The News
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission made history Thursday by successfully completing the first spacewalk in history by privately trained astronauts — and the mission could also mark a landmark in scientific research.
The five-day mission will conduct more than 35 experiments, including testing commercial devices to examine how exposure to space conditions affects astronauts’ bodies like the impact of microgravity in causing bone loss and kidney stones. These tests could have a significant impact on future missions in space, and even on medical research back on Earth.
SIGNALS
A ‘golden age for exploration’ that mirrors the 19th century
The Polaris Dawn efforts mirror those of the 19th century, when British Royal Navy vessels were modified into floating laboratories. HMS Challenger, which discovered the ocean’s deepest point, is considered “the beginning of modern oceanography,” a scientific historian told JSTOR. Similar to Polaris Dawn and other spacecraft, Challenger marked a change from the ship as an instrument, simply mapping new regions, to the “ship as laboratory.” More private astronauts than government astronauts have flown to space since 2021, The Wall Street Journal noted last year, with the president of the 120-year-old Explorers Club suggesting the world may be in a new “golden age for exploration, where technologies are both opening new frontiers and providing incredible tools to more deeply study places we thought we already knew.”
Scientific outcomes of Polaris Dawn could determine the future of space travel...
Polaris Dawn’s potential impact on space science is perhaps even more exciting than the milestones it’s already reached, experts told Nature: by allowing more commercial missions, the opportunities to conduct experiments on how space travel impacts the human body will multiply. “It is really hard to study astronauts because it takes so long to get even 10 or 12 of them through six-month missions,” a kinesiologist who studies bone health told the outlet. “Private space travel could give us a real leg up.” The goal is to obtain “critical insights” to eventually get humans back to the moon and to Mars, a NASA researcher said in a statement.
… and could impact medical techniques back on Earth
Polaris Dawn’s scientific goals include carrying out MRI scans of astronauts’ brains and studying how cosmic radiation affects their bodies, Scientific American noted. The findings will inform how space travel impacts the human body, but may be helpful beyond that: “The laboratory above our heads will lead to impacts closer to Earth than we may initially think,” SpaceNews wrote. For example, a new type of 3D scanning technology used to track changes in body composition during the mission could be used back on Earth to help detect early signs of illness, removing the need for blood tests or invasive procedures. The accessible, lightweight medical device could prove “a boon” in remote areas, the outlet added.