Science News

Article originally written by Tia Agarwal ’26.

On September 10, 2024, at 5:24 am ET, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a capsule carrying four civilians that took off from NASA’s launch complex in Florida. This mission, dubbed Polaris Dawn, is the first time civilians have ever been to space and the highest humans have been in space since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft is aiming for the Van Allen radiation belt, made up of thousands of high-energy particles with radiation that is more powerful than the X-ray rays in medical devices. The first flight to ever get through the belts was NASA’s Apollo 8 in 1968, which was crucial in the passage to the moon. The belts have potentially dangerous effects if too much time is spent in them, which makes this mission what CNN calls “a daring excursion” (Wattles). 

The complete civilian crew consists of billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 and the main source of funding for the project since its inception in 2021; Scott Poteet, a retired Air Force Lt. Col; and two crew members: Sarah Gills and Anna Menon. The capsule is on top of a Falcon 9 rocket designed by SpaceX. These rockets are used for SpaceX’s larger Starlink project, which aims to provide data coverage around the world. Upon its take-off, the firing lasted 2 ½ minutes, which spent most of its fuel. It entered Earth’s orbit by firing 17,000 mph, also called “orbital velocity.” Polaris Dawn also marks the first civilian spacewalk. Isaacman and Gillis were to be attached to tether, but unlike traditional crafts, this spacecraft doesn’t have a pressurized airlock. A pressurized airlock provides a barrier between two areas of separate ‘air,’ that is, areas with different levels of pressure. Because it doesn’t have an airlock, the entire capsule will depressurize, and the crew will test out the environment with SpaceX’s newly designed suits. News outlets called this potentially dangerous, as all four crew members will be exposed to an unpredictable space environment without ever being in space before. A few possible issues discussed were the inability to relock the vehicle’s hatch and toxins released from repressurization. SpaceX, however, has taken precautionary measures to make sure this doesn’t happen, and no such accident was reported at the time of arrival. Spacewalking, however, requires a lot of oxygen, and scientists predicted the aircraft will only last 5 to 6 days. The Falcon 9’s life support systems had not been designed to support spacewalks, and major adjustments and additions, especially in the environment suite, were made to make it possible. In all, the spacewalk lasted a little less than 2 hours, starting at 6:12 am ET and ending at 7:58 am ET.

The mission ended with the landing of the crew on September 15, 2024. 

The mission, along with its spacewalk, was to conduct 36 missions partnering with 31 institutes. One of their missions is to test technologies that can be used in “future long-duration space missions” (Chow). The ultimate goal is to advance human health and potentially improve inhabitation information for Mars.

Sources:

Polaris Dawn mission is one giant leap for private space exploration (Cover Image)
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2448059-polaris-dawn-mission-is-one-giant-leap-for-private-space-exploration/

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew conducts first all civilian space-walk
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/polaris-dawn-crew-gears-up-for-first-commercial-non-government-spacewalk/

SpaceX launches all-civilian Polaris mission to orbit
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-launches-private-mission-civilian-spacewalk-rcna168436

Crew of SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission complete spacewalk
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/live-blog/live-updates-spacex-polaris-mission-spacewalk-civilians-rcna170447

SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn, one of its riskiest missions yet
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/science/polaris-dawn-mission-spacex-launch/index.html

What are the Van Allen Belts and why do they matter?
https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/stories/van-allen-belts/

Bishop Airlock | Voyager Space
https://voyagerspace.com/explore/bishop-airlock/