the first commercial "space walk" in human history was completed: the total duration was about 20 minutes, and the man held the escalator but did not completely leave the spacecraft
2024-09-14
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
on september 12, spacex, the space exploration technology company owned by tesla ceo elon musk, successfully carried out the "polaris dawn" commercial spacewalk mission. billionaire jared isaacman and spacex engineer sarah gillis separately left the spacecraft and floated in space. this was the first commercial spacewalk in human history.
the spacewalk mission included a total of four astronauts, the protagonist of which was isaacman. isaacman was the commander of this mission. he flew to orbit with spacex in 2021 and provided financial support for this flight mission.
joining isaacman on the mission was his friend, former air force pilot scott poteet, also known as "kidd."
the other two astronauts are from spacex, namely gillis and anna menon.
at about 17:00 beijing time on september 10, spacex successfully launched the polaris dawn. at about 18:00 on september 12, the first commercial spacewalk of the polaris dawn officially began.
after the astronauts put on their extravehicular spacesuits, spacex officially began live broadcasting, sharing the view from inside the dragon spacecraft capsule. poteet can be seen in the background sitting in his seat, while mission commander isaacman is floating in the air, connected by an "umbilical cord."
spacex experts introduced in the live broadcast that astronauts must first go through the "space suit cleaning" process and inject oxygen into the space suit before the mission can officially begin.
in the picture, the astronauts opened several valves on the dragon spacecraft and began to supply pure oxygen to their space suits. according to reports, there are actually two different types of oxygen at work here. the first is "primary oxygen", which is used to support breathing; the second is "secondary oxygen", which is used to help cool the space suit. the next step is to pressurize the space suit to ensure that there is no leak in the space suit.
after all tests are ready, the space walk officially begins.
at around 18:50, isaacman struggled to open the hatch and, with the help of a ladder called "skywalker," slowly entered the vacuum of space.
for this mission, spacex installed a large set of handrails inside the dragon capsule and a special ladder on top of the capsule, named "skywalker."
isaacman peered out and shared his first message, "we all have a lot of work to do at home, but from here, this looks like a perfect world."
after staying outside the space capsule for about 10 minutes and completing a series of test maneuvers, isaacman returned to the capsule and gillis began his spacewalk. like isaacman, gillis also stayed in outer space for about 10 minutes.
it is worth noting that most of isaacman and gillis' bodies were outside the cabin, but their feet were still inside the cabin and they did not completely leave the space capsule. because their space suits were not equipped with independent oxygen supply equipment, they needed to use a 3.6-meter-long "umbilical cord" cable to deliver oxygen and ensure communication.
spacex said they did not perform any feats similar to "free floating", but instead arranged a set of actions called "matrix testing" to accurately test the space suit.
spacex's goal is to produce a space suit with a significantly reduced cost. it is reported that this space suit integrates many cutting-edge technologies, including a head-up display, a helmet camera and an innovative joint design. it is covered with a heat-insulating layer and equipped with a copper and indium tin oxide visor, which takes into account both heat protection and sun protection. in addition, the space suit has multiple redundant systems in oxygen supply, valves and seals to ensure safety and reliability.
the polaris dawn mission is the first of three missions planned by isaacman and musk, which will include a second crew dragon mission and the first crewed flight of spacex's starship. it is not clear how much isaacman paid for these flights, or how much funding spacex itself provided for these flights. this mission marks the fifth successful launch of spacex's commercial manned dragon spacecraft and the 14th flight, including nasa missions. it is expected to last for 5 days before the spacecraft lands on the coast of florida.
in an interview earlier, isaacman proposed a grand goal: one day, the entire space will be inhabited by humans. he said that he and musk discussed this grand vision, and they agreed that humans need space suits, and one day they may need tens of thousands of space suits, but it should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
following the mission, nasa administrator bill nelson sent out his congratulations to the polaris dawn team and spacex, calling the move a "huge leap forward."
source: the paper
