Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Send Four-Person Crew on Unprecedented Polar Orbit Mission
A crew of four is preparing for an unusual journey into space, one that no human has attempted before: flying directly over the Earth’s North and South Poles. The mission, called Fram2 and carried out by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is being financed by Chun Wang, the founder of the Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool and a cryptocurrency investor based in Malta.
The team, launching aboard a SpaceX capsule, consists of three adventurers who were brought together by Wang through polar expeditions: Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge, and Australian explorer Eric Philips. None of them have been to space before.
The mission is set to lift off from Florida on Monday night at 9:46 p.m. ET. It will take the crew on a path that no human spaceflight has traveled before. While some satellites use polar orbits for Earth observation, human missions have typically followed paths closer to the equator. Fram2 will aim for a true 90-degree inclination, meaning it will fly directly over both poles.
F2Pool’s Role in Bitcoin Mining
At one point, F2Pool was one of the largest mining pools in the Bitcoin network, contributing a significant portion of the network’s hash rate. However, with the increasing competition from American and Russian miners in the Bitcoin mining space, F2Pool’s role has diminished. Currently, it accounts for just over 10% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate, according to data from Hashrate Index.
In a 2022 interview for Staking Rewards, Chun mentioned that he personally mined over 7,700 Bitcoin during the first two years of F2Pool’s existence. At the time of the interview, this amount was valued at around $640 million. However, Chun admitted to selling all of his early-mined BTC in January 2013 to repay his initial loan.
Research Opportunities and Experiments
The space mission offers various opportunities for research. The crew will participate in studies on the effects of space travel on the human body, including brain fluid shifts and sleep disruptions. They will undergo MRI scans similar to those conducted on SpaceX’s 2024 Polaris Dawn mission.
The mission will also study space adaptation syndrome, a severe form of motion sickness experienced by more than 60% of astronauts in microgravity. The Fram2 team hopes to contribute to the development of better treatments for this condition.
In addition, the mission will include an experiment by British startup Hormona, which aims to track hormone fluctuations in female astronauts. Mikkelsen and Rogge will use urine test strips during the flight to gather data on hormone levels.
Furthermore, Fram2 will conduct a range of experiments, including growing mushrooms in space, testing exercise routines in microgravity, and observing polar auroras from orbit. The crew will also attempt to document Steve, a mysterious auroral phenomenon identified in 2016.
The crew is expected to spend three to five days in orbit before returning to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.