American billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Friday announced that the first-ever all-civil space mission, the Inspiration4 will be launched on September 15. It will carry 4 civilians to the space. The spacecraft selected for this mission is the Crew Dragon spacecraft, set to be launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA. The mission has gained prominence since it is going to be the first-ever space mission that will consist of all civilian crew. Along with the recent space journeys by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, Inspiration4 is seen as part of an effort to open up space travel to non-professionals. Furthermore, the launch event will be broadcasted live on the YouTube channel of Netflix. A documentary would be subsequently made, which will consist of the experiences of all 4 civilians on the spacecraft. It will be launched on September 30th on Netflix. Here is everything you need to know about the space mission in 10 points:
- The Inspiration4 is a first-of-its-kind, non-governmental, space mission where 4 civilians will get to experience the space for 3 consecutive days.
- All four seats have been bought by US billionaire Jared Isaacman who is the founder of Shift4 Payments and will be the one out of the four.
- This is a part of an effort to raise millions for the Tennessee-based St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a pediatric treatment and research facility that focuses on children’s catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other cancers.
- The other three passengers include Haley Arceneaux, a childhood bone cancer survivor and physician’s assistant at the hospital, and Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski, who won the ticket after winning a global contest. All four passengers have been training for the trip for months.
- After the 3-day mission, the spacecraft will be then splashing down into the Atlantic Ocean. The mission will be monitored, especially the health data which will later aid in planning future crewed space missions.
- The health data that will be collected will include ECG (electrocardiograph) activity, movement, sleep, heart rate, and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation, cabin noise, and light intensity.
- The civilian crew has been training for months now with their health being constantly monitored. Moreover, the travelers will go under obligatory prescription tests before and after the flight that will assess their response to change in gravity.
- Immune system function will also be monitored by collecting blood. Their organ systems will also be monitored by an AI-powered ultrasound device.
- The Dragon module that will be used in the mission has also been modified. Since the module is going to fly over the International Space Staton and will not dock it, the docking mechanism has been replaced with a dome window instead.
- The Inspiration4 will orbit above the Earth at 575km, much high up than International Space Station (408km) and the Hubble space telescope (547km).
