Human spaceflight has captivated humans and to a large extent driven technological achievement since 12 April 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. The space race between the United States and Soviet Union continued and culminated in NASA’s Apollo program which took astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon in 1969. The development of space shuttles in the 1980s gave us regular access to low Earth orbit, while international cooperation culminated in the development of the International Space Station which has been continuously inhabited since 2000. More recently, human spaceflight has entered a new era with private companies like SpaceX developing their own space technology.
Astronaut exploring the Moon and taking samples as part of the Apollo mission (Credit : NASA)
That same new era looks set to take humans on another first; into a polar orbit around Earth as part of mission FRAM2 (named in reference to the 19th century polar exploration ship ‘FRAM’.) To date, the North and South Poles have remained invisible to astronauts on the International Space Station and all previous orbital missions except for distant views during Apollo missions to the Moon. Until now, the highest orbital inclination achieved by humans was during the Soviet Vostok 6 mission at 65° latitude, making FRAM2’s polar orbit an achievement that will provide great opportunities for observation and exploration of Earth’s polar regions.
This mosaic depicts the International Space Station pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour (Credit : NASA)
During their 3 to 5 day mission, the crew will orbit Earth at an altitude of 430 km, traveling from North Pole to South Pole in just over 46 minutes, 30 times faster than the previous record set in 2019 when a team flying a Gulfstream G650ER aircraft were able to circumnavigate Earth via the poles with a couple of fuelling pit stops. The astronauts plan to observe Earth’s polar regions and collaborate with space physicists and citizen scientists to study various phenomenon.
On board will be cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang and three crew-mates; Norwegian commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, German pilot Rabea Rogge, and Australian medical officer and mission specialist Eric Phillips. They are due to launch at 9:46 p.m. EDT on 31 March (0146 am 1 April GMT). They will depart from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
The crew will conduct 22 experiments, studying human health and performance for future long-duration spaceflight and will take the first human X-ray images in space. They will explore blood flow restriction during exercise, and quite differently the cultivation of mushrooms in microgravity. Crew members will monitor sleep, stress, glucose levels, women’s hormonal health, and motion sickness using wearable technology, while also undergoing post-landing brain imaging with portable MRI equipment. If that wasn’t enough, the team will observe strange atmospheric phenomena such as green fragments and mauve ribbons similar to STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.)
