In the coming days, SpaceX will launch a private Fram2 mission. Its peculiarity is that a spacecraft with people will be launched for the first time in history into polar orbit around the Earth. We will tell you about the main objectives of this mission.
The first manned flight over the poles
It may seem strange, but although mankind has been flying into space for more than 60 years, no spacecraft carrying humans has yet flown over the Earth’s north and south poles. The current record belongs to the Soviet Vostok spacecraft, which orbited at an inclination of 65°.
As for the US, in the 1980s, there was a project to launch shuttles from the Vandenberg Space Center on the West Coast. They were supposed to launch military satellites into polar orbits. The first such mission was scheduled for July 1986. However, after the Challenger shuttle disaster, the Pentagon abandoned the idea. Therefore, for the entire history of the shuttle program, the closest to the poles was the mission STS-36, launched in 1990. Within its framework, the shuttle Atlantis was put into orbit with an inclination of 62°.
What does the name Fram2 mean
The Fram2 mission was named after the famous Norwegian schooner Fram, which was specially built for polar exploration. She carried out three expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. The most famous was the third voyage led by Roald Amundsen, during which in 1911 people managed to reach the South Pole of the Earth for the first time in history.
Crew composition of Fram2
Fram2’s crew consists of four people. It is led by Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur from Malta, who is funding the flight. The crew also includes German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, and Australian professional polar explorer Eric Phillips. For all four members of the expedition, this is the first visit to space. In preparation for the flight, they underwent a course of necessary training.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft called Resilience will be used for the flight. It has three manned missions to its credit: Crew-1, Inspiration4, and Polaris Dawn. What they have in common is that each of them has become iconic in its way. Crew-1 was Crew Dragon’s first full-time ISS crew rotation flight, Inspiration4 was the first private manned mission in history to make an independent orbital flight (without docking with the ISS), and Polaris Dawn was the mission during which the first private spacewalk took place.
Now, the first manned flight over the Earth’s poles will be added to them. For the mission, the ship has been equipped with an observation dome, which will make it possible to conduct observations of our planet and take spectacular shots of its surface.
Flight plan and main objectives of the Fram2 mission
Fram2 will be launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Center. The spacecraft will be placed into an Earth orbit with an altitude of 425-450 km and an inclination of 90°.
Fram2 has two main objectives. The first is to survey Earth’s polar regions from Earth’s orbit. The second is to conduct research that will help expand humanity’s long-term space exploration capabilities. These include collecting data on radiation conditions above the poles, studying polar auroras and related geomagnetic phenomena, and conducting medical experiments, including the first X-ray of a human in space.
The return of Fram2 to Earth should take place on the fourth day after the launch. But in case of unfavorable weather conditions at the landing site, it may be postponed for a couple of days.
Fram2 is scheduled to be sent into space on April 1. At the moment, the mission launch is scheduled for 01:47 a.m. GMT (8:47 p.m. EST).
