Title: SpaceX’s Fram2 mission, 31 Mar – 04 Apr 2025 (Ren@art, SpaceX, 2025).
SpaceX’s Fram 2 was a private human spaceflight mission that launched on 31 March 2025 with the goal of orbiting the Earth to explore the Polar Regions from space.
The venture was funded by entrepreneur Chun Wang who was accompanied by a multi-national crew that included Rabea Rogge, the first German woman in space piloting Dragon, Jannicke Mikkelsen, the first Norwegian female astronaut, and Eric Philips, a polar expedition guide.
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Updates
04 April 2025: Fram2 Returns - Splashdown.Background
Fram2 Mission.Mission Objectives.
Science Experiments.
The Fram2 Crew.
Rebea Rogge, Pilot.
Jannicke Mikkelsen, Commander.
Eric Philips, Specialist, Medic.
Chun Wang, Commander.
Discovery of X-Rays.
UPDATES
Fram 2 returns to Earth – 04 April 2025
After a successful 3-day mission to explore the polar regions from orbit, the Fram 2 Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California on 04 April 2025.
On this SpaceX 6th commercial astronaut mission, the four civilian crew conducted experiments and visually explored the poles from space.
The Dragon spacecraft orbited the Earth nearly 55 times, taking the crew approximately 46 minutes to travel from the North to the South poles.
The crew sent continuous updates to earth using Dragon’s Plug and Placer system, a device linked to a Starlink terminal inside Dragon, which is connected to a router providing Wi-Fi to the crew. The Placer maintains a laser communication link with Starlink’s satellites in orbit to obtain high-speed internet connections for the crew to chat with family and share views and information in real time.
Dragon’s orbit around the North Pole and views from the cupola (Fram2, SpaceX, 2025).
Watch a summary of Fram2’s views from orbit (6min).
After nearly four days on-orbit, Dragon and the Fram2 crew safely splashed down on 04 April 2025 at 9:19 a.m. Pacific Time off the coast of Oceanside, California, completing the first human spaceflight mission to explore Earth from a polar orbit and fly over the Earth’s polar regions. This was also Dragon’s first West Coast recovery since 2019 and the first Dragon human spaceflight mission to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Watch the return and splashdown of Fram2 on SpaceX Launches page (2h).
Fram2 splashdown event: Live broadcast recording (SpaceX, 04 April 2025) (Click the image to open the link in a new tab or window).
END of UPDATES
BACKGROUND
Fram2 Mission
Fram 2 launched from Launch Complex 39-at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in South Florida on 31 March 2025. They launch was uneventful and the second stage continued its course towards lower orbit, and it was the first crew to orbit the Earth at 90-degree inclination (perpendicular to the Equator).
The crew took the first x-ray in space, replicating the first ever X-ray taken by Wilhelm Röntgen on 22 November 1895, it was the X-ray photograph of his wife’s hand with a ring. They also took X-ray images of other parts of the body and of instruments to explore if they could diagnose problems without taking things apart. Fram2 used a modern portable X-ray device, the Impact System produced by Illinois-based manufacturer MinXray (see Discovery of X-Ray below).
Fram 2 was named after “Fram”, meaning “Forward”, a Norwegian ship used by explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen in expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic between 1892 and 1912.
Fram the Norwegian Arctic exploration ship and Dragon, the capsule that took the Fram2 mission to orbit (www.nsta.org, SpaceX, 2025).
As a tribute to Fram, the original polar exploration ship, the crew of Fram2 took to space, a piece of wood from the deck of Fram, signed by Oscar Wisting (1871-1936), who was Roal Admunsen’s most trusted and faithful expedition companion.
Fram polar exploration ship (1890-1910s). Top left: Sample of the original deck signed by polar explorer Oscar Wisting (Top right).Bottom right: Jannicke Mikkelsen presenting the Fram 2 flat on the deck of Fram at the Fram Museum, Norway on the announcement of the mission (FramMuseum.no, 2024).
