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Raumfahrt - Startvorbereitung von SpaceX first human Fram2 Mission to ever fly over the planet’s poles

14.08.2024

SpaceX announces first human mission to ever fly over the planet’s poles

The highest-inclination flight by a human spacecraft to date is 65.1 degrees.

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The crew of Fram2 from left to right: Eric Philips, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Chun Wang, and Rabea Rogge.

SpaceX will fly the first-ever human spaceflight over the Earth’s poles, possibly before the end of this year, the company announced Monday. The private Crew Dragon mission will be led by a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur named Chun Wang, and he will be joined by a polar explorer, a roboticist, and a filmmaker whom he has befriended in recent years.

The "Fram2" mission, named after the Norwegian research ship Fram, will launch into a polar corridor from SpaceX's launch facilities in Florida and fly directly over the north and south poles. The three- to five-day mission is being timed to fly over Antarctica near the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, to afford maximum lighting.

The four-person crew will fly, fittingly, aboard Crew Dragon Endurance, which is named after Ernest Shackleton's famous ship that was trapped in the Antarctic ice and eventually sank there about a century ago. The spacecraft will be fitted with a cupola for both photography and filming.

This will be SpaceX's third free-flying mission aboard Crew Dragon, following the Inspiration4 mission funded and commanded by US entrepreneur Jared Isaacman in 2021, and his forthcoming Polaris Dawn mission, which may launch later this month. In an interview, Wang said he modeled the Fram2 mission's crew and public outreach programs on the template established by Isaacman.

A background in bitcoin mining

Wang was born in China, and got in on the ground floor of bitcoin mining. "I first heard about bitcoin in 2011, and I almost immediately started mining it," he said. "I did that for two years and that's when I started a mining pool."

He founded the first bitcoin mining pool in China in 2013, F2Pool. This kind of company allows miners with powerful computers to collectively "mine" bitcoin and share in the proceeds. Wang later led the decentralization of the company. He moved to Thailand in 2015, and later South Korea. He now holds a Maltese citizenship and has more or less traveled the world since 2021. Wang said he likes to spend a lot of time in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago.

In an interview, Wang said he became a billionaire in 2021 after the price of bitcoin, dogecoin, and other cryptocurrencies surged. He had long been interested in space, Wang added, and so he began talking to SpaceX about purchasing a seat on a private Dragon mission. In 2023 the discussions matured, and Wang realized that if he bought an entire mission he could set its parameters.

He wanted to try something new, and flying a polar mission aligned with his interests in cold places on Earth. The highest-inclination flight ever by a human spacecraft was the Soviet Vostok 6 mission in 1963, when Valentina Tereshkova's spacecraft reached 65.1 degrees. Now, Fram2 will fly repeatedly and directly over the poles.

Meet the crew

Wang said he met two of the crew members while on a ski trip several years ago, and another in Svalbard. All share his interests in exploration, adventure, and the poles. He said it is his hope that they will all help the mission contribute to increasing humanity's understanding of the Earth's poles and spread the inspiration of spaceflight.

The mission's three crew members joining Wang are:

Jannicke Mikkelsen, Vehicle Commander: A film director and cinematographer, Mikkelsen specializes in remote and hazardous environments such as the Arctic, ocean, aviation, and space. In 2019, she served as Payload Specialist on the record-breaking polar circumnavigation flight One More Orbit mission in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Eric Philips, Vehicle Pilot: A professional polar adventurer and guide, Philips has completed dozens of ski expeditions to the North and South Poles since his first polar expedition in 1992. He is co-founder of the International Polar Guides Association and co-creator of the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme.

Rabea Rogge, Mission Specialist: A robotics researcher from Berlin, Rogge is currently pursuing her PhD in Norway. Her work spans from having led a satellite mission to researching ocean robotics in the Arctic, reflecting her commitment to advancing technology in both the polar regions and space.

"I'm amazed that you can now become a commercial astronaut," Mikkelsen said in an interview. "I have a pretty gnarly injury background, being in a wheelchair for a good year, and then learning to walk again between three and five years old. I wish I could tell that girl that she can become an astronaut."

Quelle: arsTechnica

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Update: 16.08.2024

First German woman set to fly into space with SpaceX

08/14/2024August 14, 2024

Robotics researcher Rabea Rogge is expected to become Germany's first female astronaut after being selected for "Fram2" — a SpaceX polar exploration mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket will launch the first human spaceflight over the Earth's poles

The first German woman is set to fly into space on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with four other astronauts, the private space exploration company said on Wednesday.

Rabea Rogge was introduced by SpaceX as a "robotics researcher" who studied electrical engineering and information technology at ETH Zurich. For her doctoral thesis, she transferred to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The mission, called Fram2, is going to be the first human spaceflight over the Earth's poles. The company said the flight will take place "no earlier than late 2024."

No German woman has ever been to space, according to the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Rogge said she felt incredibly honored for being selected to take part in the mission.

