SpaceX’s Goal of Commercializing Space Advances in Another Successful Mission
By: Lucas Ho
On September 15, Polaris Dawn, the first commercial spacewalk mission, concluded after splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The mission, set off five days before on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience, continued the first private civilian spaceflight funded and commandeered by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman. This marks a revolutionary point in human history, proving that space is not limited to government entities.
With help from Elon Musk’s rocket company, Jared Isaacman became the first-ever private citizen to perform a spacewalk with SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. Each spent several minutes outside of the spacecraft. This marks a milestone on the timeline of space exploration, proving that one day, it will be possible to travel into outer space as we fly in airplanes worldwide.
The Polaris Dawn spacewalk differed from traditional spacewalks performed on the ISS. No airlock separated the crewmates who were not participating in the spacewalk, so all four members of the Crew Dragon capsule were exposed to a space vacuum.
At 6:12 AM EDT, Isaacman opened the hatch on the Resilience and climbed outside, saying, “Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” Followed by a roar of applause from the SpaceX mission control. Donning the new EVA spacesuit developed by SpaceX, he was granted more flexibility due to the compactness of the spacesuit. The build of the spacesuit seems revolutionary due to the size of the suit, as compared to the spacesuits used for spacewalks on the ISS, though it is a more complicated issue. For spacewalks on the ISS, an astronaut’s life support is built into the spacesuit on the SpaceX space suit, and a 12-foot umbilical was connected to the Dragon, providing Isaacman and Gillis with the life support needed for the spacewalk. This technology was used in the Gemini program in the 1950s, so the Gemini spacesuits also appear more compact. The vision of these spacesuits is for them to one day be used on the Moon and Mars by millions, “Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits. The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary.” Floating out from the nose cone of the spacecraft, Isaacman and Gillis wiggled around in their suits for around ten minutes each, testing the functionality and comfort of the new design. Following their spacewalks, the hatch was closed, and the Dragon was repressurized.
This is another step towards making space accessible to humans on Earth. It marks a shift in the scope of commercial space missions, extending beyond transportation to solely the ISS or suborbital flights. This exemplifies a future where governments and private sectors push the boundaries of space travel together and allow for quicker developments in technology and exploration.
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