polaris dawn completes first commercial spacewalk, reaching the farthest point from earth in more than 50 years
2024-09-15
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
reference news reported on september 13 according to a report on the cnn website on september 12, at around 6:00 a.m. eastern time on the 12th, two crew members of the u.s. "polaris dawn" space mission began taking turns to go out of the cabin. this was the world's first commercial spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.
spacex said on the 11th that its dragon spacecraft, carrying the polaris dawn mission team, reached an apogee of more than 1,400 kilometers from the earth, the farthest point reached by human space travel since the end of the apollo program more than 50 years ago.
breaking new boundaries
according to a report on the wall street journal website on september 11, private citizen astronauts aboard a space exploration technologies corporation spacecraft are preparing to attempt the first commercial spacewalk, which will break new boundaries for the company led by elon musk.
spacewalks, known as extravehicular activities, are a fairly common part of orbital missions, such as those to maintain the international space station. until now, they have only been performed by government astronauts on missions set up by various countries' space agencies.
spacewalks are dangerous. when astronauts are in space, there is nothing between them and the vacuum of space but their space suits. the astronauts on the polaris dawn mission will use space suits designed and built by spacex but not tested in orbit.
the polaris dawn mission was launched from florida on a spacex rocket on the morning of the 10th, and the mission members began preparing for the spacewalk shortly after takeoff. the pressure level in the cabin slowly decreased while the oxygen content increased, helping to remove nitrogen from the mission members' bloodstream and suppress decompression sickness.
spacex said on the 10th that its manned dragon spacecraft reached 1,400 kilometers above the earth, which means that the members of the "polaris dawn" mission are more than three times higher than the international space station - this is the highest altitude reached by humans in space since nasa's apollo program decades ago.
spacex and the polaris dawn team said the private astronauts and their spacecraft have gone through extensive testing over the past few years, from skydiving to entering a vacuum chamber to developing backup plans for the mission.
in addition to testing the space suits, the mission seeks to break new ground with the crew dragon, spacex's low-earth orbit spacecraft.
because the spacecraft has no airlock, all four crew members must don their spacesuits and then "vent" the spacecraft, releasing pressure and exposing the spacecraft's systems to the vacuum of space before a spacewalk. crew dragon has never vented its spacecraft in orbit.
explore new technologies
singapore's lianhe zaobao website reported on september 11 that spacex is carrying out the "polaris dawn" mission. this space flight mission will not only achieve the farthest distance humans have flown from the earth since the us apollo moon landing program in 1972, but will also be the first time that non-professional astronauts will walk in space, opening a new era of commercial space exploration.
the spacecraft carrying out the "polaris dawn" mission was launched from the kennedy space center in florida in the early morning of september 10. spacex announced that evening that the spacecraft had flown 1,400 kilometers from the earth, an altitude that humans have never reached in more than 50 years.
the highlight of the five-day journey is the first "civilian" spacewalk on the 12th. because the spacecraft has no airlock, the four crew members will be exposed to the vacuum of space for about two hours. they will wear new extravehicular activity suits designed by spacex.
in addition to the spacewalk, the crew will test the communication between the spacecraft and the starlink satellite to provide valuable data for the space communication system required for future lunar, mars and deep space exploration missions. they also plan to conduct 36 scientific experiments, including testing smart contact lenses and monitoring changes in eye pressure and eye shape.
pursuing new goals
according to afp on september 10, four crew members of the us space exploration technology company began their ambitious journey on tuesday. this is a private space trip and also marks a new stage in commercial space exploration.
the five-day polaris dawn mission was captained by jared isaacman, an american billionaire who has worked with spacex for many years. the crew also included the mission's pilot, scott poteet, a former u.s. air force pilot who is familiar with isaacman. also on board were sarah gillis and anna menon, the first spacex employees to go into space. they also became the women who have traveled the farthest on earth.
"in space, which is twice as high as the international space station, the environment is completely different in terms of radiation and micrometeorites. the goal of this trip is to collect data on the effects on the human body and the spacecraft," isaacman said at a press conference last month.
spacex boss elon musk stressed that during this mission the spacecraft "will pass through high-altitude orbits with tens of thousands of satellites and space junk many times, and we cannot afford to make any mistakes in our calculations."
the mission will test the company's first batch of futuristic white space suits. the dragon spacecraft is not equipped with a decompression chamber, and once the hatch is opened, all crew members will face a real vacuum. they will do some maneuvers to test the new space suits, which must be able to withstand extreme temperatures and equipped with cameras.
"it might look like dancing," isaacman explained. "i'm thinking about the possibility that someday a lot of people or a lot of families will be able to jump around on the surface of the moon in spacex suits. i'm very honored to be able to test these suits."
the four adventurers have been undergoing intensive training for more than two years: testing in simulation chambers or centrifuges, parachuting or survival training in ecuador...
isaacman, the boss of a financial company, loves space exploration and has already been to space on the spacex inspiration 4 mission in 2021. he believes that private investment is important for accelerating technological research and development, which is also his and spacex's common goal: to make humans a multi-planet species.
polaris dawn kicks off the polaris program announced two years ago, which will carry out a total of three missions. after the second similar mission, the third will be a manned flight using the starship currently under development for travel to the moon and mars. (compiled by lu longjun and yang xinpeng)
source: reference news
