On October 12, the third lesson of “Tiangong Classroom” was held at the Chinese Space Station. Shenzhou 14 flight crew astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe gave a wonderful space science class.
What are the noteworthy “firsts” created by the new “Tiangong Classroom”?
Teaching in Wentian experimental cabin for the first time
In July this year, the Wentian experimental module of the Chinese space station was successfully launched and rendezvoused with the core module assembly. Subsequently, the Shenzhou 14 astronaut crew entered the Wentian experimental module to carry out work. This “Tiangong Class” is the first time that Chinese astronauts have taught in the Wentian experimental cabin.
“Tiangong Classroom” opens a new “classroom”, and the Wentian experimental cabin is naturally the key content of the lecture. During the lecture of about 50 minutes, three new “space teachers” introduced and demonstrated the working and living scenes of the space station’s Wentian experimental module, demonstrated the capillary effect experiment in a microgravity environment, the water polo becoming “lazy” experiment, the interesting drinking water in space, Magical phenomena such as a wrench that can turn its head, and vividly explain the scientific principles behind the experiment. During the lecture, the astronauts also conducted real-time interactive exchanges with the teachers and students of the ground classroom through video calls, and the ground classroom experts also carefully analyzed the relevant scientific issues.
The “classroom” of “Tiangong Classroom” is bigger. As the second of the three modules of the Chinese space station, the Wentian experimental module is the first experimental module of the Chinese space station. The experimental capability in the capsule has been doubled compared with the core module, and it has powerful space science experimental capabilities.
The experimental projects of the Wentian experimental cabin are mainly based on life science and biotechnology research. The cabin is equipped with scientific experimental cabinets such as life ecological experimental cabinets and biotechnology experimental cabinets. Science and other fields study the basic scientific laws and mechanisms under various space environment elements, pay attention to the growth and development of life and human health, and explore a series of scientific issues faced by human beings for long-term space survival.
At the same time, in terms of platform function positioning, the Wentian experimental module and the Tianhe core module are mutually backup, the key platform functions are the same, and the space station combination has unified management and control capabilities.
In the “Tiangong Classroom” lecture, astronauts Chen Dong and Liu Yang introduced and demonstrated the experimental facilities such as the scientific experimental cabinet in the Wentian experimental cabin. For example, the “space hotel” of animals and plants – life ecology experiment cabinet; “automatic” small biological laboratory – biotechnology experiment cabinet; “grip” gravity environment variable gravity experiment cabinet, etc.
First demonstration of plant science experiment operation
The third lesson of “Tiangong Classroom” also demonstrated the scientific experimental operation of the plant research project of the space station for the first time.
“I have grown lettuce on Tiangong No. 2, and recently tasted lettuce grown by Cai Xuzhe.” During the lecture, Chen Dong put on the first mixed reality glasses in the space station, and used the science glove box to test the growing in space. Arabidopsis for sample collection.
In the growth box, Arabidopsis thaliana at different flowering stages controlled by gene regulation were planted in each planting hole. Chen Dong put the cut Arabidopsis into a cryopreservation tube. He introduced that after all samples are collected, they will be placed in a low-temperature storage area of minus 80 degrees Celsius. When returned to Earth, the samples will be handed over to scientists for study.
As Liu Yang said in “Tiangong Classroom”, “The study of the growth of animals and plants in space will help us to achieve long-term life on the moon and even Mars in the future”. How to use plants to ensure the food, oxygen and pure water that humans need to survive in the extraterrestrial environment has become the most concerned issue of space life science.
Zhao Liping, a researcher at the Space Application Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the chief designer of the Wentian experimental module of the manned space engineering space application system, said that the Arabidopsis and rice seeds brought to the Chinese space station by the Wentian experimental module are growing well. Rice conducts research on the cultivation of the whole life cycle of “from seed to seed” on the space station.
Bringing Arabidopsis and rice into the space station is very representative. According to Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Arabidopsis and rice are two types of plants. Among them, Arabidopsis represents dicotyledonous, long-day, and cruciferous plants, and greens, rape, etc. belong to the cruciferous family; rice represents monocotyledonous, short-day, and grass plants, and grain crops such as wheat and corn belong to the grass family. Undergraduate.
Zheng Huiqiong expressed the hope that through research, the key environmental parameters of rice cultivation will be obtained, which will provide important theoretical guidance for further analyzing the impact of space microgravity on rice growth and development and using rice for space food production. At the same time, through transcriptome analysis, the expression of key genes in the flowering pathway of Arabidopsis and rice and the changes in their regulatory networks were compared in the spatial environment, and the molecular mechanism of flowering in long-day and short-day plants under spatial microgravity was analyzed. It provides a theoretical basis for further creating crops adapted to the space environment and developing and utilizing space microgravity environmental resources.
More “First Time” Expectations to Unlock
Behind a short “Tiangong Classroom”, the sweat of many people is condensed. According to Chen Zheng, a member of the “Tiangong Classroom” teaching expert group and associate professor of Beijing Jiaotong University, experts from many fields participated in the “Tiangong Classroom” lesson preparation, including aerospace system experts, college teachers and researchers, and primary and secondary school teachers. Before the class starts, the astronauts will repeatedly test to ensure the effect of the experiment, and feedback the test results to the expert group on the ground to confirm and communicate the content of the experiment.
From the first space lecture in 2013 to the first “Tiangong Class” in December last year, with the construction of the space station, the Chinese space teaching activities have become larger and larger in scale, richer in content, and more and more images and pictures. more stable and clear.
It is understood that in order to ensure the smooth progress of the “Tiangong Classroom”, the measurement, control and communication subsystems on the space station efficiently facilitate real-time classroom interaction. The measurement, control and communication subsystem is equipped with image and voice acquisition and communication equipment. These equipments can collect the pictures and sounds of the astronauts teaching, record the actual situation of the classroom, and transmit it to the ground through the communication equipment.
At the same time, the Beijing Space Information Transmission Center called the “Tianlian No. 1” 03 star and the “Tianlian No. 2” 01 star to provide space-based measurement and control and data relay services for the Chinese space station complex, and build an “information sky road to and from the sky.” ”, providing stable and reliable data transmission support for the smooth progress of space teaching.
At present, the construction of the Chinese space station has entered the final stage. According to the plan, before the end of the year, four missions, including the Mengtian experimental module, the flight of Tianzhou 5, the flight of Shenzhou 15 and the return of Shenzhou 14, will be implemented to complete the construction of the space station. According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, during the construction and operation of the space station, the “Tiangong Classroom” will continue to carry out space teaching activities and provide various forms and rich content of space science education.
When will the next “Tiangong Class” start? With the launch and docking of the Mengtian experimental module, will “Tiangong Classroom” open a new “classroom”? When the Shenzhou 14 and Shenzhou 15 astronauts work and live on the space station at the same time, will the team of “space teachers” continue to grow? For the wonderful “Tiangong Classroom”, people have more expectations.