A tech billionaire has become the first layperson to perform a space walk. Hundreds of miles above Earth, Jared Isaacman took part in an intricate performance of science and engineering that often comes with some serious health risks, even for professional astronauts.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX partnered with Isaacman to bring the Polaris Dawn mission to life, which featured a five-day flight to 460 miles above the planet. From bulges in the hatch seal to an unresponsive button for accessing the ship, there were a few glitches during the trek. But the “risky venture,” as SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability Bill Gerstenmaier put it, could have gone significantly worse
“You have to embrace the suck,” European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano told NPR.
“At one point during the spacewalk, you’re going to be hot, you’re going to be cold, your hands are going to hurt,” he continued.
During a space walk in 2013, Parmitano’s cooling system suffered a major malfunction — his helmet was filling with water, creeping up his skin and over his head because of the capillary pressure in zero G.
“It covered my eyes, it covered my ears, it went inside my nose,” he said. Then, his radio stopped working.
“I was on my own, isolated,” he continued. “I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t talk.”
Major, potentially dangerous, malfunctions during a spacewalk were not pioneered by Parmitano though. Astronauts have been overcoming similar dangers for years.
“Of the nine EVAs that took place during project Gemini, three of them actually ended early due to concerns over health and safety,” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Emily Margolis said, speaking on the space walks (EVAs) of the 1960s.
Gene Cernan found himself nearly unable to move during a venture into the void during Gemini 9. The metallic coating on his suit restricted his movement more than anticipated, and the suit’s interior was quickly heating up.
“He started to sweat profusely and the moisture in the suit started to fog his visor,” Margolis said. The heat and strenuous battle against the movement-resistant suit cost Cernan 13 pounds.
“It’s believed that most of that was water weight from the amount that he was sweating during this EVA,” Margolis added.
But that was decades ago. How dangerous are spacewalks today? According to Baylor College of Medicine’s Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA and SpaceX consultant, roughly 20% of spacewalks encounter problems.
But will laypeople, those with no experience or proper training in space walking, be able to course correct from major malfunctions as well as tried-and-tested astronauts like Parmitano?
To safely return to his shuttle after his helmet began filling with water, blinding him, he had to retrace his steps back to his airlock from memory.
“I don’t take any specific credit for keeping my cool because I’d been trained my whole adult life to perform in relatively risky situations,” the Italian Air Force colonel and test pilot said.
Could you die during a space walk? It’s not likely, according to NASA, because adventures outside the craft are often canceled on a moment’s notice over technical malfunctions and health scares.
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