The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three flights Jared Isaacman bought from SpaceX in 2022 for his human spaceflight effort known as the Polaris Program.
If I recall correctly, there will be a several hour long prebreathing phase then several more hours for depressurization phase during this spacewalk.
As far as electronics are concerned, I think Dragon uses redundant consumer grade computers with consensus algorithms. That might not be enough for high radiation environments like high earth orbit though. I’d be curious to hear official word on if that’s still the case.
I believe that’s correct. This allows the astronauts to adjust to the pressure changes (they operate far, far below 1 atm) as well as abort if anything goes wrong with the suits. This is the first test of these suits after all.
If I recall correctly, there will be a several hour long prebreathing phase then several more hours for depressurization phase during this spacewalk.
As far as electronics are concerned, I think Dragon uses redundant consumer grade computers with consensus algorithms. That might not be enough for high radiation environments like high earth orbit though. I’d be curious to hear official word on if that’s still the case.
as in, depressurization will take several hours? That seems extreme.
I believe that’s correct. This allows the astronauts to adjust to the pressure changes (they operate far, far below 1 atm) as well as abort if anything goes wrong with the suits. This is the first test of these suits after all.
It makes sense that the astronauts would need time to adapt to the pressure difference, but…
Surely they’ve been tested on earth before launch???
Yes, but the microgravity plus radiation environment makes for a fundamentally different thing than testing in a lab!