‘A notch above gimmick’ While a human spaceflight mission has never passed so close to Earth’s poles, experts who spoke with CNN said that there may not be a huge scientific draw to such an effort. Dr. John Prussing, professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, openly wondered if the mission plan was an April Fools’ joke — noting that SpaceX’s projected launch window stretches into April 1 in Coordinated Universal Time. “There’s nothing unique to a polar orbit, (and) the science advantages are kind of overblown,” Prussing noted as evidence for his skepticism about this flight. (CNN verified the authenticity of SpaceX’s flight plans with the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches.) Ultimately, the value of Fram2 may be more about the thrill of the endeavor, gathering health data, and taking a step forward in making private space missions more common, other experts noted. In addition to being first-time space travelers, the Fram2 crew members all come from backgrounds that are atypical for astronauts. “This is a private mission. You need something to say that’s different and exciting about it,” said Dr. Christopher Combs, associate dean of research at the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “It’s interesting that nobody’s ever actually done a true polar orbit,” Combs added, “and it’s great that we’ve got commercial providers that are making space travel increasingly routine.” In his mind, Combs said, flying a human spaceflight mission around the poles is “a notch above gimmick, but not exactly a groundbreaking milestone.” Evolving research Every mission that carries people into space offers a chance to observe how the journey affects human physiology. And the Fram2 crew will seek to expand on some research spearheaded by academics and the private sector during previous commercial missions to orbit — including the 2024 Polaris Dawn mission. All four Fram2 passengers will undergo the same MRI scans that the Polaris Dawn crew did. This research aims to expand scientists’ understanding of how stints in microgravity, which is known to shift fluids in the brain, affect astronauts. The team behind the MRI study is not ready to reveal findings from the Polaris Dawn mission last fall, according to Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a neurologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. But an overarching goal of the analysis is to learn whether brain changes can occur for people who spend days — rather than months — in space. Rosenberg is also part of a team collecting data about astronauts’ sleep patterns in collaboration with Oura Ring, which developed a wellness-tracking device that can be worn on a finger. The work will build on extensive research NASA has conducted with its astronauts on the ISS. “I certainly think that REM (sleep) is going to be disrupted,” as well as certain deep sleep phases, in the Fram2 crew, Rosenberg told CNN. There are a couple reasons why: “One, your body isn’t used to being in microgravity. And so for that reason, it probably is challenging for it to get comfortable at first,” Rosenberg said. “The second reason is that constant bombardment of visual stimuli from the orbit. A day in orbit is 90 minutes, and so that circadian dysregulation is definitely going to play a role with how you’re able to sleep.” The “day” Rosenberg refers to is how often astronauts experience a sunrise and sunset. From the vantage point inside a space capsule whisking around in Earth’s orbit, the phenomenon can occur more than a dozen times in a 24-hour period. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft set to carry the Fram2 mission are rolled out to the launchpad in Florida. From SpaceX