ELON Musk’s SpaceX is set for a historic spacewalk that will take astronauts farther away from Earth than any other mission in over 50 years.
Dubbed “Polaris Dawn”, the ascent into orbit will be launched by the Falcon 9 rocket from Florida as the brave crew prepare to spend up to five days in space.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has been slated as the chosen method of transportation for the four-person crew, who will attempt to reach an initial orbital altitude of 870 miles.
This will take it higher than any crewed space flight since the 1972 Apollo 17 Moon mission and also surpasses the highest crewed Earth orbit mission set by Gemini 11 in 1966.
Polaris Dawn have already announced that the mission will launch no earlier than Wednesday, July 31, 2024, hinting it could come sooner rather than later.
That means Mission Commander Jared Isaacman, Mission Pilot Scott Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon could all be set for take-off sometime in the near future.
But the quartet will have to overcome a slightly tricky obstacle as part of the mission.
The initial orbital altitude of 870 miles is expected to be high enough to penetrate the inner band of the radioactive Van Allen Belts that encircle the Earth, New Atlas report.
Naturally, this puts the crew at risk of radiation exposure, although the report adds that it’s expected to be minimal due to their initial orbit being highly elliptical with a lower altitude of 120 miles.
Whilst in orbit, however, the four-man crew will work towards a number of objectives – ‘High Altitude’, ‘First Commercial Spacewalk’, ‘In-Space Communications’, and ‘Health Impact Research’.
They will begin by conducting 38 science experiments to study the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.
When these are completed, the altitude for the remainder of the five days in orbit will be reduced to 430 miles.
They will then attempt the first private spacewalk, wearing SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit.
The Dragon spacecraft has also been specially modified to depressurise and allow the forward hatch to be opened as part of the mission.
After that, the crew will test Starlink laser-based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
The astronauts will then conclude their time in orbit by conducting scientific research designed to advance both human health on Earth and during future long-duration spaceflights.
