travel outside the Crew Dragon: Isaacman and Gillis, while Poteet and Menon will remain inside the Crew Dragon as support.
EVA is expected to last two hours from start to finish. Isaacman stressed that spacewalks are “really a test and development” process.
“We want to learn as much as possible about the suit and how to operate it, but we can only use so much oxygen and nitrogen,” Isaacman said.
Polaris Dawn plans to broadcast the spacewalk live, and the mission commander emphasized that there will be “a lot of cameras” scattered inside and outside the capsule.
Brand new spacesuit
On June 24, 2024, SpaceX’s Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit was being tested.
John Krause/Project Polaris
The key piece of equipment that makes EVA possible is SpaceX’s spacesuit.
For the past few years, the company has been taking its simple-looking black and white IVA suits (meaning intravehicle activity, worn by astronauts in emergencies) and using them to make EVA suits. Isaacman said the EVA suit is the result of hundreds of hours of testing on different materials over many years.
“So our first goal was to learn as much as possible about the suit,” Isaacman said.
“It’s all about building the next generation. We’re going to continue to iterate on the design of this suit so that SpaceX can one day work for the moon, Mars, (low Earth orbit), have hundreds and thousands of suits. Build the new EVA Suits are not an easy thing,” he added.
Polaris Dawn medical specialist Anna Menon during a spacesuit test.
John Krause/Project Polaris
Polaris Dawn aims to push the boundaries of private space flight, and just like his first journey into orbit, Isaacman hopes the mission will inspire.
“That’s the inspirational aspect…anything that’s different from what we’ve seen in the last 20 or 30 years gets people excited and thinking, ‘Well, if this is what I see today, I wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow. It seems like a year later.
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