Mission Objectives
During their multi-day mission, the crew conducted 22 research studies designed to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration and the understanding of human health in space. Here are some of the most salient objectives:
1. Fram2 supported the SolarMaX Mission, a project of The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), the world’s northernmost higher education institution. UNIS was established in 1993 and is located in the island of Longyearbyen, part of the Svalbard Norwegian archipelago located at Latitude 78°, midway between Norway and the North Pole.
The lead scientist on SolarMaX is Dr Katie Herlingshaw who teamed up with Jannicke Mikkelsen ahead of the Fram2 mission. SolarMaX’s goal is to create an open-source database of aurora photographs for researchers. Fram2 gathered data to learn more about the aurora-like phenomena and to what extent they can affect satellite communication and drag.
The crew plans to study green fragments and mauve ribbons of continuous emissions comparable to the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), which has been measured at an altitude of approximately 400-500 km above Earth’s atmosphere (FramMuseum.com, 2024).
The magnetosphere protecting the Earth from Solar Wind contributes to Aurora formation.Fram2 collaborated with SolarMaX aurora research project (kherli.github.io, SolarMaX, 2025).
2. Fram2 collaborated with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) for an experimental radio competition open to high school and university students aged 16 to 25 years.
The competition consisted in putting together pieces of images broadcasted via ham radio and determine their geographical location and historical significance. Images were transmitted using Slow Scan Television (SSTV) mode in which the radio signal is turned into audio and decoded into an image using a computer application like MMSSTV.
Fram2 HAM competition. Screenshot of the MMSSTV app that converts audio signals sent by radio into images.The ARISS project logo (hamsoft.ca, fram2ham.com, 2025).
3. Working with young people, Fram2 collaborated with Ootiboo in the “Blue Marble” project which consisted of video questions submitted by school students and answered while in orbit.
The crew recorded themselves as they answered the questions shown on a tablet. The videos of the winning questions answered by Fram2 are available on the Ootiboo website at https://play.ootiboo.com/projects/blue-marble/winners (Link opens in a new tab or window).
The Ble Marble project: The crew of Fram2 answered questions while in orbit.Sample questions from Great Britain (GBR/UK), Malta (MLT), Germany (DEU) and Brazil (BRA) (ootiboo.com, 2025).
4. In addition to a piece of the original Fram polar explorer ship, the crew of Fram2 brought into space a historical medal from the collection of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, which commemorates the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal(Technikmuseum.berlin, 2025).
They also brought with them The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication from the Starmus Festival, which recognises the work of those that promote public awareness of science. Winners are presented with the medal and an OMEGA 18K yellow gold watch.
Famous recipients include: Film Director Christopher Nolan, Natural historian David Attenborough, Ethologist Jane Goodall, Astrophysicist/Musician Brian May, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Industrial designer Elon Musk (Starmus Festival, 2025).
Medals taken to orbit: Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication from the Starmus Festival.Famous recipients: Christopher Nolan, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Brian May, Elon Musk.
The Otto Lilienthal Medal from the Deutsches Technik museum (Starmus.com, Technikmuseum.berlin, 2025).
5. The Fram2 crew took the first x-ray in space, replicating the first ever X-ray taken by Wilhelm Röntgen on 22 November 1895, it was the X-ray photograph of his wife’s hand with a ring (see Discovery of X-Ray below). They also took X-rays of other parts of the body and of instruments to see if they could diagnose problems without disassembling. Fram2 used a modern portable X-ray device, the “Impact System” produced by Illinois-based manufacturer MinXray.
MinXray’s Impact System can be used to take X-rays on the field, e.g., sports events, ambulance calls, and now in space (MinXray.com, 2025).
6. The Fram2 crew also experimented with their own exercises to later discuss with health team researchers, the differences they noticed in microgravity. In addition, they tested exiting the capsule unassisted, which meant that while wearing their IVA spacesuit, they had to release their restraints, remove footrests, bend down to collect their 18kg survival gear and take it out through the hatch as they exited the capsule to walk down the hallway up to the health-check room.
According to SpaceX’s Senior Medical Research Engineer Marissa Rosenberg, after their arrival the crew underwent balance and coordination testing, and had an MRI taken of their brains to detect early changes due to exposure to microgravity, which cannot be done in space. The following day they went to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Huston for a high-resolution bone scan to see if they can detect early bone density loss, followed by another day of extra health-checks for research.
