CCTV news: At 6:59 a.m. on January 6, after about 47 minutes of close coordination across the system, the space station's robotic arm transposition cargo spacecraft test was a complete success. This is the first time that China has used the space station robotic arm to operate a large orbiting vehicle for transposition tests.
How is the Tianzhou-2 transposition test conducted?
The transposition test of Tianzhou-2 was completed by the mechanical arm on the core module of Tianhe. First, the robotic arm crawls two days in advance to the berth located near the node capsule in preparation for the transposition test. After that, capture the Tianzhou-2 by capturing it.
Shi Jixin, overall deputy chief designer of the space station of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group: At this time, I used the mechanical arm to push the cargo spacecraft to unlock first, unlock it and let it rotate, turn it back after turning, do a rendezvous and docking again, and then pair it (the cargo spacecraft) again.
The "Flat Shoulder Elephant" is cleverly designed to ensure structural stability
According to experts, in the process of transposition test, one end of the robotic arm is connected to the core cabin and the other end is connected to Tianzhou-2, which is like "a flat shoulder carrying two elephants", such a structure is very unstable and may cause damage to the mechanical arm. Therefore, the researchers have cleverly designed the transposition test.
Shi Jixin, overall deputy chief designer of the space station of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group: First of all, first of all, stand it up. After standing up, first turn 90 degrees, in the orbital plane is the smallest windward plane flight, so that the aerodynamic disturbance is minimal. After standing up, like a pendulum, the entire cabin is stable in gravity gradient, that is, no matter which direction it flips, it will eventually stay on the vertical axis.
The transposition test is an important step in assembling and building the space station
The space station is not a one-time launch, but needs to be assembled and built in space by multiple launches. Follow-up we will also launch two experimental modules, experts said that in order to ensure that the subsequent experimental module can be smoothly docked with the space station, technical verification needs to be done in advance, and the transposition test of Tianzhou-2 is for this purpose.
Shi Jixin, overall deputy director of the space station of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group: If the transposition is unsuccessful or there is no such function, the entire scale may be limited. This process is actually a technology that must be broken through in the construction of the space station.
After completing the transposition test, the next step of Tianzhou-2 will be to cooperate with astronauts to complete the manual remote control operation test, that is, the astronaut controls the cargo spacecraft in the core module, and then carries out manual remote control evacuation and docking tests.
Source: CCTV