The first manned space mission to fly over the Earth's polar regions will take off from the United States by the end of the year aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, the US aerospace company has announced.
The mission, which will depart from Florida, will last three to five days and is called Fram2, after the Norwegian ship that made the first trips to the polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic.
On board the Dragon ship will be four crew members, all first-timers on a space flight, led by entrepreneur Chun Wang, one of the pioneers of cryptocurrencies (digital money).
Wang will be accompanied by Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, who will command the spacecraft, Australian polar explorer Eric Philips, the vehicle's pilot, and German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, who will be the mission specialist.
According to SpaceX, the Fram2 space mission will be the first manned mission to explore the Earth from its polar orbit and fly over the planet's polar regions.
The four crew members will study phenomena that occur above the Earth's atmosphere and, in coordination with SpaceX, will test the effects of space flight on human behavior and the human body, including capturing the first human X-ray images in space.
These experiments will help "develop the tools needed to prepare humanity for long-duration spaceflight", explained the company founded by tycoon Elon Musk.
The Dragon spacecraft will be sent into space on a Falcon 9 rocket, also from SpaceX, and will orbit the Earth at an altitude of between 425 and 450 kilometres.
The Fram2 mission is SpaceX's sixth fully private mission with a crew.
The company plans to launch Polaris Dawn this month, which will attempt to fulfil the first private spacewalk.
No comments:
Post a Comment