Marissa Rosenberg, Senior Medical Research Engineer at SpaceX, interviewed while on the marine drone launchpad “Shannon”floating in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California (SpaceX, 2025).
Science experiments
Rather than merely enjoying the three-day journey aboard Dragon during this private mission, the Fram2 crew dedicated themselves to enhancing scientific knowledge during their time in orbit. They participated in more than 20 research projects from 8 countries around the world.
The following lists shows a summary of the projects in alphabetical order:
1. Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) by Sheffield Hallam University and Northumbria University, UK.
The current method to prevent muscle mass loss due to low resistance while living in space is based on resistance exercise for at least 2 hours per day. New strategies to stimulate muscle mass formation are tested on athletes on Earth and will be needed to live in space.
Blood flow restriction is an exercise technique that has shown to induce muscle growth as a response to exercising under low oxygen conditions. This is achieved by restricting the ingress of blood flowing into a limb (arm or leg) by 80% and preventing venous return by 100%, using a medical tourniquet that encircles the limb at its base while the athlete performs exercise against low resistance.
Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) tourniquet reduces arterial flow by 80% and blocks venous flow.Inserts left: Hytro clothing with straps. Right: Delfi cuffs and monitor (ipaphysio, Hytro, Bfritalia.it, 2025).
Researchers tested two BFR devices, Hytro’s clothing with embedded Velcro-straps, and Delfi’s Personalised Tourniquet System (PTS). Due to the short duration of the flight, this was a technological demonstration applied to a new environment as the method has already shown to be successful. The collaboration also involves the Northumbria University’s Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory, and Labfront for health data analytics.
Hytro clothing (passive system) was initially tested by the Polaris Dawn mission on a 5-day flight in 2024. This time the crew used ultrasound to analyse blood flow during BFR exercise to later compare it to baseline measurements taken before the flight. Exercise were performed with resistance devices developed by Vast.
Lead researchers include Dr Joe Handsaker, Chief Innovation Officer at Hytro, Dr Tom Maden-Wilkinson, from Sheffield Hallam University & Emles Bioventures and Dr Luke Hughes, Associate Professor of Aerospace Physiology and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University.
Pre-flight tests of Hytro shorts worn by Sarah Gillis, Polaris Dawn,and Delphi cuffs worn by Rabea Rogge during exercise, Fram 2 (Shaw, SpaceX, 2024; ericphilips.com, 2025).
2. Bone health by University of Calgary, Canada..
The lack of gravity in space reduces the forces that bones are made to resist, which results in a rapid loss of bone structural strength that can be dangerous when astronauts return to Earth. Bome density was measured with X-ray images compared to control ones taken on Earth (see X-rays above).
3. Brain mapping by Centre for Space Medicine Berlin, Charité, Germany.
A cognitive test battery to assess visuo-spatial skills were conducted in orbit as part of the “Brain Mapping” experiment that combines brain imaging and blood studies taken on Earth to determine changes in brain performance and activity in unfamiliar environments. This study by the Centre for Space Medicine Charité based in Berlin, Germany hopes to support future astronauts travelling to Mars.
4. Brain MRI by Medical University of South Carolina, USA.
The Fram2 crew had brain imaging before and after their mission to determining changes in the brain caused by microgravity. Astronauts commonly experience body changes due to the re-distribution of liquids in the body, including a puffy appearance of the face, brain fog, headaches and potential vision changes.
5. Capsule egress by KBR/NASA JSC, USA.
The crew of Fram 2 will perform the egress manoeuvre unassisted as part of an experiment to determine the capacity and requirements of astronauts in evacuating the capsule where there is no external crew and in emergency situations.
This is of high interest to capsule design and engineering teams and for training agencies. In this case, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) is an engineering, procurement and construction company that provides services to the government and NASA Johnson Space Centre (NASA JSC), based in Huston, Texas is responsible for human spaceflight training, research and flight control.
