Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This afternoon, Mengtian experimental module will be launched at Hainan Wenchang launch site with Long March 5 B remote four rocket. Xiao Bian wishes the launch a complete success here. Mengyuan Aerospace!

launch site| The picture comes from the successful launch of CCTV News Dreamsky Experimental Module, which also means that the construction of China Tiangong Space Station has been successfully completed, and Tiangong has evolved to a complete body, presenting a pleasing "T shape."

Then the question arises, how big is the complete Tiangong space station, what are the living conditions for astronauts, how to build it next, the Tiangong has been handed over, when will the Heavenly Court start construction?

Hold on, let me tell you everything.

Heaven in Film and Television Works| The picture comes from CCTV TV series "Lotus Lantern" Introduction to Tiangong Space Station First of all, we should introduce the basic situation of Tiangong Space Station.

On April 29,2021, the core module of Tiangong Space Station was launched from Hainan Wenchang Launch Center. It marks the official opening of the construction of the Tiangong space station. To date, the dream sky has been launched, and the Tiangong is still less than 2 years old. The completion of the construction of Tiangong Space Station also marks the successful realization of the ultimate goal of China's three-step development strategy for manned space engineering, making China a country that independently masters long-term manned flight technology in near-Earth space, has the ability to carry out long-term manned scientific and technological experiments in near-Earth space, and is able to comprehensively develop and utilize space resources.

Tiangong Space Station| The picture comes from the cold knowledge of the official website of the United Nations. The Tiangong Space Station marks that China has become the second country to independently master the construction of the space station. The first is the Soviet Union, which independently built the Mir space station. As for the International Space Station, which is now in operation, it was jointly built by international cooperation.

Tiangong Space Station consists of three modules: Tianhe Core Module, Wentian Experimental Module and Mengtian Experimental Module, presenting a "T" configuration. In addition to the module itself, the space station also reserves docking ports to receive manned and cargo spacecraft. Tiangong Space Station is equipped with three docking ports: forward, backward and radial. The forward docking port is mainly used for docking manned spacecraft and space telescope, the backward docking port is mainly used for docking cargo spacecraft, and the radial docking port is mainly used for docking manned spacecraft.

Complete configuration of Tiangong space station| The construction of the "Three Brothers" Heavenly Palace has been completed. Is there anyone who doesn't know the specific situation of these three core cabins? It's okay. I'll make up for it for you.

First launched is the Sky and Core Module, which as the name suggests is the core of the entire space station. The main mission of Tianhe Core Module is unified management and control of the space station platform, and as a target vehicle to support the rendezvous, docking, rotation and docking of visiting vehicles. Our astronauts live mainly in the sky and core module, which, supported by cargo spacecraft, can support astronauts to stay for a long time and also support astronauts to carry out space scientific and technical experiments in sealed capsules. The Tianhe core module also has an airlock module to support astronauts leaving the module.

The Tianhe core module consists of node module, living control module and resource module, with a total axial length of 16.6 m and a maximum diameter of 4.2 m.

Tianhe core module| The figure is derived from Reference 1, and both Sky and Dream Sky are experimental modules, mainly for astronauts to carry out scientific experiments.

The experimental module consists of three parts: working module, airlock module and resource module. The axial length of the module is 17.9 m, and the maximum diameter of the module is 4.2 m. As the second launching module, the Sky Seeking Experimental Module is not only an experimental module, but its main function is of course to provide guarantee conditions for scientific experiments and technical experiments in the sealed module and extravehicular space. However, what you may not know is that it is also an important backup of the Tianhe Core Module. The Sky Seeking Experimental Module can be used as a backup for key platform functions such as the energy management system, information management system, control system and manned environment system of the Tianhe Core Module. At the same time, the sky experiment module actually has the ability to manage and control the assembly uniformly, that is to say, astronauts can also operate the entire space station in the sky experiment module. The sky experiment module can also guarantee the long-term stay of astronauts in orbit, provide special airlock module and emergency shelter, and ensure the safety of astronauts in case of emergency in the sky and core module.

Sky test module| Today's launch is the "third brother" of the Tiangong space station family, the Mengtian experimental module. The Mengtian experimental module consists of four parts: working cabin, cargo airlock cabin, load cabin and resource cabin. The axial length of the cabin is 17.9 m and the maximum diameter is 4.2 m. Hey, did you find any new members? That's right, the Dream Sky Experiment Module had one more payload module than the Sky Sky Experiment Module. This payload module is equipped with an deployable payload experimental platform outside the module, which will be deployed in orbit after launch. As for the resource module, it was basically the same as the Heaven Seeking Experimental Module.

