Space station work and life are not wrong (Building a dream “Space House”-China Space Station Construction Notes ⑥)
“The brightest star in the night sky”, have you seen it? In the past few days, the sky and core modules of the Chinese space station have frequently passed through the border, attracting astronomy enthusiasts from all over the world to observe and shoot, and see the beautiful figure of “Heaven Harmony”.
In the core module of Tianhe, three Chinese astronauts have been living and working for nearly a month-food, clothing, housing and transportation are orderly, and the core module feels more and more at home; the first time out of the capsule was completed successfully. Success, a series of technological breakthroughs were unveiled…
Fitness facilities are complete
Recently, a video of astronauts “decorating” the sanitary area of the space station has made people more interested in life in space. In the video, astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Yang Hongbo carefully studied the installation instructions, and personally started the “renovation” to assemble the facilities in the sanitary area one by one.
From the necessary sanitary areas and independent sleeping areas for space life, to distinctive exercise areas and dining areas, the in-vehicle activity space of the Tianhe Core Module has increased from 15 cubic meters on Tiangong-1 to 110 cubic meters for the entire station.
In the fitness area, there are space bikes, space treadmills, resistance exercise devices and other facilities in the core cabin. Unlike treadmills on the ground, the space treadmill adds a gravity simulation device that can apply a certain pressure to restrain the astronauts on the treadmill. In this way, astronauts can exercise in an environment equivalent to normal gravity, which not only exercises skeletal muscles, but also stimulates bone reconstruction by compressing bones, effectively coping with a series of effects of weightlessness on the human body.
Space bikes can stimulate the astronaut’s heart rate threshold by increasing the intermittent or sprinting motion state, and increase the cardiovascular regulation ability. When pedaling, astronauts need to wear special respirators to strengthen cardiopulmonary function, and there are special upper limb exercise mode devices to increase the effect of whole body exercise.
Whether on earth or space, scientific fitness is very important. In the video sent back from the space station, Nie Haisheng took off the gravity simulator after a 15-minute run in space and massaged his calf to relieve muscle fatigue.
Carrying out daily life care, physical exercise, and regular monitoring, maintenance and evaluation of their own health status are one of the important tasks of astronauts. It is understood that each astronaut needs to exercise for about two hours a day to prevent “space diseases” such as cardiovascular dysfunction, bone decalcification, and muscle atrophy.
Lifestyle “very earth”
In terms of space food, the Tianhe core cabin is equipped with more than 120 kinds of space food with meat and vegetables, balanced nutrition, rich variety, good taste and long shelf life. Breakfast includes bread and porridge, as well as sauces of radish, braised quail eggs and other delicacies; lunch includes fried rice, pork chops, potatoes, beef soup, etc., as well as specialty food dumplings; dinner includes tuna, rapeseed, shiitake mushrooms… plus fruit, Astronauts don’t have to worry about not having enough food in space, such as chocolate and biscuits.
In addition, the dining area is equipped with food heating, refrigerating and drinking equipment, as well as folding tables to facilitate astronauts’ dining. In the video released not long ago, many people followed the three astronauts to experience the addiction of eating and broadcasting in space.
A separate sleeping area is designed in the space station to ensure that astronauts are not disturbed and enjoy relatively high-quality sleep. Although they still have to rest in a sleeping bag, the astronauts do not have to “stand up and sleep” as before, but can “lie down and sleep” at ease.
Except for some special tasks to be completed at night, the rest time of astronauts is mostly the same as that on Earth. Huang Weifen, chief designer of the astronaut system of China’s manned space project, said that the ground staff will go to work at 8 am, and the astronauts will also communicate their work plans for the day at that time. Before getting off work at 8 or 9 every night, Tiandi will also conduct routine communication on the work of the day and tomorrow.
Bathing in space is also a problem. Although it is not possible to shower or bathe like on Earth, astronauts can wipe their bodies after heating wet towels. When washing your hair, put a shower cap on your head and rub it with a disposable shampoo. At the same time, there is a “wrapped shower room” in the space station, in which the astronauts can use the spray gun to wash the body and wipe it clean.
Outside of work, the astronauts’ rest life is also colorful. Full coverage of “mobile WiFi” is realized in the space station, creating a smart home living space. Every astronaut has a handheld terminal, which can adjust the lighting environment in the cabin according to personal needs, such as sleep mode, work mode, sports mode, etc., and adjust the mood through the changes in the cabin light to avoid being in a monotonous environment for a long time Coming discomfort. In addition, astronauts can also make video calls and instant access to mobile terminals to enjoy online life on the space station.
Communication between heaven and earth is very convenient
On July 4, after about 7 hours of exiting activities, the astronaut crew successfully completed the scheduled missions during the exiting activities, marking the complete success of the first astronauts exiting during the space station phase.
Whether it is out of the cabin or the work and life in the space station, it is inseparable from the vigorous coordination between the world and the close cooperation inside and outside the cabin. Especially during exiting activities, it is particularly important to establish high-speed and timely communication with the ground. This is a major test of the communication capabilities between the space station’s space station and the core module and the ground monitoring and control station.
The third-generation relay terminal product developed by the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, through the establishment of relay links with relay satellites Tianlian-1 and Tianlian-2, realizes relay communication and ensures the real-time smooth communication between astronauts and the ground. It is like building a “skyway” between the ground and the relay satellite, and between the relay satellite and the astronauts in space.
The biggest difference in design between the space station relay terminal and other models is that in order to ensure a long service life in orbit, it needs to be maintainable in orbit. For this reason, the space station relay terminal adopts an integrated and modular design idea, which is convenient for astronauts to maintain and replace while ensuring the quality of the transmission signal. Compared with the previous generation system, this product has the characteristics of longer communication distance, higher communication speed and longer working life. It also has stronger anti-electromagnetic interference ability in the space environment, and supports multiple astronauts when they are out of the capsule at the same time. Call function.
The robotic arm is awesome
During the exit activity, the manipulator of the core module of the space station was eye-catching, and the ability of the astronauts to work with the robot arm was demonstrated in the exit activity.
The core module manipulator is currently the most complex, largest, and most precise space intelligent mechanical system among similar aerospace products. It is mainly responsible for the transposition of the cabin, the astronaut’s exit activity, the handling of extravehicular cargo, the inspection of the extravehicular condition, and the cabin. Eight types of on-orbit tasks such as the maintenance of large-scale external equipment.
The unfolded length of the manipulator in the core module of the China Space Station is 10.2 meters and can carry a weight of up to 25 tons. It is the “Hercules” in the space station. As a new field of China’s aerospace development, researchers have made breakthroughs and innovations in key technologies, raw material selection, manufacturing technology, and long-life design adapted to the space station environment during the development process, and all core components have been made domestically.
According to experts, the robotic arm has 3 joints on the shoulder, 1 joint on the elbow, and 3 joints on the wrist. Each joint corresponds to 1 degree of freedom, just like a human arm, with seven degrees of freedom. The ability to move. Through the rotation of various joints, the robotic arm can grasp and operate at any angle and position of its own front, back, left, and right, which provides a strong guarantee for the astronauts to successfully carry out the mission.
In order to expand the reach of the mission, the robot arm of the core module of the space station also has a “crawling” function-the robot arm of the core module adopts the joint configuration scheme of “shoulder 3 + elbow 1 + wrist 3”, and the shoulder and wrist joint configurations are the same, which means The movable functions of both ends of the robot arm are the same. The robot arm is docked and separated from the target adapter through the end effector, and at the same time cooperates with the joint movement of each joint, so as to realize the crawling transfer on the cabin.
Liu Yao
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