"I'm really looking forward to being responsible for the research and getting some cool projects off the ground," she said on X.

During the multi-day flight, the team of astronauts will look at the Earth's polar regions and examine purple lights, known as "Steve" and similar to northern lights, at the altitude of 425 to 450 kilometers (264-280 miles).

SpaceX said the mission will also produce the first X-ray images of humans in space.

Private space tourism on the rise

The upcoming mission is the latest foray by the aerospace industry into private space tourism, which has grown fast in the United States in recent years.

Wealthy bitcoin pioneer Chun Wang has booked the mission and will be taking part in it.

"From mission proposal, planning, trajectory design, to crew selection, everything has been done by the customer," Wang said in a post on X.

Next to Rogge and Wang, the other "international adventurers" are the Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen and Australian polar explorer Eric Philips.

SpaceX has flown 13 manned missions in the last four years. It carries NASA astronauts to the International space station ISS, but has also carried out several space tourism missions, including the first in 2021, named Inspiration4. That mission was financed by American billionaire Jared Isaacman.

Quelle: DW

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Update: 26.03.2025

SpaceX launch like no other: First astronauts to orbit Earth's poles liftoff next week

Fram2, the first human spaceflight to orbit the poles, is scheduled to launch no earlier than 11:20 p.m. EDT on March 31.
The SpaceX mission will be crewed by four explorers of the Arctic regions and will last three to five days.
The crew will participate in human health research, including capturing the first X-ray image of a human body in space.

A privately-funded human space mission like no other will soon be launching from Cape Canaveral, taking four first-time astronauts on a journey over the North and South poles.

Fram2 is set to launch no earlier than 11:20 p.m. EDT on March 31 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. The crew will fly on a SpaceX Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

This will be the first human spaceflight to orbit the poles. Flying to a 90-degree circular orbit on a never-before-seen flight trajectory, the flight will take the crew of four explorers over the Earth's polar regions. In the 64 years humans have been flying to space, this has never been attempted.

"This new flight trajectory will unlock new possibilities for human spaceflight and provide a deeper understanding about our planet and its polar regions," a Fram2 news release said. "With the exception of the Apollo lunar missions, the North and South Poles have not been fully visible to other astronauts in orbit, including those onboard the International Space Station. To date, the highest inclination achieved by human spaceflight has been the Soviet Vostok 6 mission, at 65-degrees, in 1963."

Who is the Fram2 Crew

Much about this SpaceX flight remains cloaked in mystery. Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency businessman, is the mission commander and reportedly the one bankrolling the flight. He cofounded f2pool and stakefish, Bitcoin mining pools, according to the mission webpage.

Flying with him will be: Jannicke Mikkelsen, the vehicle commander. She is a cinematographer living in Svarlbard, which is located between Norway and the North Pole. In 2019, she was involved in a polar circumnavigation flight. Rabea Rogge is the pilot. She's a robotics engineer pursuing her doctorate in Norway. Eric Philips is a mission specialist and medical officer. He's a professional polar adventurer and guide.

The flight will last from three to five days, and will allow the crew to observe the polar regions from low Earth orbit.

What does the name Fram2 mean

As for the name 'Fram2', it turns out the choice is a nod to early artic exploration. The Fram was a record-breaking Norwegian ship built specifically for polar exploration. It saw three expeditions between 1893 and 1912. The ship traveled further north in its first mission than any other ship and further south on its third mission.

The crew will carry a piece of the Fram ship, on loan from the Fram museum in Norway, with them on their mission.

Fram2 participating in space health research

Like previous private SpaceX crewed missions Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn — which were led by the nominee for upcoming NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman — this crew is committed to participating in human health research.

Onboard will be an X-ray generator, allowing the crew to capture the first x-ray image of the human body off-planet. With space leaders, such as SpaceX's Elon Musk, setting sights on putting humans on Mars, space medicine will become increasingly important. On long-duration missions to Mars – or even the moon – Earth is a long distance away in the event of a medical emergency.

Technology onboard Fram2

This mission will also include more cameras than previous private missions. SpaceX engineers installed 3D-printed camera mounts in the cupola – which is the window attachment on Dragon that allows wide views of space. The cupola was last seen on Inspiration4.

According to Wang, other technology the crew will have onboard includes: four iPad minis, two iPhone Pro Max, three laptop computers, and a ham radio. In order to keep these devices powered, the crew will utilize power banks, as the Dragon is not equipped to provide much charging power.

There will also be a global competition in partnership with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS International). Known as Fram2Ham, the ham radio community competition will be focused on polar history. While Fram2 orbits Earth, the crew will sends images of various locations of the polar regions via ham radio, but these images will be "cut and mixed up as puzzle pieces." It will be up to the participants to figure out which polar region the image is of and its historical significance.

Quelle: Florida Today

Raumfahrt - Startvorbereitung von SpaceX first human Fram2 Mission to ever fly over the planet’s poles

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