The mission, called Polaris Dawn, is the first in a series of spaceflights under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and American pilot, entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Isaacman.

The businessman has already paid a lot of money for a trip to space in September 2021, then as a tourist. “It was a quasi-religious experience,” he later said. That’s reason enough to start the Polaris space program with Musk.

Three risk factors

The new mission is special for several reasons. Or maybe you should say: it carries three special risks. First, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will reach an altitude of 900 miles. That’s far higher than the 400 kilometers that normal space travel reaches. For example, that’s also the altitude at which the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth.

At 1,400 kilometers up, the crew is also floating in the Van Allen Belt, a region where radiation is highest – but more on that later.

In this post on X, the program introduces itself with a short video:

The second special feature: Two of the four crew members will be doing spacewalks. This has never been done before by astronauts from a commercial space agency.

And the third amazing detail: the capsule does not have an airlock, as is always the case in manned spacecraft so far.

No airlock

“This last one is special,” says space expert Jeroen Glasner, who until his retirement worked at the Netherlands Space Office, the Dutch space agency. “Before you can do a spacewalk, you have to purge the nitrogen from your blood. This is necessary because the nitrogen in the vacuum of space would cause bubbles in your blood, which is deadly. This causes the infamous caisson disease, which also affects divers who surface too quickly.”

Typically, astronauts on spacewalks go into a spacecraft decompression chamber, also called an airlock, to remove nitrogen from their bloodstream. There, normal air, which is 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, gradually turns into 100% oxygen.

But in the case of this vehicle, it works differently, as Glasner explains: “Here, in fact, the entire capsule is an airlock. The four astronauts on board breathe oxygen through a special oxygen tank throughout the flight. And when the hatch opens for the vehicle, for the spacewalk, the entire capsule is already vacuum-sealed.”

The capsule is gradually depressurized and purged of nitrogen, over approximately 45 hours before the hatch is opened.

space walk

According to the latest schedule, the mission is set to depart next Tuesday. In addition to team leader Isaacman, there will also be his good friend Scott Poteet (an Air Force pilot) and two SpaceX engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. Only Isaacman and Gillis will be doing the spacewalk.

Charlotte Bowles Fan Ice space She is an analog astronaut, which means she conducts space experiments for space organizations—not in space, where she hopes to go one day, but as a simulation on Earth. For her, the spacewalk is the highlight of this mission.

“This is going to be the exciting part of this journey for me,” she says. “Until now, spacewalks were only done by astronauts who had years of training, at least four years. Now it’s people who have trained for a much shorter period of time doing it.”

So, it’s “an important moment for commercial spaceflight,” says the analog astronaut. “This sector is booming all over the world right now. If the amateurs go relatively well, it will be a big boost. But if something goes wrong, I fear that investors will pull out, which will really be a blow to commercial spaceflight.”

Earth light

Imagine, Bowles thinks aloud, that spacewalking was also made safe enough for tourists: “That must be something, to float in space and then see the Earth light up: Earthlight. It’s a dream for a lot of people. At least for me, it is.”

She also finds it interesting that space travel can now also be connected to multiple cultures and people from all walks of life: “For example, a previous mission with tourists looked at how to make art in space. That mission was also the first African-American woman – American pilot Sian Proctor. I think anything is possible.”

Glasner also believes that the commercial component of the mission is the most special thing in the entire company, he says. “Such missions prove something important: that commercial parties can achieve progress and new developments more dynamically, faster and cheaper.”

Because government organizations are cumbersome, he says, progress is often slow. “SpaceX has a much smaller, more streamlined organization that gets things done quickly. But most importantly: It’s technologically advanced, safe, inclusive. It’s good, exciting space travel.”

to other planets

Musk and Isaacman’s ultimate goal is to pave the way for deep space exploration, and eventually live and work on Mars and other planets. Isaacman tells CNN,.

That’s why the mission is heading deeper into space than usual, into the Van Allen Belt. This belt begins at an altitude of 1,000 kilometers. According to NASA, it hangs here. dangerous radiationHowever, space expert Glasner says it’s not so bad: “There’s more radiation in this belt because highly charged particles from the Sun and from space are better retained here. It has to do with the Earth’s magnetic field. But if you don’t stay afloat for a long time, and astronauts don’t do that, it shouldn’t be that dangerous. Compare it to X-rays.”

For added protection, SpaceX has developed a new EVA suit, custom-made for each person using 3D models of crew members. SpaceX has been developing this over the past three years. Among other things, the suits were frozen and tiny particles simulating “micrometeorites” were shot at astronomical speeds to see if the suits would leak.

According to Glasiner it is so. Polaris Program Not a game for rich scoundrels, but a scientifically legitimate platform for technological development. “In the 1960s and 1970s, space travel was about beating the Russians. Now it’s about what it should be: exploring space.”