On Tuesday morning, the "Long March 5 B Yao-4 Rocket/Mengtian Experimental Cabin Combination" left the vertical assembly plant under the lifting platform of the event. After about 2 hours of vertical transfer of the "Cabine-Arrow Combination" successfully arrived at the 101 launch station of Wenchang Aerospace Launch Site. Next, various functional inspections and joint testing before launch will be carried out as planned. It is expected that the launch mission of will be carried out at the end of this month.
Long March 5 B Yao-4 rocket is in position at the 101 launch station
Long March 5 B rocket is 53.7 meters long, equivalent to a 19-story height, core stage diameter 5 meters, bundled with 4 3.35-meter diameter boosters, fairing has a diameter of 5.2 meters, take-off weight 837.5 tons, take-off thrust about 1078 tons, and low-Earth orbit capacity is greater than 22 tons.
Looking up at the angle, feeling the big
Long March 5 B takeoff stage power: 8 YF-100 liquid oxygen kerosene engines + 2 YF-77 liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen engines
This type of rocket uses the unique "one-stage and half configuration" , that is, 4 boosters are bundled with a core stage, and the boosters are calculated as "half-stage". It has high innate reliability. All main power of the rocket is ignited at the takeoff stage, and the number of separations between stages is small. This also means that the core stage must be full. From ignition and takeoff to separation of the cabin and arrow, the YF-77 hydrogen and oxygen engine needs to work for nearly 490 seconds, and it also needs to adapt to the working environment in the inner and outer space of the atmosphere, as well as the direct and accurate orbital technology of large thrust. The vacuum thrust of the two YF-77s before separation of the cabin and arrow can reach 140 tons, which is rare in the world and requires accurate control of the shutdown time.
arranged two Long March 5 B missions in the "key technology verification stage" and "on-orbit construction stage" of Tiangong Space Station. It should be pointed out that the Long March 5 B, which carried out the " new generation manned spacecraft test ship " launch mission two years ago was the first launch of the key technology verification stage of the space station . After that, two arrows of Yao Er and Yao San successfully sent the Tianhe core cabin and the Wentian experimental cabin into orbit.
Three months ago, the Long March 5 B Yao3 rocket successfully sent the Wentian Experimental Cabin into the predetermined orbit.
Long March 5 B Yaosi will also be the 9th launch of the Long March 5 series of rockets. After success, it will set a new record for the series of rockets "seven battles, seven consecutive victories, and consecutive victories" after success.
In terms of the total length of the arrow, Long March 5 B is not as good as Long March 5 , but the former is nearly 21 meters long, which is almost twice the length of the latter. Such a large fairing is rare in the world. Such a large fairing is built to carry the same huge space station section.
intuitively feel the large 5-B fairing of the long five-B fairing
Mengtian Experimental Cabin with an axial length of 17.9 meters and a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters. It is divided into three parts: work cabin, multi-function experimental cabin, and resource cabin. The axial length of the
working cabin is roughly the same as the working cabin in the Tianhe cabin and the large column section of the Tianhe cabin, mainly because the size envelope constraints of the Long March 5B rocket fairing are consistent. Some column sections of the fairing can gradually decrease by envelopes above 10.6 meters from the lower end surface, and the gradually reduced size of the fairing is used to accommodate cabin sections with smaller diameters, such as the small column section of the Tianhe cabin, the airlock cabin and resource cabin of the Tianhe cabin, and the multi-functional experimental cabin and resource cabin of the Dream cabin .
Mengtian Experimental Cabin Three-cabin label
Thirty years ago, the manned spacecraft project had the development concept of "Manned for the construction of the website, and website building as application" . "Application" is to conduct large-scale scientific experiments based on the inside and outside space provided by the space station, which requires the support of a series of scientific experimental facilities and equipment.
