After becoming the first humans to fly over the Earth's poles in space, a crew of private astronauts — or space tourists, depending on your perspective — report that the world's southernmost continent is indeed a vast expanse of snow and ice.
"Hello, Antarctica," tweeted Chun Wang, the crypto entrepreneur who financed and is leading the private space mission, Fram2. "Unlike previously anticipated, from 460 km above, it is only pure white, no human activity is visible."
As seen in a video Wang uploaded, it's a breathtaking spectacle, even if a lot of it is obscured by a swirling blanket of clouds. No humans have ever beenafforded such a view, in person, of the pale Antarctic landscape. Wang remarked that he's surprised that he couldn't spot any human presence on the frigid continent — which probably shouldn't be entirely surprising, since the entire enormous continent is only home to a few thousand people.
The Fram2 mission launched Monday night from Florida using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After reaching orbit, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule nicknamed "Resilience" separated from the rocket, carrying a team of four spacefarers, including Wang, to an altitude of 285 miles. The three others are Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, and Australian polar explorer Eric Philips. Now, they're anticipated to spend up to four days in space, taking in the view and carrying out a multitude of science experiments.
Unlike other crewed missions, Fram2 struck a high orbital inclination, or angle, perpendicular to the equator, puttingits path directly above the Earth's North and South poles. This has never been done by a crewed mission before, largely because traveling at an angle far from the equator requires more power, and thus more fuel — a lot more.
In our age of burgeoning space tourism, however, practical concerns like those can be ignored: Fram2 launched southward, instead of embarking on the typical easterly heading.
Its scientific objectives sound more ostensible than actual, assome critics have noted. Wang, the mission commander, is not a scientist or engineer. There isn't a lot to be gained from achieving a crewed polar orbit, other than the undeniably cool novelty. Some of the experiments sound like pure PR fluff, such as one involving Oura, awearable health ring gadget. On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity to gauge how more or less regular bodies handle space, rather than the battle-tested constitutions of bona fide government-trained astronauts.
So far, Wang and company's experience has been pretty cushy, aside from a few bumps in the road.
"The ride to orbit was much smoother than I had anticipated," Wang wrote in a tweet. "Apart from the final minute before [second stage engine cutoff], I barely felt any G-forces — it honestly felt like just another flight."
The infamous space motion sickness, though, set in once they hit microgravity. "We felt nauseous and ended up vomiting a couple of times," Wang wrote. "It felt different from motion sickness in a car or at sea."
Thankfully, that quickly changed. "By the second morning, I felt completely refreshed," Wang concluded. "The trace of motion sickness is all gone."
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