The astronauts Fram2, (from the left) Rabea Rogge, Eric Phillips, Chun Wang and Jannicke Mikkelsen, Don Spaces while preparing for their historic polar space flight. For kind concession: fram2
Next week, a crew of private astronauts will be expected where nobody went before.
Chun Wang, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who purchased the Fram2 mission from Spacex in August, announced on Friday that the stay from three to five days-the first human spatial flight to fly directly on the posts of the earth-must be launched by the Kennedy Space Center of NASA in Florida no before Monday at 11:20 EdT. Two backup launch windows are available early the next morning.
“We are grateful for this opportunity and we are grateful to Spacex for having transformed this mission a reality: we are excited to be the first crew to see and capture the polar regions of the Earth from orbit to low earth and support important research to help make the capacity of humanity advance for the exploration of long -lasting space,” Wang said in a declaration that accompanies the updated launch date on Friday.
It takes its name from the Norwegian ship Fram This explored the Arctic and Antarctic at the end of the 19th century, Fram2 aims to carry on the legacy of polar exploration in the space era. The four members of the international crew of the mission will aim to observe the polar regions of the earth for the first time from the orbit of the lower land. Flying directly at the top, they will study inexplicable green and purple emissions as well as strong improvements in the speed of thermal emission or Steve.
The mission will be expected to reach a 90 degree orbit higher inclination ever reached by a crew spatial vehicle-failed directly between the poles in just 46 minutes. This would remain the record of 46 hours and 40 minutes achieved by a Qatar Gulfstream G650er Ultra-Long-Range Business Jet manager during a flight for the Circumnavigation of the Orbita of 2019. Generally, this orbit is reserved for small satellites. The International Space Station (ISS), for example, flies closer to the equator and its occupants never see the poles.
In addition to the former, however, the Fram2 crew will take part in 22 experiments announced on Monday, from the cultivation of mushrooms in microgravity to the intake of the first X -rays in space. Astronauts will also collaborate with researchers, citizens, students and other members of the public through projects, competitions and interviews during the mission. They may also be able to observe a total solar eclipse.
“Just like Fridtjof Nansen, who led a revolutionary logistics operation during his historian Fram Expedition in 1800, scientific and research projects on board will inform how we prepare ourselves for future missions, ultimately contributing to making the space more accessible to all of us, “said Wang.
According to Wang, on Monday Spaceflight will be his thousandth, including travel to fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and hot air balloons.
Over the past eight months, the crew members have completed the simulator training on the mission, the operations at the top gravity, microgravity and zero gravity and the Space Space Spacex spatial that will bring them. They also trained for emergency scenarios and even made a journey into wild nature in Alaska to get comfortable and difficult conditions at ease.
“What immense privilege to train and fly with Spacex,” said Eric Phillips, an Australian who will serve as a specialist of the Fram2 mission and medical officer, in a post on X. “The @framonauts are ready for the launch”.
Wang, the commander of the Fram2 mission, will be accompanied by the Commander of the Vehicles Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway, pilot of the Rabea Rogge Mission of Germany and Mission and Medical Official Eric Philips of Australia. Civil astronauts each bring competence in polar exploration or in the technologies that will be tested during the mission.
“We just finished our last week in Hawthorne [California]! “Rogge wrote on X.” Now in Cape Canaveral and quarantine until we move away on March 31st. “
Now they are preparing for the launch. Transporting a piece of the original Fram Ship deck, a Spacex dragon – equipped with a special dome for the display of the wild savage – will launch aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. The crew will bring with it four minis for iPad, three professional cameras, three laptops and two iPhone Pro Max to record their observations. While collecting data on Steve Light’s emissions, they will work with researchers and citizens on the field to create a freely available database of Aurora images.
In the meantime, enthusiasts of amateur radios will be able to test their puzzles skills in the fram2ham competition, deciphering scrambled images that the space vehicle takes in orbit. Suspended in microgravity, the crew will also answer the pre -aggravated questions of European students. Their answers and other mission updates will be shared through the Spacex Starlink satellite network.
On Monday Fram2 shared more information on the scientific objectives of the mission, which refer to the long -lasting human spatial flight. An experiment called Mission Mushvroom, for example, will try to cultivate mushrooms in microgravity as a potential source of food for future Mars’s missions. The Spacexray study will capture the first X -ray images of humans in space, which could improve the understanding of the doctors of medical treatments in orbit. The crew will also evaluate ways to limit the bloodstream that could reduce the loss of muscle and bone density.
While their vitals will be monitored during the mission, after the splashdown, the crew should leave the dragon without medical or operational assistance. According to Fram2, the goal is to study what astronauts can do alone once they return to solid ground.
On Saturday Spacex shared photos of the crew and said their tour in space had reached the launch complex of Kennedy 39a (LC-39a). Fram2 will be the sixth private spatial flight for Dragon Spacex. Previously, the space vehicle piloted the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions purchased by President Donald Trump’s candidate for the NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, as well as three missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for the axiom space of customers. Polaris Dawn included in particular the first successful civil space.
If it flies on Monday, Fram2 would beat the record for the fastest turnaround among the crew throws from the same pad, LC-39a, which launched the Spacex Crew-10 mission at the ISS at the beginning of this month. That flight facilitated the return of the astronauts of NASA Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who spent more than nine months in the orbital laboratory due to problems with the Boeing Starliner space vehicle that brought them there.
Note of the editor: a version of this story appeared for the first time Fly.