Mengtian experimental cabin| The main task of the Mengtian experimental module is to provide guarantee conditions for astronauts to work in the sealed module and ensure the safety of astronauts. To provide guarantee conditions for carrying out real (test) inspection of cabin and outer space, provide cargo airlock, and realize automatic loading and equipment entering and leaving cabin.

Why go to space for experiments? To ask about the experimental content of the experimental module, we must first understand why we want to carry out experiments in space. There are four main advantages to conducting experiments in space.

Experiments in space, of course, focus on the unique experimental conditions of the sky. And most importantly, the first thing you think of, microgravity.

On the earth's surface, under gravity environment, life and matter are affected by gravity, some essential laws of matter may be covered by gravity, so in microgravity or weightless environment, there may be some unexpected results.

Another huge advantage of the space station experiment: there are people on it.

I have someone above me.| If there is no space station, we can only launch the device experiment for scientific experiments. We cannot operate it in time, let alone control the time of the experiment at will. However, if someone is involved throughout the experiment, it is easier to operate, record, and repair possible conditions.

In addition, experiments on the space station are more convenient in terms of time. There will be more frequent transportation to and from the space station, which is essential to maintaining the operation of the space station, and we can also use cargo ships or manned spacecraft to transport and return samples.

There is a final distinct advantage: the station's specific orbital altitude, which facilitates astronomical, Earth observation and space physics research. When we make astronomical observations, optical telescopes on the ground are subject to interference or absorption from the atmosphere, so we choose radio telescopes or move telescopes directly into space. And our Tiangong space station construction also plans to launch a survey telescope and space station co-orbital flight, to carry out experiments in this regard.

Schematic diagram of a survey telescope| Figure from Reference 1 What exactly did the experimental module experiment with? The complete Tiangong space station includes two experimental modules, so what experiments will be carried out in these two experimental modules? Tiangong Space Station can carry a total of 25 experimental cabinets, which can enrich the experimental content.

It has been some time since the launch of the Wentian experiment module. You may have already understood the contents of Wentian's experiment. It is better to repeat it here.

The Sky Experiment Module is mainly for space life science research, which means that the Sky Experiment Module mainly focuses on the survival state of life in microgravity environment. The sky experiment cabin is equipped with experimental cabinets such as life ecology, biotechnology and variable gravity science, which can support the research on the response mechanism of growth, development, inheritance and aging of many kinds of plants, animals and microorganisms under space conditions, as well as the experimental research of closed ecosystem. Through various online detection means such as visible light, fluorescence and microscopic imaging, it supports the multi-level biological experimental research of molecules, cells, tissues and organs. It can also provide variable gravity simulation from 0.01g to 2g, supporting the comparative study of organism growth mechanism under different gravity conditions.

For example, rice and Arabidopsis thaliana were planted in the life ecology experiment cabinet of the sky experiment cabin, and we met in the "Tiangong Class." I don't know. Have you paid attention to the Heavenly Palace these two days? How are they growing?

Plants in Space| The picture comes from the space teaching dream sky experimental module, which is mainly aimed at microgravity scientific research, paying more attention to the changes of some basic physical laws in microgravity environment. Mengtian experimental module is equipped with experimental cabinets in multi-disciplinary directions such as fluid physics, materials science, combustion science, basic physics and aerospace technology experiment, supporting the research on the essential laws of multi-phase flow and phase change heat transfer under gravity cover, basic combustion process, material solidification mechanism and other cutting-edge experimental research on ultra-cold atomic physics.

At the same time, Mengtian experimental module will also establish the world's first set of space cold atomic clock group composed of hydrogen clock, rubidium clock and optical clock on the basis of Tiangong-2 space cold atomic clock, constitute the time frequency system with the highest frequency stability and accuracy in space, and carry out cutting-edge scientific research such as gravitational redshift and fine structure constant measurement.

What has the space station been doing for the past two days? A: It's changing.

Don't get me wrong, space stations aren't Autobots, they don't run on wheels. The deformation here actually refers to the spatial position adjustment of the sky and core module and the sky experiment module.

First consider a question, in spite of Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and Shenzhou manned spacecraft, what shape is the space station in space.