Currently, the scientific experimental cabinets that are known to be equipped with the working chamber of Mengtian Experimental Cabin include fluid physics experiment cabinets, two-phase system experiment cabinets, combustion science experiment cabinets, high-temperature materials science experiment cabinets, ultra-cold atomic physics experiment cabinets, high-precision time frequency experiment cabinets 1, high-precision time frequency experiment cabinets 2, online maintenance and installation operation cabinets, and 3 general experimental cabinets, a total of 12 scientific experimental cabinets.
Tiangong Space Station has a total of 25 scientific experimental cabinets deployed in the third cabin of Tiangong Space Station. The first cabin of Mengtian Experimental Cabin accounts for nearly half of the scientific experimental cabinets. This shows that this cabin can be "the core carrier of the on-orbit scientific experimental work of Tiangong Space Station."
Mengtian Experimental Cabin with 8 experimental cabinets with scientific research directions
Mengtian Experimental Cabin can deploy so many scientific experimental cabinets mainly because a large amount of infrastructure construction of the space station is undertaken by Tianhe core cabin and Wentian Experimental Cabin. The Mengtian Cabin work cabin does not require the deployment of sleeping areas, bathrooms and other living facilities. System-level backup is also in Wentian Experimental Cabin, so there is sufficient space to deploy experimental facilities.
Mengtian Experimental Cabin is also full of extra-cabin experimental resources. This is the responsibility of , the "multi-functional experimental cabin" close to the working cabin. The cabin deploys an in-orbit expansion exposure experimental platform in the third quadrant facing the zenith side and the first quadrant facing the earth side. After the in-orbit expansion, three exposure experimental platforms can be provided (two expansion platforms and one fixed platform).
multi-function experimental cabin 3 exposure experimental platform
multi-function experimental cabin in addition to providing an extra-cabin experimental platform, it is also equipped with the largest "cargo dedicated airlock compartment" , which has been the largest human being. The cabin is equipped with a large diameter rectangular inner door and a curved outer door, which can support at least 1.3 meters in width and size cargo passes (the diameter of the cargo airlock compartment door of the International Space Station is 0.8 meters), which is larger than the 1-meter diameter door of the Wentian cabin airlock compartment. At the same time, a cargo transfer mechanism is installed in the cabin. Combined with the robot arm , the automatic entry and exit of cargo can be realized. Based on this function, it can also support the in-orbit release of small satellites.
Mengtian Experimental Cabin Underwater Training Cabin, the large opening in the picture is the hatch exit of the cargo airlock cabin. The huge on-orbit support capabilities of
work cabin and multi-function experimental cabin make the Mengtian experimental cabin’s experimental cabin “really deserved”.
Mengtian Experimental Cabin has the same configuration as that of Wentian Experimental Cabin. It has an independent posture and orbital control power system, as well as an propellant storage box. Sun Wing is also an ultra-large flexible sun wing with a wingspan of more than 55 meters in a secondary manner.
double-degree of freedom ultra-large flexible sun wing is also the standard configuration of the Dream Sky Cabin
Dream Sky Experimental Cabin will be launched into orbit and will conduct rapid rendezvous and docking with the forward pairing interface of the Tianhe Core Cabin. After completing a series of in-orbit testing tasks, in-orbit transposition will be carried out, and the forward pairing interface will be transferred from the forward pairing interface to the second quadrant lateral docking permanently. At that time, the Wentian Cabin and the Dream Sky Cabin will form an opposite layout configuration with a span of nearly 40 meters, and the sun wings of the two cabins will operate in the minimum light occlusion mode. The large span formed by the opposing layout of
plays a role similar to the truss structure of the International Space Station
After completing the three-cabin in-orbit assembly task, Tiangong will have more major events worth looking forward to. The opposite layout of the Wentian cabin and the Mengtian cabin is beneficial to the large double-degree-of-freedom sun wings of the two-cabin cabin, but the two cabins will block the sun wings of the Tian and the core cabin. Therefore, we plan to implement the core cabin sun wing in orbital index mission , and the robotic arm assists the astronauts outside the cabin to remove the sun wings of the core cabin and transfer it to the short truss interface of the Wentian experimental cabin and the Mengtian experimental cabin to install. In this way, the sun exposure rate of the three-cabin sun wings of the Tiangong cabin will reach a maximum value, making the power supply capacity of the space station more powerful.
