Science and Technology Daily reporter Ye Qing
The picture of the three astronauts returning to the earth smoothly, still heat transfer.
Not long ago, the "Space Eating and Broadcasting" in which the Shenzhou 12 astronauts were working and eating apples also attracted people's attention. The netizens with wide-open minds asked directly: "Where do you throw the apple core?"
In the weightless environment of space, food residues produced by astronauts’ diet and daily life will float in the air. If improperly handled, they are extremely perishable and produce volatile gases, endangering the astronaut’s working space and living environment.
Therefore, food residues such as apple cores are packed into vacuum storage compression bags. avoids floating residues, bacterial growth, and affecting the safety of equipment and astronauts.
This time, more than 400 vacuum storage compression bags accompanied the astronauts on a "business trip" to space. "This is also the 10th time that Taili's vacuum storage compression bag has been in space." said Wang Zhenchang, chief engineer of Guangdong Taili Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Taili). It takes more than 3000 experiments to'lift off' smoothly."
No bacteria grow after 1 month of unblocking
From " Tiangong-1" to " Shenzhou 12", there are all The figure of Taili vacuum storage compression bag. The "Shenzhou 12" astronauts lived in space for 3 months. The vacuum compression bag used was large in quantity and variety, and each one had to be specially customized according to its purpose. "Including compressed bags for residual food packaging, compressed bags for residual articles, and compressed bags for clothing, etc., vacuum packaging is to prevent the spread of bacteria and avoid affecting the living environment of astronauts." Wang Zhenchang said.
When the capsule is airtight and weightless, the bacteria's reproduction capacity is 80 times that on the ground. For this reason, the Chinese astronaut research and training center (hereinafter referred to as the astronaut center) decided to use a storage device in the spacecraft to handle the residual food of the spacecraft . The storage device needs to be easy to use under weightless conditions, does not increase the burden on astronauts, and can inhibit bacteria for a long time, and does not grow bacteria after one month of unsealing.
"The vacuum storage compression bag specially developed for the space environment has very strict requirements on the barrier property, puncture resistance, and aging resistance of the material." Wang Zhenchang said, "lift-off" small vacuum storage The compression bag can not only contain the residual food stuffed by the astronauts, but also the floating objects that the astronauts can't see. They are all inspected before they are delivered to the astronauts to ensure that they are foolproof during use.
"Transformation" has undergone layers of technical tests
In order to "lift" the storage bag, the Taili research team has overcome numerous technical problems. Photo courtesy of the interviewed unit
The transformation from a daily vacuum compression storage bag to a special vacuum compression storage bag for aerospace has to go through layers of technical tests.
In September 2008, Taili and the Astronaut Center signed a contract agreement for the disposal of residual food supplies for China's spacecraft. Although the research and development in the field of vacuum technology is what Taili is good at, it was facing tremendous pressure at that time.
"Before that, all we produced were civilian products, and the production standards were relatively less stringent and had a certain fault tolerance rate. Aerospace products were completely different, and the difficulty of production was increased countless times, and it was necessary to ensure that the products were 100% qualified. "Wang Zhenchang said.
The weight of the manned spacecraft is strictly limited. For every additional gram of weight, the spacecraft will increase the risk and cost, which is difficult to estimate. Therefore, the weight of residual food processing products must also be reduced to a minimum, accurate to the gram.
Wang Zhenchang bluntly said: "The standard is there,But you never touched it. You don’t know where the product has problems, and in which direction it can be improved. If you want to break your head, you can’t even think that we can only continue to explore and move forward.
In order to conquer the "lift-off" storage bag technology, on the basis of the more than 400,000 yuan allocated by the Astronaut Center, Taili Chairman Shi Zhengbing spent more than 1 million yuan to build a high-standard laboratory, equipped with vacuum testing and Testing equipment.
As a qualified raw material was not found on the market, Wang Zhenchang led the team to the supplier’s factory to order it and sent it for inspection again and again. The unqualified products continued to look for and continue to research.
Due to the lack of detailed data support, it was not possible to pass the review of aerospace experts. "We realized that due to the special requirements of materials and technology in the product, it is difficult to conduct many tests due to the limited strength of one family. "Wang Zhenchang and others found Sichuan University, Harbin Institute of Technology and other colleges and universities, and combined several efforts to complete the project inspection.
After unremitting efforts, in October 2009, the product passed 3000+ simulations of the space environment. After the first inspection, the acceptance was finally completed. Taili's vacuum compression storage bag product has officially started the "lift-off" journey. Up to now, there have been 10 experiences in space.
Editor: Zhang Shuang
Review: Wang Xiaolong
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