When there was only the sky and the core module, this was not a problem at all, because there could only be one shape.

But after asking the sky, the combination of the two cabins can have different shapes. They will be arranged in the word "one" and the word "person" at one time. Cough cough, wrong, can be arranged in a "one" shape, can be arranged in an "L" shape.

In fact, usually, the sky and core module and the sky experiment module are arranged in a "one" shape, but now, they are ready to welcome the sky above the dream, so they will adjust to an "L" shape. After the docking of the dream sky is completed, the three modules will become a complete "T" shape, which is also the complete body of the Tiangong space station.

Schematic diagram of the whole process of on-orbit assembly of Tiangong Space Station| Figure from ref. 1 how big is the celestial palace?

Finally, it came to this topic. How big was the Tiangong Space Station? I can say that, after my calculations, Tiangong Space Station is probably bigger than my dormitory. Of course, that makes sense.

In fact, compared with the International Space Station, you can almost see the Tiangong Space Station at a glance, this is also true, but people can not be anxious, the current space station is actually enough, moreover, Tiangong technology is more advanced, more mature.

International Space Station configuration| In terms of mass, the Tiangong 3 module weighs about 69 t, and the ISS weighs about 423t. Although the gap is obvious, we should also realize that the structure of the International Space Station is unreasonable because it is built by many countries. After removing the truss, the total mass of the residential module is about 327t. As for the slots allocated to each individual country, even fewer are available. For example, the total mass of the American portion is only about 110t.

On the other hand, electricity generation is also a very important dimension. The International Space Station is not as efficient as the Tiangong Space Station. For example, the International Space Station's power-to-mass ratio is 0.26 kW/ t, while Tiangong's reaches 0.41 kW/ t. An obvious result is that although the International Space Station is so much larger than the Tiangong Space Station and its total mass is almost six times that of Tiangong, the International Space Station carries only 31 experimental cabinets, not much more than the 25 experimental cabinets of Tiangong.

Later, when we have time, we can talk about the black technology on the Tiangong space station.

Back to the beginning of the question, what are the living conditions of astronauts? Don't worry, this will reveal the answer. According to the data, there are 6 permanent astronauts on the International Space Station, and the total active volume is about 388m³. We have three astronauts, and the total active volume is about 110m³. If calculated at a height of 3m, the volume of the Heavenly Palace is equivalent to about 36 square meters of a room. It's a lot bigger than a 20-square-meter dormitory.

Seeing this, is it reassuring to the astronauts 'living conditions?

Even the Heavenly Palace had come, could the Heavenly Court still be far away?

The last question is, Heavenly Palace. As its name implies, this is only a palace. If it is bigger than a palace, it should be the Heavenly Court. After all, there is no Heavenly Court. The various immortals and gods we know have no place to live, although I usually don't care about them.

Therefore, the Heavenly Palace had already been built. When would the Heavenly Palace begin construction?

Actually, this wasn't a joke. The Tiangong space station does have expansion plans.

Tiangong space station in the program design phase on the future expansion of the overall consideration. On the basis of the existing three-compartment configuration, mechanical, electrical and thermal expansion interfaces are reserved, and the expansion capability of expanding and docking three new compartments to form a six-compartment assembly of about 180 t is provided. At that time, Tiangong plus will have six astronauts stationed, with a total activity volume of about 240m³.

Schematic diagram of six-segment expansion configuration of space station| According to this trend, the Heavenly Court may be really possible. After all, the so-called Heavenly Court is just a palace area. A few more "Heavenly Courts" and a courtyard are not the Heavenly Court.

Heaven in Film and Television Works| The picture comes from the end of CCTV TV series "Lotus Lantern." I wish the launch of Mengtian Experimental Module a complete success!

References:

[1]Wang Xiang, Wang Wei. Summary of key technical characteristics of Tiangong Space Station [J]. Science in China: Technical Sciences, 2021, 51 (11):1287-1298.

[2]Zhang Qian. Why do you want to go to the space station to do experiments [N]. China Youth Daily, August 8, 2022 (008).

[3]Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft will create multiple "first" missions to complete the construction of Tiangong Space Station [J]. China Military to Civilian, 2022 (12):6-7.

[4]Is the Chinese space station too small?

[5]Arabidopsis thaliana, rice, wheat, space station plants are growing how?

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ID: cas-iop), Author: Mu Zi

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