This time, the 'Space Walker' will come from civilians, not government supported astronauts.
On August 19th local time, the four crew members of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission arrived in Florida and will perform their first private "spacewalk" mission on August 26th. This is an adventure activity that previously only government supported astronauts could complete, and it will be the farthest human flight from Earth since NASA's Apollo program.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated that this will be an "epic feat" and described the mission as an "early pioneer of the interstellar age". If the project progresses smoothly, it is expected to send hundreds of people to Earth orbit, the moon, and even Mars in the future.
An adventurous activity
The mission is expected to last for six days, with the "spacewalk" (EVA) planned for the third day. Extracorporeal activities are adventurous activities that have only been conducted by astronauts from the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Canada, and China before. Since the construction of the International Space Station in 2000, astronauts have conducted over 270 spacewalks outside the station, but there have been no civilian extravehicular activities.
The crew of the Polaris Dawn is led by American billionaire and e-commerce tycoon Jared Isaacman. He founded Shift4 Payments payment company in his teens and earned his first bucket of gold. Isaac Mann is also the third billionaire to fly into space, following Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin.
This is not SpaceX's first commercial space travel mission. As of now, SpaceX has completed 13 manned flight missions, including 9 manned flight missions executed by NASA and 4 commercial flight missions. In September 2021, Isaacs participated in SpaceX's Inspiration 4 mission, which was SpaceX's first all civilian space travel, but at the time, the four space travelers did not leave the spacecraft.
The other crew member of the "Polaris Dawn" mission this time is pilot Scott Poteet, who also participated in the Inspiration 4 mission three years ago, and the other two are SpaceX employees. Isaac Mann and SpaceX engineer Gillis will conduct a "spacewalk" using ropes, while Potit and SpaceX engineer Menon will stay inside the spacecraft to provide support. The entire spacewalk process is expected to last for two hours. Many cameras will be installed inside and outside the cabin to live stream the testing and development process of the extravehicular activity spacesuit.
Prior to the implementation of the flight mission, the crew underwent over two years of training. Isaac Mann said at a press conference on August 19th, "No matter how risky the risk is, this mission is worth it. We don't know what this really means, but only by doing so can we truly change the trajectory of humanity, and we must take the first step in this direction
Isaac Mann is also a funding provider for SpaceX's commercial flight missions, and he shares the costs with SpaceX. Although he refused to disclose how much he has spent on these tasks so far, the total amount will reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
The price of space travel is not democratized. Time magazine predicts that the total price of the "ticket" for four passengers on SpaceX's first commercial flight mission in 2021 will reach $200 million. This is comparable to the cost of SpaceX sending NASA astronauts into space.
How far is commercial space from civilian use
Regarding SpaceX's upcoming "spacewalk" program, Liu Baiqi, Chairman and CEO of Star River Power, a domestic commercial aerospace company, told First Financial reporters, "The popularization of commercial aerospace is getting closer and closer, and the cost will be significantly reduced in the future
SpaceX also announced this month that it plans to launch the first batch of Fram 2 missions next year, flying around the two poles of the Earth with crew members from multiple countries.
Isaac Mann revealed that another important goal of this mission is to test and verify the spacesuit for extravehicular activities. In recent years, SpaceX has been committed to upgrading its black and white in cabin activity suit, which is usually worn in emergency situations, to an extravehicular activity suit. Isaac Mann stated that the extravehicular activity suit is the result of hundreds of hours of testing different materials over the years. We will continuously iterate the design of spacesuits so that SpaceX can have hundreds or even thousands of spacesuits for missions such as moon landing, Mars, and low Earth orbit in the future, "said Isakman.
In addition, SpaceX has an important lunar manned space program mission to launch. However, due to the continuous postponement of the mission, in June of this year, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced the cancellation of the originally scheduled SpaceX moon trip. He first announced in 2018 that he would become the "world's first person to orbit the moon for civilian purposes aboard SpaceX's Starship spacecraft. The specific amount of SpaceX's moon landing travel expenses has not been disclosed to the public, but Musk stated at the time that Tomohiro Maezawa would "pay a large sum of money" for it. According to market analysis predictions, Yusaku Maezawa may pay a huge sum of over $250 million for this.
In order to improve the success rate and reliability of space missions, SpaceX has implemented multiple software and hardware upgrades. These upgrades are crucial for achieving flight test objectives and ensuring the performance and safety of spacecraft. The Starship rocket system is designed to be fully reusable, with the goal of achieving a new method of transporting cargo and personnel beyond Earth.
According to SpaceX's original plan, the first manned lunar landing mission will be conducted in 2024. But SpaceX executives have repeatedly emphasized that hundreds of unmanned test flights are needed before the rocket can achieve manned launches. This rocket is also crucial for NASA's plan to return to the moon. NASA plans to use a starship system to send astronauts to the moon in 2026.
On June 6th of this year, the Starship rocket system achieved its first successful test flight, pushing this heavy rocket towards a new milestone. In September of this year, Starship will conduct its fifth test flight. Musk stated that a key objective of this mission is to test the full reusability of the Starship, including the first attempt to use the "Mechazilla" tower arm to capture the returning "super heavy" booster on the launch pad. If this test flight is successful, it will mean that SpaceX has made significant progress in the Starship project. But there is still a long way to go before traveling around the moon.
Shen Yan, the founder and CEO of Yidong Aerospace, told First Financial reporters, "With the continuous deepening of commercialization in the aerospace field, commercial aerospace will also usher in broader development space, providing people with more abilities to explore the unknown and ultimately achieving space freedom