The SpaceX company is due to launch the first space mission to fly over the land poles, a private mission with four astronauts on Monday. She was named FRAM2, in tribute to a ship used for polar exploration at 19e century.
Scientific experiences are provided, such as taking the first radiography images in the space or cultivation of fungi in microgravity. So many experiences that could be used for future flights to Mars.
The crew will take place aboard a dragon capsule. The Falcon 9 rocket has to take off from the Kennedy space center in Florida, from 7:46 p.m. locals (3:46 a.m. Tuesday Swiss time).
“With the same pioneering spirit as the first polar explorers, we seek to bring back knowledge and new data to advance spatial exploration in the long term,” said commander of the Mission Chun Wang. This entrepreneur having made a fortune in the cryptocurrencies bought this private space mission from SpaceX. He will be accompanied by a Norwegian director, Jannicke Mikkelsen, an Australian who explored the poles as a guide, Eric Philips, and a German robotics researcher, Rabea Rogge.
They will leave the capsule without medical support
The crew trained for eight months, including in winter in Alaska, in preparation for this mission which should last four days. When they return to earth, the four astronauts will try to get out of the capsule without medical support, as part of a study aimed at determining the simple tasks that can be carried out by astronauts after a flight in space.
With the exception of Apollo lunar missions, the earth’s poles have remained out of sight of astronauts, including those aboard the international space station.
Space X has already carried out five private missions: three towards the ISS in collaboration with Axiom Space, and two around the terrestrial orbit. The first of them was inspired4 in 2021, followed by Polaris Dawn, during which the first private space outing in history took place.
The two missions around the orbit were chartered by the billionaire Jared Isaacman, a relative of the boss of SpaceX Elon Musk, which was appointed by Donald Trump to become the future boss of NASA.
