At the end of the year, the Polaris Dawn mission must take place, which consists of getting civilians out into space. Their specific training has begun.
It won’t necessarily be one of the big space missions of 2022, but it will still be a first of its kind: at the end of the year, SpaceX is supposed to organize a flight with civilians on board. And it was during this trip that the very first spacewalk conducted by a company would take place. This is the Polaris Dawn project.
Polaris Dawn, the first stage of the Polaris program, is based on the experience accumulated by SpaceX in terms of human spaceflight and, in particular, the Inspiration4 mission, in which there was no professional astronaut. All four crew members were civilians, having received ground training to prepare for such a trip.
The training of the four members of the Polaris Dawn crew began in May, and in particular the fitting of the new combinations that they will have to wear on board the Crew Dragon spaceship. The preparation of the participants still continues in September, by now focusing on the spacewalk itself, which is a critical step.
Given the way the Crew Dragon is built, everyone will have to wear a space suit on board, including the people who will stay on board: indeed, there is no airlock to buffer between the interior and emptiness. Clearly, everything will be depressurized when opening the door. Upon returning on board, the cabin will be re-pressurized.
Two of the four people are expected to perform the spacewalk. Of course, they will have to be permanently attached to the capsule, so as not to run any danger — without this “lifeline”, they would otherwise risk wandering off without it being possible to pick them up. For this first stage, Polaris Dawn will evolve around 500 km altitude.
Since the start of the space conquest, there have already been several hundred EVAs (“extravehicular exits”), but the complexity of the maneuver means that these exits have long been reserved for major powers with cutting-edge space agencies. — the United States, Russia and China. But today, it is within the reach of certain private groups.
There has never been an EVA having been disastrous until now, but there are some situations in history that are a little more perilous than others, most of the time due to a combination problem. . An example: in 2013, the Italian Luca Parmitano had experienced the same problem in his helmet, then in full EVA. He could have drowned.