The astronauts of the mission Polaris Dawn they entered the history books Thursday, September 12 realizing the first private “spacewalk” ever. At the remarkable altitude of approximately 730 kmthe astronauts Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis they exited the depressurized cabin of the Dragon capsule in void of space. Theextravehicular activity (EVA)commonly referred to as a “space walk”, had a total duration of approximately one hour and 46 minutes, from 12:12 to 13:58 Italian time. The complete depressurization of the cabin meant that even another record was broken, or rather largest number of people simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space.
These records are in addition to the one recorded by Polaris Dawn, established just 15 hours after the launch of the capsule, which took place on September 10 at the Kennedy Space Center. The crew in fact reached, in its highly elliptical orbit, the apogee (maximum distance from Earth) of 1400 kmthe highest altitude achieved by any low-orbit space mission, but above all, an altitude that had not been recorded since the Apollo program half a century ago.
How did the spacewalk go?
After reaching the record altitude of 1400 kmthe Dragon capsule’s thrusters moved it to a lower orbit, with apogee set at approximately 730 kmIt is at this altitude that the first private EVA in history.
To the 12:12 Italian time, about 4 hours after the scheduled time, the EVA began with the Dragon capsule depressurization. The latter has been heavily modified, replacing the usual hatch docking at the International Space Station (ISS) with one able to open up to the outsidenicknamed “Skywalker“. The Dragon, by construction, does not have an airlock, so the depressurization involved the entire capsule and consequently the entire crew. To carry out the EVA, all the astronauts had to wear suits specifically designed by Space X.
After about thirty minutes, the hatch was finally opened, and at 12:48 Italian timethe astronaut and commander Jared Isaacman – the billionaire who financed much of the trip – was released in void of spacelying clinging to the handholds placed at the top of the capsule. A few minutes later, at 13:04 Italian timeit’s the mission specialist’s turn Sarah Gillis to face the inhospitable space environment, carrying out a series of checks on the mobility of the spacesuit. The whole thing was followed via a live feed from SpaceX that captured beautiful images of the two astronauts standing, with most of their bodies outside the spacecraft.
The hatch was closed at 13:14 Italian time and from there it began Dragon repressurization. It all ended at 13:58 Italian timewith the complete restoration of pressure inside the capsule. During this phase, the astronauts were able to perceive what is the typical smell of space, often described by astronauts as a smell of gunpowder, but also of ozone and burnt steak, probably due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in carbon-rich space dust particles.
How Space X’s Special Suits Are Made
The spacewalk or EVA was made possible by both specific changes brought to the capsule Dragonboth thanks to some brand new suits specifically designed by Space X for this mission. The suits worn by the Dragon crew are designed to be light and flexiblewhile still offering protection against thehostile space environmentThe suits were worn by all crew members, including Anna Menon and Scott Poteetas the entire capsule was depressurized and thus exposed to the vacuum of space.
One of the main goals of Polaris Dawn was precisely that test the suitswhich SpaceX intends to use on a series of future missions both in Earth orbit and further out into space. The flight therefore served as a performance test of the suit, to find any critical issues to be resolved for future longer-duration missions. This represents the first iteration of a product that, by changing over time, will evolve into what future astronauts who walk on Mars will wear.
