Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced plans to launch the first-ever crewed mission to explore Earth’s polar orbit by the end of this year. This mission, named Fram2 after the first ship to ferry explorers to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, will be a significant milestone in private spaceflight, as no one else has successfully flown over the Earth’s polar regions before.
Fram2 is SpaceX’s sixth commercial astronaut mission, and it will see a crew of four astronauts aboard the Dragon capsule, which will be launched into polar orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket. According to a blog post by SpaceX on August 12, the mission is expected to last three to five days, with Florida selected as the launch site.
Who will be onboard the spaceflight?
Another reason why the announcement of SpaceX’s Fram2 has grabbed headlines is because the four astronauts who will be onboard the spacecraft have reportedly never been to space before.
The commander of the Fram2 mission will be Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur from Malta who has founded two bitcoin mining companies. He will be accompanied by Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian cinematographer; Rabea Rogge, a robotics engineer from Germany, and Eric Philips, a polar explorer from Australia, who will also be piloting the spacecraft.
The objective of the spaceflight is to study the polar regions of Earth from the Dragon capsule which will be orbiting at 425-450 kilometres above the surface. Specifically, the astronauts will be observing unusual light emissions similar to auroras i.e. the Northern lights (Aurora borealis) and Southern lights (Aurora australis).
“The crew will study green fragments and mauve ribbons of continuous emissions comparable to the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), which has been measured at an altitude of approximately 400 – 500 km above Earth’s atmosphere,” SpaceX said.
The mission hopes to provide additional insights for SpaceX on how being in space affects the human body by “capturing the first human x-ray images in space, Just-in-Time training tools, and studying the effects of spaceflight on behavioral health, all of which will help in the development of tools needed to prepare humanity for future long-duration spaceflight.”
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SpaceX’s previous manned missions
In a nutshell, SpaceX has successfully launched 13 human spaceflight missions so far. A total of 50 astronauts have been flown to and from the Earth’s orbit as part of these missions. The company’s Dragon spacecraft, in particular, has been used on 46 occasions to deliver critical supplies to astronauts onboard the International Space Station, among others.
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