Despite delays in the mission’s launch, Polar Dawn has already entered history, as planned. And for the first time, A. fully commercial spacewalk. It is true that they did not go outside as such. They only looked outside, but that does not make what happened any less interesting, since none of the four astronauts in this mission in cooperation with SpaceX They were professionals.
In fact, four crew members Jared IsaacmanCEO of Inspiration 4, Scott Poteet, retired US Air Force pilot, lieutenant colonel Sarah Gilliesspace operations engineer at SpaceX, and Anna MennonSpaceX engineer and doctor. Although they had prepared themselves for such difficult tasks as climbing a volcano, the reality is that they are not professionals in this field. Fortunately, everything went well.
It all happened at an altitude of 700 km above the Earth, when the ship was between Australia and Antarctica. It was the highest spacewalk ever performed. The first to speak was Polaris Dawn promoter Jared Isaacman. He recorded everything from a camera in his helmet, supplemented by footage from other cameras on the ship. It was, without a doubt, a great milestone that was fully immortalized for posterity.
Polaris Dawn’s Great Achievements
After Isaacman, Gillis left. Then it was the turn of the other two Polaris Dawn crew members.
The spacewalk went according to plan and became another check in the mission’s list of accomplishments. The first of these was achieved when the ship managed to rise to Altitude 1400 km. It has not reached such a height since the Apollo missions.
It also went further than any other commercial crewed spacecraft. It may even be the furthest spacecraft with two female crew members. Let’s not forget that all of the Apollo crew members were men. It is now the norm that, although there are fewer female astronauts than men, most missions of this type involve at least one woman. In this case, it was Anna Mennon and Sarah Gillies.
So what now?
The Polaris Dawn voyage was scheduled for six daysso they have two more ahead of them. After that time, they will return to Earth and undergo a lot of medical tests.
It should be noted that this is usually done to all astronauts. However, his case is special for several reasons. First of all; because, as we have already seen, the Polaris Dawn crew are not professional astronauts, but civilians. This was their first space flight, so they were exposed to cosmic radiation or microgravity. But above all, their case is special because they have reached such remote areas where cosmic radiation is much more intense than on the International Space Station. This allows us to study much more deeply how radiation affects the human body.
This was the first of three missions that Polaris Dawn is expected to undertake. The next walk, if all goes well, will see an astronaut leave the ship entirely. It will be a major achievement, but what they did on this first trip is already recorded in history.
Source: Hiper Textual
