On the 31st of this month, my country will launch the third cabin of " Tiangong ", which is the "Mengtian" experimental cabin. After "Mengtian" is successfully connected and successfully transferred, the first phase of the project of my country's space station will be fully completed. This "Mengtian" experimental cabin will be equipped with a dedicated cargo airlock compartment and the installation location of the deployable off-cabin experimental platform. Its design and performance exceed that of the "Hope" experimental cabin in International Space Station .
Mengtian Experimental Cabin, the small block is the installation location of the expandable off-cabin experimental platform
Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian three cabins
Interestingly, the original design of "Mengtian" was not like this. The aerospace department initially prepared to install the equipment of the "Sky Survey" optical cabin on "Mengtian", forming an internally liftable space telescope . However, considering the impact and contradiction of the vibration during the operation of the space station on the telescope's accuracy, it finally chose to separate the space telescope and become the "Sky Survey" optical cabin that flew with the space station.
In the red box is where the sky patrol telescope was originally planned to be deployed
. The construction of the "Sky patrol" optical cabin was directly published online from the beginning, including the early black "skeleton", the sample cabin, and the physical objects first disclosed in July. All of them all released pictures one by one. Recently, "set-up" photos appeared. It seems that they have been made, reflecting the high transparency of my country's aerospace. Its latest launch time has also been advanced from 2024 to December 2023, which means that it will take almost a year to see our own large space telescope enter orbit.
Some people think that the "skeleton" of the sky inspection is black
Some people think that the sky inspection is earthy, like boiler
This is what the sky inspection is now, is it still soil? The mission of the "Sky Survey" optical cabin is to explore the accelerated expansion of the universe, the essence of dark energy , the attributes of dark matter , and test the cosmological model, gravitational wave source corresponding body, 3D structure, astronomy measurement, as well as the formation and evolution laws of stars, black holes, galaxies, quasars , internal and external planets, etc. I wonder if I can turn around and observe the earth?
Sky Survey is a powerful tool for studying the universe
. When it comes to the "Sky Survey" optical cabin, many people always like to compare it with the "Webber" telescope, but "Sky Survey" is not the infrared telescope . As a large visible light telescope, or a 2-meter-level off-axis three-inverted telescope, it belongs to the same category as " Hubble ". Of course, our "Sky Survey" field of view is more than 300 times larger than that of "Hubble" (some say it is more than 200 times larger). In layman's terms, "Huber" can only see one star place, and "Sky Survey" can see more than 300.
Webber is another type of space telescope
Hubble is the same type of
Many data on the Internet say that the "Sky Survey" launch weight is 15.5 tons, the maximum diameter is 4.5 meters, and the height is about 9 meters, which is equivalent to 3 floors. But in fact, "Sky Survey" also has a thruster of about 5 meters, with a combined height of about 14 meters, far exceeding the 11 tons of "Hubert". It is precisely because of this propulsion cabin that the correct name for "sky patrol" should be the optical cabin, not just the space telescope.
The sky patrol consists of two parts
The reason why it needs to add a propulsion cabin to the "Sky Cruise" is because it adopts a unique companion flight method to "format" with the "Tiangong" space station. It usually comes forward separately and needs maintenance and replenishment of fuel, it flies back to the space station and connects to the forward interface of the node cabin. This orbital control capability is not available to "Hubble", and "Hubble" only has the attitude control capability. I wonder if the "Sky Survey" can upgrade the track by itself and climb to a higher track for scientific exploration?
Sky Survey Docking Space Station
length reaches 14 meters
. The current embarrassment of "Hubble" highlights the superiority of "Sky Survey" design.Since the retirement of the space shuttle , the "Hubble" deployed in an altitude of 559 kilometers has been in a state of disrepair. For example, in October this year, it fell into a state of shutdown again due to internal communication synchronization failure of scientific instruments, and NASA could only watch.
Hubble was originally maintained by the space shuttle
Fortunately, Musk's "Dragon" spacecraft is expected to carry out the "Polaris Dawn" space tourism mission in March next year, when a private astronaut will complete a spacewalk for the first time. Since the orbital height of the "Dragon" spacecraft space tourism is about 500 kilometers, NASA is asking SpaceX company to use this folk space walk to help repair the "Hubble" telescope.
The first folk spacewalk of the Dragon Spaceship may repair Hubble
, and our "Sky Survey" optical cabin does not have this trouble. Since it comes with a propulsion cabin, it can fly back to the space station by itself and be maintained by robotic arm . If there are parts that require precise maintenance, they can also be brought into the cabin by the astronaut, and then out of the cabin and put them back in after the incident. It is worth mentioning that the "Sky Patrol" optical cabin can also choose not to fly back, and send a spaceship directly on the ground to dock with it alone. Isn't this equivalent to two space stations?
I am a happy plumber
Astronaut repairs sky patrol imagination video
This is indeed a fine living
Astronauts will be maintenance engineers in the future
In short, the "Sky patrol" optical cabin is an innovation in the history of human aerospace. However, it is just the beginning. After it, our larger space telescopes, including lunar orbit and lunar base, deep space, and "Webber" PLUS, are all being planned and developed.
Web PLUS, there will be
