Polaris Dawn Rises

Kennedy Space Center, FL. - This morning, September 10 at 5:23 AM EDT a Falcon 9 launched the Polaris Dawn mission to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After several delays for weather and a technical issue, the Falcon 9 lit the Space Coast in the late morning hours sending this historical flight to space.

This mission, scheduled for just under one week, the Dragon Resilience and the Polaris Dawn crew will press achieve to reach the highest orbit for the Earth ever flown since the Apollo program and if possible, perform first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) also known as a spacewalk, by a commercial astronaut. For this, the astronauts are wearing EVA spacesuits that were developed by SpaceX.

Photo Credit:  Michael Howard

Shortly after obtaining orbit, the crew will start “pre-breathing” a critical portion of one of the firsts an EVA or spacewalk. All nitrogen will have to be purged from their bodies by lowering cabin pressure and the interior of the space capsule will be pumped full of pure oxygen. A special onboard experiment (1 of 36) is an ultrasound to monitor any formation of nitrogen bubbles in their bodies that might cause “The Bends” or decompression sickness. As the suits are pressurized and there is no “airlock” in the specially modified Dragon.

Photo Credit:  Michael Howard

During this time the orbit of the Resilience will have taken them to an apogee of about 1,200 Km (745 miles) from Earth, well into the Van Allen radiation belt for a total of 7 orbits. In their 7 orbits, they will receive as much radiation as they would in about 20 years on earth. The last time a manned spacecraft orbited this high above earth was Gemini 11 flown by Charles “Pete” Conrad & Richard Gordon Jr..

Each astronaut will be equipped with dosimeters to measure exposure to radiation. The orbit will be lowered to about 700Kms (435 miles). On Day 3, the modified hatch of Resilience will open allowing 2 of the astronauts who are tethered to the Dragon. The tether will be similar to what many people remember of Astronaut Ed Whites famous spacewalk aboard Gemini 4 in 1965 while his partner Jim McDermott remained inside the Gemini spacecraft in his own pressurized suit. In opening the hatch, each astronaut actually will be in their own private pressurized spacecraft.

The helmets worn by the 2 astronauts who leave the Dragon will have an extra layer of “shade” protecting them from the bright rays of the Sun.

Another in flight experiment will feature a Starlink communication demonstration. What is known is a laser will send data to a Starlink satellite moving at orbital velocity down to earth & then back.

Over the remaining time in space, the crew will work with a total of 36 specifically selected scientific experiments and readying the Resilience for return to Earth on the sixth day at one of seven sites somewhere off the coast of Florida for the last time. Moving forward, all future SpaceX manned landings will be normally scheduled for the Pacific Ocean.

The Polaris Dawn crew is comprised of: Jared Isaacman who is privately funding the entire mission, Scott Poteet a retired Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force with an extensive background in flying Sarah Gillis an employee of SpaceX where she works as a Lead Space Operations Engineer, and Anna Menon is the fourth member of the crew and another SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineer.

Everything that is learned from the inaugural Polaris Dawn flight will be applied to the next flights in the series with everything being applied in the future to manned flights to the moon aboard Starship and eventually Mars. Story By: Graham Smith – We Report Space

Image Credits: Michael Howard, Michael Seeley and Graham Smith for We Report Space