6. Cognition by University of Pennsylvania, USA.
The astronauts were tested for cognitive ability during flight to determine changes resulting from exposure to a challenging environment and the psychological stress associated to physical stress. High levels of cognitive performance and health are prerequisite for mission success on long-duration missions.
7. Crew Resilience by the University of Bergen, Germany.
The study focused on intra-crew dynamics associated to stress and communal living and wellbeing. This will help optimise crew composition, training and psychological support for future missions.
8. Glucose regulation by SpaceX, USA.
Astronauts were continuously monitored for blood glucose to better understand the physiology of glucose regulation in space and prepare for improvements in care of future travellers who might have diabetes, which afflicts 10% of humans on Earth.
9. MELITE by University of Malta, Malta.
This project focuses on human skin microbiome’s behaviour in space. Four microbiome samples produced by the Saudi Arabian company “Falak for Space Science and Research” were sent to space for long exposure to microgravity. The Saudi company got involved after learning about project Maleth, developed by the same Maltese team led by Prof. Joseph Borg, which sent microbiome from diabetic foot ulcers to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021.
Previous Maltese experiment Maleth Biocube at ISSpresented by French ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet who spent 6 months in space (Evolve, NASA, 2021).
10. Mission MushVroom by FOODiQ Global.
The first study to cultivate and grow mushrooms in space. Mushrooms are perfect for space because they have the potential to provide nutrition during space missions and minimise requirements of water, sunlight, space and waste. Mushrooms grow rapidly, doubling in size in a day for quick harvesting; they utilise 100% of inedible plant waste. They provide nutritional minerals, 100% of daily needs of pro-vitamin D and health-supporting bioactives like Ergothioneine (amino acid that controls oxidants and inflammation) and Beta-Glucan (fibre used to control blood pressure and blood sugar, boost immunity and bone health). Enhances flavour thanks to unami savouring and reduces the need of added salt.
The Australian company FOODiQ lead the research and aim to determine physical, biochemical and genetic differences resulting from the growth of Oyster Mushrooms in space. The mushrooms were provided by Australian biotechnological company Lifecykel, pioneers in fungi cultivation and the commercialisation of mushroom-extract based products.
Mission MushVroom led by FOODiQ will grow mushrooms in space (foodiq.global, lifecykel.com, 2025).
11. NASA standard measures by NASA JSC, USA.
The study focuses on physiological and psychological changes during spaceflight. This involves examining samples of saliva and blood, survey responses, and more to assess biochemical markers, immunological status, sensorimotor function, sleep quality, physical performance, and other benchmarks of astronaut health.
12. Radiation measurement by NASA JSC, USA.
The Fram2 crew will measure cosmic radiation exposure of each member using the HERA Radiation Detector in the cabin. They will also have personal radiation badges. This information is essential for the development of spacecraft and spacesuit shielding.
13. Sensorimotor standard measures by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA.
This experiment will measure balance (vestibular function) before and after spaceflight to study the ability of the brain to adapt to asymmetries in the system that lead to feeling motion sickness and postflight postural instability.
14. Sleep hygiene by Medical University of South Carolina, USA.
Sleep disruption in space is related to cognitive, mood and physiologic impairment. Sleeping patterns were recorded during and after spaceflight, which will improve the understanding of sleep characteristics of astronauts.
15. SLICE by University of South Wales, Australia.
The SaLiva In spaCE (SLICE) study measured thousands of proteins in astronaut saliva to determine response to stress in males and females. The analysis of this data will help plan missions and optimise crew health in the future.
16. Space genomics by University of Zurich Space Hub, Germany.
This study explores the effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity in gene expression and chromatin dynamics. As humans have adapted over millions of generations to a gravity-dominated environment on Earth, it is important to understand if their exposure to environments without gravity will stimulate genetic changes that will prepare future generations.
17. Space motion sickness by University of Colorado, USA.
The quantification of motion sickness during gravity transitions and upon returning to Earth will help researchers better understand the impact of gravity changes. Motion sickness is a common sensation in astronauts, but it is not clear if this transient feeling has a negative impact on health.
