At 5:46 pm on April 30, the Dongfeng Landing Site once again welcomed Chinese astronauts who returned from a business trip in space. The crew of Shenzhou 17 landed safely. At the end of April this year, the core module of the Chinese Space Station has successfully entered orbit for three years and has begun its fourth year of journey. In the past three years, the Chinese Space Station has welcomed the visits of seven Shenzhou spacecrafts. The astronauts live in space, work and exercise, and conduct experiments. Today, three years later, when we welcome the return of the Shenzhou 17 crew , what does our space home look like, and what have the astronauts gained?
At 5:46 pm on April 30, the Shenzhou spacecraft once again returned to the ground from space on time and on time as planned, sending the three astronauts home. Just after returning to the ground, the three astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin opened their mouths and introduced every detail of their six-month business trip in space.
In half a year, the new knowledge they gained became valuable experience for the next crew. Before returning to Earth, the crew of Shenzhou 17 lived and worked together for five days with the crew of Shenzhou 18, which had just arrived at the space station. After the construction of the three-module complex of the China Space Station is completed, it has become a basic operation for six astronauts to be in orbit at the same time, each performing their duties, closely cooperating, and handing over tasks in person.
Zou Pengfei of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center: "The two flight crews, in accordance with the principles of performing their respective duties, close collaboration, and comprehensive handover, stay in orbit together, carry out relevant work as planned, and complete the status of the aircraft and materials. , continuity work and other handovers, as well as the sharing and exchange of flight experience between the two crews. "
Since Shenzhou-12, 7 crews and 19 astronauts have been stationed at the Chinese Space Station, and they have handed over the work very well. Grow up with the space station. The day before the crew of Shenzhou 17 returned, it was the third anniversary of the launch of the core module of the Chinese Space Station. In the past three years, the Chinese Space Station and Chinese astronauts have continued to set new records in space.
On March 2, 2024, with the cooperation and support of the space station's robotic arm and ground scientific researchers, astronauts Tang Hongbo and Jiang Xinlin opened the hatch and began the second extravehicular activity of the Shenzhou 17th crew. After the core module of the space station took off, each crew member has carried out extravehicular activities, but this time's extravehicular mission is different from the previous ones.
Wang Yanlei of the China Astronaut Scientific Research and Training Center: “The accuracy of astronaut operations and the proficiency of astronauts in using tools are relatively high. We also need to confirm the interaction between the ground and the sky to confirm whether our position is accurate. "
Tang Hongbo and Jiang Xinlin are going to carry out the first maintenance mission of extravehicular facilities of China's manned spacecraft in orbit. In space 400 kilometers above the ground, the robotic arm equipped with the Chinese space station will transport the astronauts to the designated location. The astronaut stabilized his body and started working at a flying speed of 7.9 kilometers per second.
Wang Yanlei of the China Astronaut Scientific Research and Training Center: "After the astronaut operations are completed, it is necessary to determine whether the maintenance work has met expectations, so this confirmation work will increase a lot of steps and links."
Solar energy similar to steel plates in the past The solar panels are different. This time the astronauts need to repair the solar wing. For the first time, its solar cells adopt a flexible design. They are thin and light. The single wing is 12.6 meters long and 5.3 meters wide. It looks like it grows on both sides of the core module. The large wings on the side provide a steady supply of energy to the Chinese space station. As the space station orbits for longer and longer, some tiny particles in space may have an increasing impact on the entire space station. The thin and large solar wing has become one of the most susceptible parts.
Considering that the space station will operate in orbit for more than ten years, some parts that are easily affected by the space environment have been prepared for replacement as early as the space station design stage.
Cheng Lei from the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group: "Each battery on our solar cell wing is a small independent individual. If each battery is dropped or hit by space debris, short circuit or open circuit failure will not occur. Affects the power generation function of the entire solar panel. "
The maintenance plan designed on the ground needs to be verified in the space environment. In 2023, the Shenzhou 17 crew successfully completed the maintenance test when it left the spacecraft for the second time. cabin and began formal maintenance.
After the Tianhe core module took off on April 29, 2021, the China Space Station flew from a single module to the docking Wentian experimental module, and then greeted the Mengtian experimental module, forming a T-shaped configuration. Today, entering its fourth year in orbit, the overall condition of the Chinese space station is stable, and some indicators are much better than when it was originally designed.
