Source: Polaris Dawn: Billionaire takes off for first private spacewalk
Billionaire Jared Isaacman has taken off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for what he hopes will be the first ever privately funded spacewalk.
The mission, called Polaris Dawn, is the first of three funded by the founder of payments processing business Shift4.
He is onboard as commander alongside his close friend Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, who is a retired air force pilot, and two SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
The spacecraft, called Resilience, will go into an orbit that will eventually take them up to 870 miles (1,400km) above the planet. No human has been that far since Nasa’s Apollo programme ended in the 1970s.
A unique aspect of the spacewalk is that the Dragon spacecraft, called Resilience, does not have an airlock, which is a sealed room between the doorway into the vacuum outside and the rest of the spacecraft.
Normally the airlock is depressurised before the astronauts step in and out, but in the case of Resilience, the entire craft will have to be depressurised and the non-spacewalking astronauts will have to be fully suited up.
The spacecraft has been adapted to withstand the vacuum. Extra nitrogen and oxygen tanks have been installed and all four astronauts will wear EVA suits, although only two will exit the spacecraft. The mission will therefore break the record for the most people in the vacuum of space at once.
The flight team has taken the challenge as an opportunity to do tests on the impact of decompression sickness, also known as the “bends” and the blurry vision astronauts can sometimes experience in space called spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome.
Tests on the impact of radiation from the Van Allen belts as well as the spacewalk are intended to lay the ground for further high-altitude missions by the private sector possibly to the Moon or Mars.
亿万富翁贾里德·艾萨克曼乘坐 SpaceX 猎鹰 9 号火箭升空，他希望这将是有史以来第一次私人资助的太空行走。 该任务名为“北极星黎明”，是支付处理企业 Shift4 创始人资助的三个任务中的第一个。 他担任指挥，与他一起的还有密友斯科特·“基德”·波蒂特（退役空军飞行员）以及两名 SpaceX 工程师安娜·梅农和莎拉·吉利斯。 这艘名为“弹性”的航天器进入一个轨道后最终将其带到距离地球 870 英里（1,400 公里）的地方。自从 20 世纪 70 年代美国宇航局阿波罗计划结束以来，还没有人类能够走得那么远。 太空行走的一个独特之处在于，被称为“弹性”的龙飞船没有气闸室，气闸室是通向外部真空门口和飞船其余部分之间的一个密封房间。 通常情况下，气闸室在宇航员进出之前会进行减压，但在“弹性“航天器，整个飞船必须减压，并且非太空行走的宇航员必须穿戴宇航服。 该航天器已适应真空环境。额外的氮气和氧气罐已经安装完毕，所有四名宇航员都将穿着EVA宇航服，尽管只有两人会离开航天器。因此，这次任务将打破同时在太空真空中容纳最多人的记录。 飞行团队以这次挑战为契机，对减压病和宇航员有时会在太空中遇到视力模糊情况，亦称为航天相关神经眼综合症的影响进行测试。 对范艾伦带和太空行走辐射影响进行的测试旨在为私营部门可能前往月球或火星的进一步高空任务奠定基础。
