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\n Four astronauts from the Polaris Dawn mission \u2014 from left, Jared Isaacman (mission commander), Sarah Gillis (mission specialist), Anna Menon (mission specialist\/medical officer) and Scott \u201cKidd\u201d Poteet (pilot), say they’ve gone through some 2,000 hours of simulator training to prepare for an ambitious visit to space.<\/p>\n
John Kraus\/Polaris Program<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n John Kraus\/Polaris Program<\/p>\n
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If billionaire cosplay sits at one end of the spectrum of private space travel and scientific research at the other, the Polaris Dawn mission aims to move the needle toward the latter.<\/p>\n
The ambitious SpaceX mission, 2\u00bd years in the making, would put four astronauts into an ultra-high orbit around Earth. It has a full agenda of experiments and tests, many of which focus on human health in space.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a spacewalk — poised to be a first for a private mission — that will rely on simply opening a hatch on the spacecraft.<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\n\u201cWe are going to vent the vehicle entirely down to vacuum,\u201d Polaris leader Jared Isaacman said on Monday. \u201cThere’s no airlock on Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a quick guide to the upcoming mission:<\/p>\n
When does Polaris Dawn launch?<\/h2>\n The five-day mission is slated to launch on Monday, Aug. 26, and return on Saturday, Aug. 31, according to the most recent guidance.<\/p>\n
The astronauts\u2019 SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will ride into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket taking off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The facility is selling tickets for the launch, which has a window between 3:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Who are the astronauts?<\/h2>\n The crew is: Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman<\/u> (mission commander) and former Air Force pilot Scott \u201cKidd\u201d Poteet (pilot), along with SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis (mission specialist) and Anna Menon (mission specialist\/medical officer).<\/p>\n
The four have trained together in a variety of extreme settings, from skydiving and scuba diving to climbing Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador. And then there were the simulations. Poteet, a 20-year Air Force veteran, says the crew spent some 2,000 hours in a simulator, practicing scenarios from nominal procedures and contingency operations to emergency actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put this in perspective, I flew fighters for 20 years,\u201d Poteet said. In that time, he said, he \u201caccomplished about 1,500 hours in the simulator training for combat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nIsaacman, an avid pilot and entrepreneur, has paid for three SpaceX flights, dubbing them the Polaris program. The first two flights use the SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 system, but the third is slated to use the Starship vehicle, which is in the testing phase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could very well be the 737 for human space flight someday,\u201d Isaacman said of Starship. \u201cBut it’ll certainly be the vehicle that will return humans to the Moon and then on to Mars and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
What will the Polaris astronauts do in orbit?<\/h2>\n The mission revolves around several big milestones. In its first phase, the capsule will fly to the \u201chighest altitude of any human spaceflight mission in more than a half-century since the Apollo program,\u201d according to an update released on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get into space in about 10 minutes,\u201d Menon said.<\/p>\n
With an orbital altitude topping out around 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from Earth\u2019s surface, the Polaris mission will move through the inner regions of the Van Allen radiation belt. The craft\u2019s nose will be oriented to minimize the astronauts\u2019 exposure to radiation. Along the way, data about the crew\u2019s health and the craft\u2019s performance will be collected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a different radiation environment, it is a different micrometeorite orbital debris environment,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cAnd we stand to learn quite a bit from that, in terms of human health science and research.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a brief visit to high orbit, the capsule will descend to a new cruising orbit with an apogee some 435 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n
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\n SpaceX designed special suits to protect astronauts facing the vacuum of space, as they plan to perform an extravehicular activity (EVA).<\/p>\n
John Kraus\/Polaris Program<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n John Kraus\/Polaris Program<\/p>\n
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\u201cAbout an hour after getting [to orbit], we will start our \u2018pre-breathe\u2019 protocol,\u201d Menon said. The procedure is designed to help the astronauts adjust to what\u2019s coming: the pressure change of opening the craft to the vacuum of space. The process is meant to eliminate nitrogen from their bodies, to lower the risk of decompression sickness.<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nThe second day will bring more spacewalk preparations, including checks of the four extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits that were specially designed for this mission by SpaceX.<\/p>\n
Day three will bring the EVA itself, in which two crewmembers will exit the spacecraft. With the craft\u2019s interior exposed to vacuum conditions, all four astronauts will receive oxygen through tethers that also supply life support. The operation will require around two hours from venting to repressurizing the craft.<\/p>\n
The fourth day is aimed at testing laser communications using SpaceX\u2019s Starlink network, with an eye toward eventually supporting missions to the Moon and Mars.<\/p>\n
Day five will be devoted to finishing some 40 scientific experiments, many of which aim to glean more knowledge about how the human body reacts to space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we will begin our reentry preparations and that brings us to flight day six,\u201d Menon said. \u201cWe will don our spacesuits, re-enter through Earth’s atmosphere and then splash down off the coast of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will there be snacks?<\/h2>\n Yes: Doritos has made a special version of its Cool Ranch flavored chips<\/u> \u2014 along with a $500,000 donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Polaris Dawn’s charity cause.<\/p>\n
The new \u201czero gravity\u201d version of the chip locks the flavor in with an oil-based coating \u2014 a tweak that, along with a smaller chip size, makes the snack safer in space, by reducing potential threats of wayward spice powder and tortilla crumbs.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first space project for Doritos. In 2008, the company beamed an ad from a European space station in the Arctic Circle that was \u201cdirected towards potential extra terrestrial life\u201d in space, according to an announcement<\/u> from the University of Leicester, which coordinated the project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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