18. Space Omics by Baylor College of Medicine, Human Genome Sequencing Centre, USA.
This experiment aims at collecting biological specimens for biobanking and analysis for changes related to space travel. The resulting dataset will create a baseline for future missions and will help develop tailored healthcare for astronauts.
Researchers at the Human Genome Sequencing Centre at Baylor University, Texas, USA, have develop the Genomics and Space Medicine (Space Omics) project that involves a comprehensive biospecimen collection plan. This initiative includes the development of the Genomic Evaluation of Space Travel and Research (GENESTAR) manual, a comprehensive protocol for collecting, processing and storing biospecimens from commercial spaceflight participants tailored to support all current and anticipated biological and genomic measurements. GENESTAR was tested with the Axiom-2 mission in 2023.
Sample collected across missions, use “omics” technologies to uncover how space travel affects the body at a molecular level. Technologies include genomics (DNA), transcriptomics (RNA), proteomics (proteins) and microbiomics (microbes). So far, they found that 98% of blood samples and more than 91% of non-blood samples met quality standards for advanced molecular testing.
19. Space THAL by University of Malta, Malta.
Space THAL focuses on the study of the activation of genes that increase the levels of foetal haemoglobin, which is an important element that stimulates the formation of haemoglobin, the pigment that allows red blood cells transport oxygen.
This study follows previous work by Maltese researcher Prof. Joseph Borg and his team at the University of Malta used multi-omic datasets available on NASA GeneLab, from the NASA Twins Study (2019 results from the study of Skott Kelly stationed at ISS for a year compared to his twin brother Mark who remained on Earth), the JAXA CFE study (2022 results of Japanese Aerospace Agency’s Cell-Free Epigenome study), and the Inspiration4 mission (SpaceX, 2021). The study, published in 2024 reveals details of gene regulation in response to space environment exposure. This team also led the MELITE study above (9).
Prof Joseph Borg, lead researcher of the Space THAL study based on the finding that Adult Haemoglobin (molecule with yellow gamma subunits)switches into Foetal Haemoglobin (molecule with orange gamma subunits) in astronauts, based on reports from NASA’s Twin Study
(Left: Mark Kelly who stayed on Earth, Right: Scott Kelly who lived at ISS for a year) and SpaceX’s Inspiration 4 mission 2021
(Times of Malta, NASA, SpaceX, pdb101, 2025).
20. Space Time by Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
This study measured how astronauts experienced time during space travel, in hope to find out how to speed up the subjective passage of time during space travel. According to researcher, Prof Ruth Ogden, Professor of Psychology of Time, astronauts reported on how changes in their sense of time passing slowly or quickly affected their wellbeing and performance.
21. SpaceXposome by LMU University Munich, Germany.
The LMU Medical Centre is leading the SpaceXposome study investigating stress resilience in space. In collaboration with the Portuguese University of Lusófona, the study aims to identify biomarkers of stress and improve the well-being of astronauts, with clinical applications for managing stress-related illnesses.
The lead investigator, Prof Dr Alexander Choukér and PD Dr Judith-Irina Buchheim have been researching the relationship between stress and the immune system for many years. Their results aim at preparing future astronauts for longer missions.
22. SpaceXray by St. Louis University, Missouri, USA.
The crew tested the first portable X-Ray system ever flown to space, in association with St Louis University (see above).
23. Women’s Health by Hormona, UK.
The Women’s Health study will use the Hormona test and app to analyse the effect of microgravity on the female reproductive system. This will add information on studies about the ability to reproduce in space.
24. Exercise Tech Demo by Exercise Demo.
This experiment is based on testing exercise hardware that is low in mass, power, volume and time. Short duration missions are ideal to test minimum viability devices to see if they are needed.
Fram2 Crew
The crew of Fram2 was composed of Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips.
The members of the crew had a “Polar Connection”. In preparation for the journey, they worked together in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, located in the convergence of the Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans, closer to the North Pole than to the North of Europe, where Jannicke Mikkelsen lives; the others joined her frequently to share interests and build teamwork. That was the main reason to become the first human spaceflight mission that followed a polar orbit.
