The crew of the first mission of the privately funded Polaris program is expanding new heights to prepare for a record SpaceX flight later this year.
Mission profiles, launch schedule estimates, and crew updates were recently shared on the Polaris website. SpaceX And billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. Isaacman funded and directed SpaceX’s first all-civilian crew mission. Inspiration 4Raised more than $ 240 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in September 2021. Isaacman announced the Polaris program a few months later.
Polaris aims to continue raising funds for St. Jude, widening the boundaries of manned spaceflight through launches by three separate crew members, all funded by Isaacman. In his first mission, Polaris Dawn, Commander Isaacman flies the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon, and Scott Poteet. (Both Gillis and Menon work in SpaceX.) Polaris’ second launch will also employ a dragon, but the third one aims to be SpaceX’s first next-generation crew mission. Starship Spaceship.
Related: Photos of all SpaceX civilian Inspiration4 missions
According to the announcement of the Polaris program announced in February this year, the Polaris Dawn mission will feature the first commercial EVA and since its final, will soar to higher orbit altitudes than humans have reached. Apollo 1972 Mission — Much higher than the dragon launches you’ve ever boarded. More details are now being announced on the Polaris Dawn mission and how the crew is training for it.
Polaris Dawn will be available by the fourth quarter of this year. The Dragon A capsule carrying Isaacman and his three crew members will be lifted onto the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Pushing the rocket to the limit of its capacity, Falcon 9 will fly the spacecraft into an initial elliptical orbit of 745 miles x 118 miles (1,200 x 190 kilometers). The dragon then uses the Draco thruster to raise the apogee (the highest point on Earth) to 870 miles (1,400 km). The spacecraft remains in its elliptical orbit and lowers its apogee to 435 miles (700 km). For context, International Space Station It is orbiting at an average altitude of about 250 miles (400 km).
Because Polaris Dawn has the first feature Extravehicular activity, Or a civilian astronaut extravehicular activity (EVA), SpaceX had to develop its own commercial EVA suite.Dragon EVA requires decompression of the spacecraft’s main cabin in the same way as NASA Gemini Capsules were from the early days of manned space flight. This means that everyone on board will wear a suit designed to be exposed to the vacuum of space.
The Recent Polaris program updates (Opens in a new tab)Posted on June 9th, while the “multi-faceted” team is working on the design and testing of SpaceX’s new EVA suit, specific research and experiments included in the Polaris Dawn mission will continue to be reviewed and tested. It states that it has been selected.
For the past three months, the SpaceX and Polaris teams have helped the crew prepare for the mission. For example, the group underwent indoor scuba training in California to practice the types of nonverbal communication and crew support techniques required during EVA. After being comfortable in the pool, the crew was able to complete the dive off the coast of Catalina Island, California, and experience a variety of physiological responses related to pressure changes.
Recently, the team completed a major high-altitude hike in Ecuador, including climbing to the country’s second highest mountain, Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is 19,347 feet (5,897 meters) high, requiring Polaris Dawn crew members to cross glaciers and adapt to rapid changes in altitude to reach their peak.
In the June 9 update, the crew will be simulating on the Dragon Spacecraft within the next few months, participating in a reduced-gravity-style centrifuge exercise, and recognizing and addressing signs of hypoxia. It states.
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