I haven't paid attention to the situation of the Chinese space station for a long time, and it has been two months since the Shenzhou-18 manned flight crew entered orbit! On April 25, the Long March-2F Yao-18 carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft successfully lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the mainland, sending three astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, to China's space station.
The Shenzhou-18 manned mission, which is also China's first manned flight in 2024, is planned to stay in the space station for 6 months, and the current mission cycle has been completed by one-third, and the first spacewalk out of the capsule during the orbit has also been carried out, completing the key mission!
The space station is not particularly safe to fly in space, "space" is not empty, there are a large number of space junk and meteorite fragments, and spacecraft in orbit will inevitably be hit by these meteorite particles when flying.
During the Shenzhou-17 manned mission, three astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin went out of the capsule twice to repair the solar wing of the "Tianhe" core module of the space station.
The space station is a behemoth, and the solar wings on the core module are even more extensive, and it is inevitable that some meteorite particles will hit the solar wings. In previous space flights, astronauts have found these damages through inspections, so this critical mission was planned during the Shenzhou-17 mission!
The six-month space flight of Shenzhou 18 has also planned 2-3 spacewalks, which have been completed once before, and the debris protection device of the Chinese space station has been reinforced.
Now the Shenzhou-18 crew has been in orbit for two months, and in the past period of time, in addition to the regular space science experiments and experimental work, the crew has also made preparations for the second out-of-cabin activity.
The Shenzhou-18 astronaut crew carried out a sports cardiopulmonary function test to evaluate the functional reserve and regulation ability of the astronauts' cardiovascular system and respiratory system, and prepare for the follow-up second out-of-cabin activities.
Of course, in addition, the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew also practiced key technologies and carried out rendezvous and docking operation training in orbit, which is simply understood as the rendezvous and docking of hand-controlled spacecraft!
This technology is very critical and is naturally not used under normal circumstances, but it can be used as a backup means for automatic rendezvous and docking of unmanned visiting aircraft.
According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the Chinese space station will be upgraded in space in the next few years, from the existing T-shaped structure to a cross or even a dry shape.
If the space station is upgraded in orbit, it must meet the arrival of unmanned aerial vehicles, for example, during the Shenzhou 14 manned mission, it welcomed the arrival of the Mengtian experimental module and the Wentian experimental module.
For manned spacecraft, astronauts can directly control the spacecraft, which is often referred to as driving a spacecraft.
For example, the two astronaut crews of the starliner who are currently on the mission of the International Space Station encountered a helium leak and five thruster failures when they took the starliner to the International Space Station on June 5, and missed the best time for autonomous rendezvous and docking, and finally completed the docking with the International Space Station under the control of the two astronauts!
However, if it is an unmanned aerial vehicle, such as a cargo spacecraft and a large experimental module, if there are special circumstances, astronauts are also required to stand up and intervene!
The Shenzhou-18 crew carried out similar training, and they could use the teleoperation rendezvous and docking on-orbit training system and the metacognitive training system in the space station to conduct operational skills training such as image recognition, hand-controlled docking, teleoperation docking and hand-controlled evacuation under different circumstances.
During the whole training process, the astronaut can see the azimuth and pitch angle of the target spacecraft, change the relative distance and speed between the spacecraft and the target vehicle, and at the same time, use the translation handle and attitude control handle to control the speed and attitude.
Ye Guangfu, commander of the Shenzhou-18 mission, conducted the first hand-controlled teleoperation rendezvous and docking test of the space station when he was carrying out the Shenzhou-13 mission.
With the cooperation of the three astronauts of Shenzhou-13 and the ground personnel, the detachment, translation, orbiting and docking of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft were completed, which was also the first hand-controlled teleoperation rendezvous and docking of the space station. Shenzhou-18 is in orbit for rendezvous and docking operation training, which is also to improve technology and prepare for future work!
Text/Science Black Hole, Image Source: Internet Invasion and Deletion.