Svalbard archipelago, Norway map. Fram2 crew building teamwork at Svalbard (Wikipeida, Spaceflightnow.com, SpaceX, 2025).
Rabea Rogge: Dragon Pilot
Rabea Rogge, 28, is a German electrical engineer graduated from ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland, pursuing her PhD since 2023 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), department of Marine Technology. The topic of her research is the control of arctic marine robotics "Data-based navigation, guidance, and control of autonomous surface vehicles under challenging conditions". She was the first German woman in space, after the 13 German men that went to space to date.
Rabea Rogge, Dragon Pilot. First German woman in space (SpaceX, 2025).
In June 2024, Rogge was among the students and engineers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) embarked on a mission to sample zooplankton off the coast of Mausund, Norway. They used the robotic submersibles Grethe and AutoNaut to map the area with echosounders and used a neural network to pinpoint the locations and depths of zooplankton layers.
Rabea Rogge controls the unmanned submersible Grethe (Nyheter.ntnu.no, 2024, SpaceX, 2025).
A year earlier, Rogge took part of a training expedition in the island of Svalbard on the North Atlantic, which had nothing to do with a potential space mission. "There, I learned how to survive in minus 20 degrees Celsius and not lose fingertips. I've managed that so far," she said; there, she met millionaire Chun Wang from China, whom six months later contacted her to invite her to join the five-day SpaceX mission to space.
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Jannicke Mikkelsen: Dragon Commander
Jannicke Mikkelsen, 38, is a Norwegian & British cinematographer specialised in 3D video production (Stereoscopy, Virtual reality), Augmented Reality and 360 video. She works in hazardous environments, filming in the arctic, underwater, aviation and now space.
Jannicke Mikkelsen, Dragon Commander and insert with “space-hair” (SpaceX, 2025).
Her fascination with technology started when she was a child. In her teens she became a speed skating athlete and in 2005 she won the third place in the 3000m speed skating Norwegian National Championships. She returned to her studies and received her Bachelor Honours degree in Cinematography and Film Production from The Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio (NISS) joint with the University of Wolverhampton, and continued with a Masters degree from the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in England.
In 2009 Mikkelsen worked for Stereotek GmbH, a 3D film production company that released the movies “Wickie and the treasure of the Gods” (2011), and “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” (2013). Later she joined “Alchemy”, makers of the immersive 360 documentary “David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive” (2015, 2016).
Watch a sample of “David Attemborough’s Great Barrier Reef”. On this 360video you can use your mouse to drag the viewport in all directions while it plays (1m39s).
In 2016, she directed QUEEN’s 3D-360 live music video “VR the Champions”, filmed in Stereoscopic 4k.
Watch a sample of “VR the Champions” featuring Adam Lambert singing with Queen. On this 360video you can use your mouse to drag the viewport in all directions while it plays (30s).
In 2018 Jannicke Mikkelsen created an interactive virtual reality installation at Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex “Lunar Window”. In 2019, she was payload specialist for the Guinness World Record holder flight of the fastest circumnavigation of Earth via the North and South Pole that live-streamed to 55million viewers from an altitude of 13,000m. In 2022, she was the virtual cinematographer for Netflix’s sci-fi thriller Stowaway starring Anna Kendrick.
Jannicke is the recipient of the first ever European Society of Cinematographers Award for Extraordinary Technical Achievement, in 2017 she was named one of Norway’s most influential women in tech, and in 2019 one of UK’s most influential women in tech.
As a director, Jannicke relies on excellent teamwork and her advice to achieve excellence is to ask one another “What do you need to do your job?”, once team members have what they need the team is on its way to achieve its goal.
Watch and interview with Jannicke Mikkelsen, tech entrepreneur (27m).
Before her flight she said to the Norwegian news agency Budstikka: "I feel awe and humility. It is with great pride that I am now preparing to become the first to represent Norway in space” and she made history as the first astronaut in space with only Norwegian citizenship, in contrast with Marcus Wandt, who has both Swedish and Norwegian citizenship, and was at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024.
