Register for the Wonder Theory Science newsletter from CNN. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific progress and more.
Cnn
–
SpaceX ends the last chapter in its commercial efforts of human space flight with the return of FRAM2. The mission transported four passengers to a unique orbit around the earth which allowed humans to pass directly on the north and south poles for the first time.
Led by the billionaire of cryptocurrency Chun Wang, which is The financier of this mission, the FRAM2 crew has been in free orbit since Monday.
The group splashed at 9:19 a.m., or 12:19 p.m., Off the coast of California – the first west coast landing in the five years of history of missions on human space flights from SpaceX. The company broadcast live the splash and recovery of the capsule on its website.
During the trip, the members of the Fram2 crew had to carry out various research projects, in particular by capturing images of Auroras of space and by documenting their experiences with transport evil.
The disease has proven to be an important problem for the crew, according to publications on Wang’s social networks, which made a fortune with Bitcoin extraction operations and is a passionate traveler on earth.
“The first hours in microgravity were not exactly comfortable,” said Wang in an article on X, the social media platform belonging to the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk. “The evil of the transport of space has struck us all – we felt nauseated and ended up vomiting several times. It seemed different from the evil of transport in a car or at sea. You can always read on your iPad without worsening. But even a small sip of water could disturb your stomach and trigger vomiting.”
Fortunately, Wang added: “The second morning, I felt completely refreshed.”
The crew shared a batch of images and videos, captured from a bulbous – or dome window – at the end of the crew dragon capsule in the shape of a gumdrop crew.
Wang said he was surprised to see that Antarctica seemed “only pure white” and “no human activity (was) visible” from his point of view on board the spaceship.
Norwegian director Jannicke Mikkelsen, a German robotics researcher, led to Wang, a robotics researcher in Germany. The four Fram2 crew members have links with polar exploration.
FRAM2 is “a non -traditional mission,” said Mikkelsen in a March 28 Discussion on X. “We are not your astronauts typical of NASA.… We have gone from nothing to certified astronauts to fly.”
This trip is funded by private individuals, and these missions allow SpaceX customers to spend their time in space as they see fit. For FRAM2, the crew went to orbit prepared to perform 22 research and scientific experiences, some of which were designed and supervised by SpaceX. Most research is to assess the health of the crew.
When the Splashdown returns off the coast of California, for example, the crew made an “output experience”.
This objective tested the ability of passengers to leave their spacecraft by themselves after its return to earth. After most human missions on space flights, astronauts are helped by staff on the ground. (However, most of these missions carry astronauts to the space station, where they live in microgravity for months, which means that the return crew must be readjusted to the gravity of the earth.)
One at a time, the passengers tested by leaving their seats by themselves, removing their feet and leaning over to grasp their survival equipment, who weighed around 35 pounds, according to Marissa Rosenberg, a senior medical research engineer in SpaceX, who provided comments during a wealth of Fram2 Splashdown.
The exit experience was only one of the “first” linked to this splash. Another involved the landing site: a SpaceX mission to the crew never returned from the space and splashed off the coast of California. Until now, the missions equipped with the company have returned near Florida.
SpaceX said that he would move his recovery operations on the West Coast for security reasons. The dragon capsule had to eject a cylindrical attachment to its base – called the trunk – by entering the atmosphere. The return of space in California has helped to ensure that the equipment has been securely eliminated in the ocean, rather than risking its elimination on earth.
The satellites are regularly launched in orbit around the poles of the earth. Thus, while the point of view of the Fram2 crew from space had already been captured, it was experienced through human eyes for the first time during this flight.
No crew mission had never traveled directly above the planet’s poles from the terrestrial orbit. The icy caps of our native planet are invisible for humans aboard the international space station, for example, which orbits near the equatorial line of the earth.
Before Fram2, a Soviet mission from 1963 called Vostok 6 – carrying Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to go to space – came closest to polar orbit, stealing to an inclination of 65 degrees. FRAM2, however, aimed at a 90 -degree orientation, which means that it steals perpendicular to the equator.
From the orbit, the Fram2 crew was able to target Svalbard, a group of Norwegian islands near the North Pole where the participants Fram2 met. And Wang highlighted the unique character from their point of view.
“I often say that Fram2 is a Svalbard mission. We @Framonauts all met on Svalbard, and we love the ice,” Wang wrote in a shared article on Thursday evening. “The mission was planned when I lived there, and we fly Polar because, in an orbit similar to the ISS, we cannot see where we live. From this point of view, the mission has perfectly achieved its objective. ”
Putting the FRAM2 team and space vessels on polar orbit can have more to do with the planning of a distinctive mission – rather than that ideally adapted to science, said Dr. Christopher Combs, the associate dean of research at the Klesse College of Engineering and an integrated design at the University of Texas in San Antonio.
“It is a private mission. You need something to say that it is different and exciting,” said Combs.
Aside from the orbital trajectory, the crew members were able to lend their bodies to research, perhaps expanding the way humans can live optimally and work within the limits of a tiny spaceship – something that may be necessary for months if humans venture on Mars.
Fram2 crew research included Mikkelsen and Rogge using urine test strips to measure their hormonal levels in order to collect new health data on how women are affected by space flights. The two astronauts each wore a ring of the Oura, which collected data on the way they were sleeping within the limits of the without gravity capsule. The teammates also tried to cultivate mushrooms in space and allowed their brain to be mapped and imagined for science.
Dr. Eric Donovan, an Aurora expert in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary, also told CNN that he was excited by the prospect of seeing new images of Aurora light shows.
Donovan is one of the main experts in the world on Steve, a light spectacle that has only been studied recently and is sometimes visible in northern latitudes during a dawn.
Taking photos of Aurora and other polar shows has not been widely made space, because astronauts from the international space station can generally only try to capture such photographs during their free time, he noted.
“This is one of the things that may be a good thing in self-funded space flights: because it is self-funded, you can do what you want,” said Donovan.