The smooth flight of the space station creates a stable environment for the conduct of various scientific experiments and experiments. While the Shenzhou 17 crew was in orbit, they carried out 84 on-orbit practical experiments for space applications and generated more than 200 experimental samples. On the day of the return of the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft, nine more packages filled with scientific experiment samples were brought back to Earth, some of which were quickly returned to Beijing.
html In the early morning of May 1st, in Beijing Space City, the hall on the first floor of the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center Building of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was brightly lit. More than 20 scientists were waiting here for experimental samples that had just returned from space a few hours ago. A total of 32 samples were delivered to scientists overnight, all of which were life science experiments completed by the Shenzhou 17 crew in space. For life science experimental samples, maintaining low temperature is the key to whether the sample has scientific research value in the end, so each sample is wrapped in layers.
Can the samples wrapped in layers meet the needs of scientists? After the brief handover ceremony, the scientists immediately unpacked, weighed and measured the temperatures of the experimental samples in the laboratory.
Zhang Chunling is a Ph.D. from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Among the samples brought back this time, there are more than 20 proteins carefully selected by them. After growing in a microgravity environment, some proteins need to be grown in a temperature range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. Save it to ensure that it will be active when you return and you can continue to study it.
Zhang Chunling, Ph.D., Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: “It is mainly some protein samples closely related to the field of disease and health, including viruses, some key proteins of norovirus, and some proteins that may be used as drug targets in tumors. , in order to obtain more accurate and high-quality crystal structures in space to provide more accurate technical parameters for new drug development and vaccine design. "
Among many scientists, Hu Yanting is the busiest. He kept going back and forth, putting the samples that had just arrived in his hands into the refrigerator to refrigerate. Hu Yanting's samples are human osteoblasts. These cells were tested in the microgravity environment of space in a biotechnology experimental cabinet under the care of the Shenzhou 17 crew. After retrieving the samples, scientists want to observe the changes in these cells to find the mechanism of changes in human bones in space.
Hu Yanting, associate professor at the School of Life, Northwestern Polytechnical University: "Osteoblasts are cells that produce bone. In the space environment, based on our previous research, we found that the activity of osteoblasts is reduced. So this time I want to see Comparing the sky and the ground, can there be similarities to verify each other? Regarding the bone loss of astronauts, how to combat the loss state? Moreover, bone loss occurs more seriously in the elderly, so for these special groups on the ground "It is also a state of fighting against loss."
Monitoring and continuous research on the status of astronauts in space is one of the most important scientific experiments since the construction of the Chinese space station. Starting from the God-Twelve Crew, aerospace medical experiments have been continuously expanding in response to the physical and psychological changes of astronauts after long-term flights in space. It ranges from the beating of cardiomyocytes in space to the process of extravehicular activities, from the changes in muscles and bones in a microgravity environment to the impact of the space environment on the body and behavioral abilities.Astronauts use themselves as experimental subjects and accumulate increasingly rich in-orbit data.
Zou Pengfei, China Astronaut Research and Training Center: "The field of aerospace medicine has gained understanding of the impact of long-term flight on health and behavioral abilities under my country's security system, and has explored new technologies for rapid improvement of mental fatigue and alertness. In terms of aerospace traditional Chinese medicine , and also explored related intervention technologies such as on-orbit health assessment and acupoint stimulation, and initially built a knowledge base in the field of aerospace medicine."
Before the return of the Shenzhou 17th spacecraft, the Chinese space station had implemented more than 130 scientific research and applications in orbit. Project, when the six manned spacecraft from Shenzhou 12 to Shenzhou 17 returned, a total of more than 300 scientific experiment samples followed the astronauts back to the ground. These experimental samples have promoted research and development in more fields.
Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson of China Manned Space Engineering and deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering Office: "The conduct of these space experiments, as well as the scientific research carried out after the samples were downloaded, have involved more than 500 domestic and foreign scientific research institutes. Important results have been achieved in space life science, aerospace medicine, space material science, microgravity fluid physics, etc., and through promotion, transformation and application, more important scientific and technological and economic benefits will gradually be achieved.” After the handover, the Shenzhou 17 astronauts successfully returned to Earth, and China's manned space exploration has taken another solid step. Every return of astronauts is not the end, and this exploration is far from over. Scientists on the ground will take over and study and analyze the precious samples they bring back. This chorus of synergy between heaven and earth is still going on.
editing丨Lu Yujia Wang Gang Wang Xiaodan
videography丨Zhang Geping
editing丨Zheng Yu Zhao Yunlong