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Eric Philips: Mission Specialist and Medical Officer
Eric Philips, 62, is an Australian polar explorer and adventurer, born to Dutch parents. He has a passion for extremes and guides clients to both the North and South poles. As founder and director of Incetrek Expeditions and Equipment, he provides planning and execution of exhilarating expeditions, making him a leading figure in polar exploration.
Eric Philips: Polar explorer and guide, and now astronaut (SpaceX, 2025).
In the 1980s Philips hitch-hiked his way to Alaska and joined the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System to visit towns along the Alaskan coast.
Philips graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Education and Outdoor Education from the University of South Australia, and he became director of Outdoor Education on the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School.
In 1992, after 5 years of working in winter programmes in Australia, he joined his first polar expedition to Ellesmere Island, the 3rd largest island in Northern Canada.
In 1995 Philips completed a ski/kite/kayak traverse of Greenland, following the footsteps of Australian polar explorer John Rymill (1950s), he guided filmmakers and adventurers Larry Gray and Wade Fairley, alongside Paul Caffyn, John Muir and his son. He helped them capture amazing views for the documentary “Chasing the Midnight Sun” (1996) directed by Michael Balson.
In 2000 he went to South Patagonia in South America, an expedition that was featured in the documentary “Riding the Tempest”. The same year, he published his book “Icetrek. The Bitter Journey to the South Pole”.
In 2004 Philips became a member of the Order of Australia and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for achievements in polar exploration.
Left: Book cover IceTrek (2000) by Eric Philips, who guides trips to the South Pole booked through IceTrek.Right: The Order of Australia medal awarded to Philips in 2004 (IceTrek.com, Archive.org, Wikipedia, 2025).
In 2009 Philips guided a Kayak expedition to Greenland to study the topography of the ice shelf for Greenpeace. Accompanied by Dr Alun Hubbard, Professor of Glaciology, Fulbright Scholar, University of Tromsø, Norway, who took 4 kayaks to a site 50km up Peterman Glacier in North-west Greenland and measured the depth of the ice-sheet with radar obtaining a 25km radar line by stringing the kayaks together to take the measurements.
Greenland’s glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, mostly from its southern borders. The average mass loss observed amounts to 279 Gigatons of ice per year. The following animation shows Greenland ice mass changes between April 2002 and August 2020, created from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (FO) Monthly Surface Mass Anomalies missions’ data, reported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASAJPLPODAAC).
Glaciology research by Prof Hubbard and others aims at studying changes in glacier morphology and behaviour of meltwater to understand the effects of Global Warming on the ice sheet.
In the following videos, Eric Philips presents the 2009 expedition to Petermann Glacier in North-West Greenland.
After 2020 Eric Philip started guiding people to the North Pole making a stop-over in Svalbard, Norway where the government has to agree to use the airport. With international conflict between Russia and Poland, travel to the North Pole has dwindled, therefore most expeditions are heading South. As an International Polar Guides Association (IPGA) Polar Expedition Guide, he took part of celebrity ski expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica.
In 2022 he was one of the few people over 60 that skied to the South Pole.
Listen an interview given by Eric Philips in 2023 to the programme “The year that made me” of ABC Radio National, Australia, where he talks about his life history, intersts and goals. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sundayextra/tytmm-eric-philips/102917250 (Link opens in a new tab or window).
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Chun Wang: Mission Commander
Chun Wang is a Chinese entrepreneur who co-founded “F2Pool” in 2013, a cryptocurrency venture that became the world’s largest mining operation at the time. In 2018 he launched another crypto venture called “Stake.Fish”.
Chun Wang: Mission commander. Dreamed of computing and space since he was young, found success in a bitcoin enterpriseand funded the Fram2 mission (SpaceX, 2025).
The mining process involves maintaining the Blockchain through computer processing power. The process requires specialised hardware in computing farms that work permanently to process the network transactions. Bitcoin transactions use their own scripting language creating blocks of information that needs to be validated by the whole worldwide network of mining computers. The mining process essentially prevents duplication as all nodes need to agree on the content of the blockchains. This is a security feature that prevents adversaries to alter the transaction history as they would need more power than the network combined, which would be extremely expensive. Miners are paid fees that are incorporated in the transactions if they are successful. This makes Bitcoin Mining a profitable endeavour that has been criticised because it requires electricity generated by fossil fuels and create waste due to the short lifespan of the hardware. As of 2025, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) estimated that bitcoin mining represented 0.5% of global electricity consumption and 0.08% of world greenhouse gas emissions.
