Photo: Polaris Program
Polaris Dawn marks the first of three planned space missions led by US billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments. The mission will launch on August 27 with four crew members aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience capsule, which will be strapped to the Falcon 9 rocket.
This space flight aims to achieve the highest Earth orbit ever reached on a crewed flight. Two crew members will also conduct a space walk.
Here’s everything that you need to know regarding Polaris Dawn.
Mission Overview
Here are the mission objectives that Polaris Dawn will strive to achieve:
- High altitude: One of the mission’s primary objectives is to reach the highest Earth orbit. The record for reaching Earth’s highest orbit is currently held by Gemini 11, launched in 1966.
- Performing the first commercial spacewalk: The second objective of the mission is to perform the first commercial spacewalk, which is scheduled to happen on day 3 of the mission. Two crew members — Jared Issacman and Sarah Gillis — have been selected for the task. For this purpose, the astronauts will wear specially designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits. If successful, these spacesuits will open the doors for mass-producing space suits for future manned missions on the Moon and Mars.
- Testing Starlink laser communications: This mission will also be the first to check the Starlink laser-based communications in space.
- Health impact research: Probably the most important task that this mission will look to accomplish is conducting ultrasound testing to “monitor, detect, and quantify venous gas emboli (VGE),” understanding how space radiation affects human health, providing biological samples for multi-omics analysis, and research Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS).
SpaceX and Polaris Dawn have partnered with several institutions, including the Transnational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the United States Air Force Academy, among others.
The Crew
Polaris Dawn’s crew consists of four members, each bringing a unique skill set:
- Jared Isaacman (Commander): Jared Issacman is a seasoned pilot and astronaut with over 7,000 flight hours experience. He was also the commander of the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian spaceflight launched in 2021.
- Sarah Gillis (Mission Specialist): Sarah hails from Boulder, Colorado and holds a degree in aerospace engineering. She has experience in training NASA astronauts for the Demo-2 and Crew-1 missions. Before moving to full-time astronaut training, she worked on human-in-the-loop testing of the Dragon spacecraft interior.
- Anna Menon (Medical Officer): Anna Menon is a Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX. She has served on several mission controls, including Demo-2, Crew-1, CRS-22, CRS-23, Crew-3, Crew-4, and Axiom-1. She also volunteers in Engineers Without Borders and Engineering World Health organisations.
- Scott “Kidd” Poteet (Pilot): Scott is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with more than 3,200 flying hours in some of the most high-tech flying machines, such as the F-16, A-4, T-38, T-37, T-3, and Alpha Jet. He also served as a mission director of Inspiration4.
Key technologies and innovations
Although the Polaris Dawn will use the identical Crew Dragon spacecraft that has already been used for NASA’s Crew-1 and Crew-2 missions, several essential modifications will take place, such as:
- Advanced spacesuits: This mission will debut the SpaceX Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suits. These suits are the evolved Intravehicular Activity (IVA) suits and come with a modern helmet with a heads-up display (HUD) and camera. They are also fitted with new thermal management textiles that provide mobility while adjusting the suite temperatures. The materials for the suit are borrowed from Falcon’s Interstage and Dragon’s trunk.
- Crew Dragon modifications: According to Space.com, Crew Dragon will not have an airlock mechanism, so all four crew members must switch to their spacesuits when performing spacewalks. Additionally, the crew members cannot remove nitrogen from their systems. Instead, the spacecraft will gradually lower its internal pressure over 45 hours, increasing the partial pressure of oxygen to remove the nitrogen and allow the astronauts to breathe oxygen.
- Starlink’s new laser communications: The mission will also test the new Starlink’s laser communication with other Starlink satellites. Communication will be difficult to manage as the Crew Dragon and the Starlink satellite will revolve around 17,500 mph or 28,200 kph.
Challenges and risks
Like any space mission, Polaris Dawn will face the following challenges and risks:
- Spacewalk risks: The first commercial spacewalk can go wrong in multiple ways. Although the astronauts have some of the world’s best technologies with them, spacewalks are always fraught with risks. SpaceX is leaving no stone unturned for the safety of the crew members by installing handholds and footholds inside and outside the spacecraft, reports Space.com.
- Radiation risks: The spacewalk will occur in the Van Allen radiation belt, a high-energy radiation belt enclosing Earth.
- Communication risks: Although the mission is hopeful that the new Starlink laser-based communication will work well, its performance in space is unproven.
The Polaris Dawn mission is a precursor to the longer manned mission that we will see in the future to establish a base on the Moon or Mars. Although it seems futuristic, missions like the Polaris Dawn will undoubtedly pave the way for them. The EVA spacesuit and laser-based communications are just two of the many things that this mission will test out.
“Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits. The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multi-planetary,” says the official website of Polaris Dawn.
When will this happen? Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: Polaris Dawn is humanity’s first step into multi-planetary travel.
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