robotic arm assists astronauts to transfer core cabin solar wings
However, the disassembly and assembly of the solar wings not only tests the core cabin solar wings ability to collect and unfold in orbit, but also a severe test for the astronauts' off-cabin operation capabilities. Once this mission is completed, our astronauts' out-cabin mission capabilities will reach a big step.
After the third cabin of Tiangong Space Station is assembled on orbit, will also deploy 4 large-scale expansion experimental platforms . The installation locations are the second quadrant and the fourth quadrant of the large pillar section of Tianhe core cabin, the fourth quadrant of the fourth quadrant of the work cabin of Wentian experimental cabin, and the second quadrant of the work cabin of Mengtian experimental cabin. The large-scale expansion experimental platform will be carried by the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft equipped with open cargo holds.
Large-scale expansion experimental platform
In addition, from the beginning of the design, Tiangong Space Station has been benchmarking the maximum 180-ton in-orbit scale , which means that we are also prepared to expand the other three cabins, specifically, launching Tianhe 2 core compartment III and experimental cabin IV. The Tiangong Space Station will transform from the current three-cabin T-shaped configuration into a six-cabin dry-shaped configuration, plus the patrol optical cabin and docking spacecraft, thus forming a 180-ton configuration of seven cabins and multiple ships. After the second phase of
Tiangong is in place, the space station can support 3 to 6 astronauts to stay in orbit, and the number of rotations in orbit can support up to 12 astronauts to be in orbit at the same time. The number of scientific experimental cabinets will reach or even exceed 50. The application support capacity will significantly exceed the so-called international space station, and it can produce more than 2,000 scientific achievements every year, further helping industrial upgrading and the rapid development of space technology .
Six-cabin "dry-shaped configuration"
Speaking of this, let's look at the Mengtian Experimental Cabin. This cabin is the third 20-ton large cabin section of the Tiangong Space Station. Its name "Mengtian" is now well known. However, nine years ago, it was not "Mengtian", but was named "Sweepingtian" . This name is based on the design and deployment of the spacecraft optical telescope of this spacecraft. In other words, the original Mengtian Experimental Cabin and the spacecraft optical cabin were together.
Experimental Cabin II was originally named "Sky Survey"
Experimental Cabin II was originally planned to deploy "Sky Survey Telescope"
However, there are irreconcilable operational contradictions between the Sky Survey Optical Telescope and the space station, such as vibration environment, direction requirements, and interference from excess objects. Researchers suggested that, with the support of national strength, the Sky Survey Optical Cabin was finally independent and operated in orbit with the space station. This also liberated the Mengtian Experimental Cabin, allowing the cabin section to deploy a large number of on-orbit scientific research facilities and equipment.
Now the "Cruise Optical Cabin" is a single cabin
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the manned space flight project. Thirty years ago, not to mention the 180-ton seven-cabin multi-ship configuration, or the three-cabin T-shaped configuration that is about to be realized now, it is an unimaginable luxury. The space station we planned at that time was not like this now, but a medium-sized space station with only a 20-ton core cabin. Such a space station is at best the large Salute No. 7.
Space Station Early Conception Picture
Tiangong Space Station was credited to which it was able to create such brilliant historical achievements? It can only be attributed to the people, because only the people are the real driving force for creating history, and because of the hard work and dedication of the people, they can have strong national strength to realize their dreams in the sky. I think this is the reason why the final work of the first phase of the Tiangong Space Station, "Mengtian Experimental Cabin II", was named "Mengtian".
