Experiments Explained And Spacewalk Time-Lapse: SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew's On-Orbit Event

Space.com

The Polaris Dawn crew  Jared Isaacman, Scott "Kidd" Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon explain the experiments conducted during the mission. Also, see a time-lapse of Isaacman's spacewalk.   Credit: Polaris Dawn / edited by Space.com

Transcript

00:00Hello, and welcome to the Dragon spacecraft.

00:06You are here with the Polaris Dawn crew.

00:10My name is Anna Menon.

00:12I am one of the mission specialists and the medical officer for our mission.

00:16This is Kid Poteet.

00:18He is our pilot.

00:20Jared Isaacman is our mission commander, and Sarah Gillis is our mission specialist.

00:26And we are so excited to talk to you today about some of the science and research we

00:29are doing on board here.

00:31We have had a full complement of research, an action-packed schedule for this mission.

00:37We have had about 40 science and research experiments that we have been tackling, and

00:42they span all sorts of genres, and we are really excited to talk to you about a few

00:46of them today.

00:47So to kick us off, I will start telling you about some of the ones that I love.

00:55So right here what you see, this is a butterfly ultrasound device, and it is really neat

01:01because it can work with like an iPhone or an iPad or just any sort of like tablet device.

01:07And so it is really portable, and you can take it anywhere, even to space.

01:11And you are able to actually image all sorts of different pieces of the body and get really

01:17good diagnostics through it.

01:19So we have been using it for a whole bunch of different experiments, measuring our different

01:24veins, we have been measuring our bladder, we have been measuring our like kidneys and

01:32liver and a lot of different pieces of the body.

01:35So it has been really interesting, and we are excited to see what we learn from all

01:38the data.

01:39And this right here is another type of ultrasound device.

01:42This is a novel three-dimensional ultrasound, or the optic nerve sheath.

01:47That is a portion of the eye, and what is really interesting about this is it gives

01:53us insight into the fluid shifts and the eye issues that plague astronauts when they

01:57go to microgravity.

01:59And so scientists are really interested in the changes that happen to this optic nerve

02:03sheath.

02:04And this three-dimensional ultrasound is a brand new technology.

02:08You can use it, and it gets you really efficient, good images of that sheath.

02:12So hopefully we will learn a lot more about those vision changes.

02:15And I will hand it over to Kit to take it from here.

02:20Hi everybody.

02:21So the two experiments that I really enjoyed participating in, first off, the LEO plant.

02:30This was created by the U.S. Air Force Academy, which is near and dear to my heart.

02:34I was assigned there many moons ago as one of the commanders of the cadets.

02:40And what these cadets have created is a casing that holds different plants, and we have been

02:47imaging these plants on a daily basis to see what the impact of zero gravity is on

02:53this plant.

02:56And then one other experiment that we completed today is an airway assessment.

03:04So one of the big concerns is the fluid shift up here at zero gravity.

03:08We can really feel the effect as soon as we were on orbit.

03:11You can kind of see it in our faces.

03:13So one of the concerns with long-duration spaceflight is to be able to triage in case

03:18of an emergency.

03:19And one of the first basic steps is airway assessment.

03:24So we volunteered to do some imaging of our airway.

03:28We did this experiment before flight, during flight, and then we'll do it post-flight.

03:34And what this requires is us to numb up the nasal passage and then insert this endoscopic

03:42camera all the way through the nasal passage and back of the throat to take these different

03:48images.

03:49And then post-flight, we'll be able to assess what happened to the airway passage as that

03:58fluid shifts.

03:59So those are two of the experiments I participated in, and I'll pass it off to our commander.

04:06Hey, everyone.

04:12So I'm pretty excited about this experiment right here.

04:15This is a Tempest Pro, also called our ambulance in a box.

04:22So if you believe in SpaceX's vision of making life multi-planetary, that we're going to

04:27have thousands of starships in space someday, tens of thousands of people, we're on Mars

04:32and we're exploring our solar system, it's pretty cool.

04:36But those are some pretty long journeys, and hospitals aren't very close by.

04:40So we have to be able to bring diagnostic tools into space with us and then be able

04:45to beam that information back home to the flight surgeons.

04:48So just yesterday, we hooked up all sorts of cables to this, so blood pressure, SpO2,

04:54respiration, EKG leads, and basically we're able to capture a number of vital signs and

05:01test it out.

05:02And today, we actually did a full-blown medical simulation of what could be a very likely

05:07medical situation that could develop after an EVA, and then was able to beam a lot of

05:13this information home via Starlink to the flight surgeons in mission control.

05:17So I really am excited about it because it's this kind of technology that's going to be

05:21needed to kind of further humankind's ambitions to explore among the stars.

05:26And I'll turn it over to Sarah, our mission specialist.

05:29Hey, everyone.

05:32So we've been doing, also, as Anna mentioned, a lot of research into spaceflight-associated

05:36neuroocular syndrome.

05:38And so I've got a couple of devices here, a Quixie, and – oop, floating away from

05:45me – and a pupillometer here.

05:56But we've been collecting data kind of every day, looking at the changes in our vision

05:59over time in space.

06:01We also have an experiment from CU Boulder that we did shortly after arriving on orbit,

06:08where you actually put a contact lens into your eye to monitor the pressure change over

06:12time.

06:13And there's a picture of Jared.

06:16He has a contact lens in his eye that's sending pressure data over 24 – 12, 24 hours

06:22to a sensor, but he really looked like a rogue space pirate with his eye patch kind of covering

06:29it, so he didn't have to have some vision changes from that lens, but it was quite a

06:34look up here for the space pirate.

06:37Awesome.

06:38Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

06:43That is just a brief insight into the wealth of science and research that we've been doing

06:50up here.

06:51We are so excited to gather as much data as we can for these scientists back on Earth

06:55so that we can learn together and contribute to our collective future for the future of

07:00human space exploration and on Earth as well.

07:03So we'll talk to you soon.

07:06Thanks.

07:07Bye.

07:08Stay checked.

07:09Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a

07:17perfect world.

07:19Go!

07:24I'm going to step into Test Matrix One, single-handed mobility demonstration.

07:35Commander Jared Isaacman now emerging from Test Matrix One, watching from the nosecone.

07:47Up, down, left, and right are threes.

07:57Hitch and roll are three. Yaw is a two.

08:01Switching.

08:03Single-handed operation.

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