Teach & Explore: Assessing Radiation Exposure for Astronauts on the Polaris Dawn Private Spaceflight Mission

Hands-on exercise part of a toolkit introducing upper-secondary students to the hazardous space environment and its potential impact on astronauts. This exercise instructs the student in using the Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS) on-line tool to assess the equivalent dose received by astronauts during the commercial space mission Polaris Dawn.

Launched on September 10, 2024, 09:24 UTC from Kennedy Space Center, the mission placed the Crew Dragon Resilience capsule into a low Earth orbit (inclination 51.7°, period ~106 minutes). The mission ended on September 15, 2024, 07:37 UTC, when the capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, near Dry Tortugas, Florida.

The exercise was part of the student workshop on space radiation in the frame of the ASGARD@spacepole activity on May 15, 2025.

Credits

  • SPENVIS is a web-based tool developed and operated by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy for the European Space Agency providing an integrated interface to models of the space environment and its effects.

Data and Resources

Tags

Cite this as (APA format)

Messios, N., Kruglanski, M., & Kindarkhedia, D. (2025). Teach & Explore: Assessing Radiation Exposure for Astronauts on the Polaris Dawn Private Spaceflight Mission (Version 1). Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. https://doi.org/10.18758/DQAR8I1F
Retrieved: 00:38 11 Jul 2025 (UTC)
Users of this DOI are kindly encouraged to contact the author(s) for help and cooperation towards further successful utilisation.

Author(s)
Principal

Messios, Neophytos, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Other(s)

Kruglanski, Michelorcid, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy; Kindarkhedia, Dhiren, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy;
Contact data-contact of Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy

Technical info
Documentation
Is derived from (sources,...)

https://doi.org/10.18758/s7fav4s5

Temporal features
Starting

September 10, 2024
Ending

September 15, 2024

Additional info
Repository homepage

https://data.aeronomie.be/dataset/
Last Updated

June 16, 2025
Created

June 10, 2025

Spatial features