A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has been launched for a five-day mission called Polaris Dawn, carrying American billionaire Jared Isaacman along with three others to attempt the world’s first private spacewalk.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three testing and development missions undertaken by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop technologies capable of sending people to Mars someday.
The launch, initially set for August 28, was delayed due to a helium leak and was further postponed because of adverse weather conditions in Florida.
What is the Polaris Dawn Mission?
Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission undertaken by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris programme. The spacecraft launched on September 10, carrying Isaacman along with three crew members: Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon.
The mission will take all four individuals to 1,400.7 kilometres (870.4 miles) from Earth. This will be the first spacecraft to reach this distance since NASA’s Apollo programme. It aims to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Isaacman and Gillis are expected to perform the first commercial spacewalk.
Jared Isaacman announced the Polaris Programme in February 2022, five months after Inspiration4, the first all-private astronaut mission. Key technologies for the programme include extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, adaptations for the lack of an airlock in the Dragon capsule, and inter-satellite laser communication links between the Dragon spacecraft and the Starlink constellation.
What are the Polaris Dawn Mission’s objectives?
The mission will take the crew to 1,400 km from Earth, surpassing the height achieved by NASA’s Gemini XI mission, which reached 1,372 km in 1966. NASA’s Gemini XI holds the record for any crewed mission not travelling to the moon.
This altitude means that the Polaris Dawn mission will be well into the inner band of the Van Allen radiation belts, a highly radioactive region encircling the Earth. According to the official website, the crew aims to conduct research to better understand the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.
For the remainder of the mission, the capsule will be lowered to a lower orbit, including a spacewalk scheduled for the third day of the mission, Thursday (September 12).
All crew members will don spacesuits, and the air will be evacuated from the capsule. According to The New York Times, “The hatch will then be opened, and the inside of the spacecraft will become part of the vacuum of outer space.”
This mission will conduct 40 scientific experiments, including capturing X-ray images without X-ray machines by utilising natural showers of radiation in space. It will also test laser-based communication provided by SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, allowing communication between satellites without relying on ground infrastructure to send signals.
Who is onboard Polaris Dawn?
Apart from Isaacman, the commander of the crew, the team includes Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; and two SpaceX employees, Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer, and Sarah Gillis, an engineer who oversees astronaut training.
With this mission, Isaacman will embark on his second space trip. Previously, Isaacman spent three days in low-Earth orbit before splashing down off Florida.
What exactly is a ‘Spacewalk’?
A spacewalk, or “extravehicular activity (EVA)”, is a period of activity spent outside a spacecraft by an astronaut in space.
The first-ever spacewalk took place on March 18, 1965, when Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the activity at the height of the space race. There was a race between the US and the USSR to achieve milestones in space during the Cold War era. Leonov’s spacewalk lasted 10 minutes.
First Published: Sep 11 2024 | 5:35 PM IST