Crypto currency has been banned in China but its acceptance is growing as a digital currency parallel to conventional money elsewhere, e.g. Accepted in El Salvador, Central African Republic, Iran and smaller jurisdictions like Colorado, USA and Zug, Switzerland.
As an investment opportunity, bitcoin is highly volatile, described by experts as an economic bubble and having an intrinsic value of zero, in contrast, supporters have invested heavily, including Elon Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla.
In the following video (1hr), Chun Wang explains his ambition to make bitcoin a multi-planetary currency. The biggest obstacles to making bitcoin a more de-centralised currency are the location of mining farms that are susceptible to interference by country legislations. In the future operations may move to neutral places like international waters or Antarctica.
Discovery of X-Rays
In 1895, while working with Cathode Ray tubes that emit fluorescent blue-green light, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen [viLhem gOuntg’n] noticed that a screen located 2 metres away turned green, even when the tube was shielded. Further experiments showed that photographic paper rendered images of solid objects but not of soft tissue. As he did not know what type of rays were emitted, he called them “X Rays”. He published his findings on a paper " Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On A New Kind of Rays), on 28 December 1895. On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation. The same year he was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Würzburg and received the “Rumford Medal” of the British Royal Society. In early 1896, the first medical use of X-rays was described by John Hall-Edwards, who used it to image a needle stuck in a hand.
X-ray images of a hand with a ring: Left: The first image taken with X-Ray by Röntgen in 1895, presumably of his wife’s hand.Right: Image takin by Fran2 in orbit in 130 years later (Wikipedia, SpaceX, 2025).
Wilhelm Röntgen received the Novel Prize in Physics in 1901 for the discovery of X-Rays. The phenomenon was named Roentgenography or Radiography in his honour. Röntgen finished his PhD at the Federal Polytechnic Institute (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland where he met Anna Bertha, his wife.
At first, Roentgenography was used quite enthusiastically in all walks of life but a few years later, researchers started reporting skin damage and burns; in 1904, scientist Clarence Dally who worked extensively with X-rays, died of skin cancer. Negative reports made little impact in the entertainment industry and commercial ventures openly had the novelty among their offerings, e.g., pictures of the bones of clients’ hands and other body parts at funfairs and looking at the bones of clients’ feet inside shoes when buying a new pair at shoe-stores. More severe reports of secondary effects of X-Rays in the following decades, led to today’s strict rules and measures to minimise exposure to X-rays.
Winning the Nobel Prize turn Röntgen into a celebrity, and after his death in 1923, a number of public places in Switzerland were named after him, e.g. Röntgenstrasse, a street close to Limmatplatz in Zurich, and “Röntgenplatz” square which was an intersection called “X Intersection” that was going to become a high traffic road in 1984 but was kept as a culturally usable square thanks to a local community demand. The community had a yearly festival at the intersection of Röntgenstrasse, Josefstrasse, and Fabrikstrasse, a polygonal area formerly occupied by the embankment of the first railway line connecting Zurich and Winterthur, built in 1855. The festival continues and is known as “Röntgenplatzfest” or “X-Ray Square Festival”.
Röntgenplatz in Zurich, Switzerland on a quiet day and during the annual festival Röntgenplatzfest a the end of August(de-academic.com, amboss.ch, 2018).
In addition, Röntgen spent 43 summers in the alpine town of Pontresina, in the Engadine valley of Graubünden, Switzerland, where there is another “Röntgenplaz”, a square named after him, located between Spaniola Tower and Alp Languard.
Commemorative plaque “In memory of W C Röntgen from the German Röntgen Society” located at Röntgenplaz, Pontresina, Switzerland(sils.ch, pontresina.ch, 2025).
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=== END of Fram2 – 02apr-07jul2025 ===
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