SpaceX plans to send four people Wednesday into Earth orbit on a daring mission that will test new technology, expose astronauts to high levels of radiation and potentially change how future spacewalks are conducted.
The privately funded mission, called Polaris Dawn, will be led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who co-owned and financed it. First private, all-civilian space mission in 2021. Polaris Dawn will also include SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, as well as former Air Force pilot Scott Poteet. The mission was scheduled to launch on Tuesday, but the flight was on Delayed due to a helium leak. The team will spend five days aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and travel 870 miles from Earth. Farthest crewed mission since 1972’s Apollo 17 space flight to the moon
This distance would put the craft more than 200 miles inside the Van Allen radiation belt — The region of space that surrounds a planet and highly radioactive. they were First detected on a US space missionin 1958, and their highly charged, energetic particles can damage spacecraft instruments.
The technology inside the capsule will have to withstand that radiation – as will the astronauts. The two crew members, Isaacman and Gillis, will exit their vehicle through a hatch that exposes the entirety of the capsule to space rather than through an airlock, as astronauts normally do.
Passengers will adapt to a depressurized state in about 45 hours to avoid getting nitrogen bubbles in their bloodstream – which can be fatal.
All crew and all onboard systems must be able to withstand radiation; Before Isaacman and Gillis begin their walk, each passenger will be given SpaceX’s new spacesuit. The capsule underwent rigorous testing on Earth to ensure that radiation did not fry its circuits, trapping the astronauts. But testing instruments on the ground is not the same as putting them in space, and SpaceX hopes the mission will provide valuable information on how to develop instruments and spacecraft for future missions.
This is especially important for future missions to the Moon and beyond — computers have come a long way since the 70s, when the Polaris Dawn crew last had to deal with Van Allen radiation levels.
“Our current technology is more sensitive to these accelerated particles because even a single hit from a particle can disrupt our small instruments and electronics,” said David Seebeck, Van Allen Probes mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Space Center Houston said in a 2020 interview. “As technology advances, it’s actually becoming more pressing to understand and predict our space environment.”
Importantly, Isaacman and Gillis will also test how protective their suits are when they exit the Crew Dragon.
This suite is designed In just two and a half years — a surprisingly quick turnaround by space exploration standards — and has made NASA famous for upgrading to massive suits. Instead of integrating life support systems into the suit, as at NASA, SpaceX’s new suits connect to the spacecraft via a tube — that’s how Isaacman and Gillis will be able to breathe and function during their spacewalks.
In addition to radiation, suits may also be required Withstand microimpacts. There are all kinds of small objects orbiting the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour; A puncture can be disastrous. The suits were put through debris tests on Earth, but like the instruments, the controlled tests differed from the real thing.
SpaceX argues that the mission should continue despite the risks because there is all the knowledge to be gained. If the flight is successful, humans will have a wealth of fresh information about how Van Allen radiation affects our latest technology and our bodies; Astronauts can find alternative ways to spacewalk; And scientists will have much to dissect about spacesuit design.
And that’s not to mention the impact the mission might have on the long-term goals of repatriating people the moon And Mars.
SpaceX specifically highlighted the importance of its new suit in making this happen, writing on it website, “The development of this suit and the execution of spacewalks will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary.”
SpaceX says it doesn’t plan to stop there: Polaris is part of the Dawn Polaris project, which will include two subsequent missions — all of which Isaacman is co-financing with the company.
