Detailed explanation of the first time Chinese astronauts manually "space building blocks" Three types of "space kiss" to help build the space station

Infographic: The final assembly operator inspects and cleans the "docking mechanism". Courtesy of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

On January 8, 2018, The title: Explain in detail the first time that Chinese astronauts manually "built blocks in space" three types of "space kisses" to help build the space station

Author Zheng Yingying Ma Shuaisha

After the United States and Russia, China is the third country in the world to independently master the rendezvous and docking technology. On January 8, 2022, Beijing time, in the distant space, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft once again "kissed" with the space station assembly, which is the fourth time that "Tianzhou-2" "kissed" since the construction of the Chinese space station. What is different from the past is that this rendezvous and docking test was completed by astronauts for the first time using hand-controlled remote operation equipment in orbit.

Rendezvous and docking, the technology of two spacecraft meeting in space orbit and joining a whole in structure, has been described as "space kiss" or "space building blocks". Only by breaking through the rendezvous and docking technology can we carry out the assembly and construction of the space station, provide material transportation docking, and personnel to and from space to and from space.

The reporter of China News Network interviewed Yuan Huiling, director of the subsystem of the docking agency of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, who is in the front line of ground flight control, to interpret the details of the first "hand-controlled remote operation".

"Autonomous driving" becomes "remote manual driving"

In this test, the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew, in close coordination with the ground scientific and technological personnel, successfully completed the rendezvous and docking test of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft and the space station assembly by means of hand-controlled remote operation in the core module of the space station.

What is "hand-controlled remote operation"? Yuan hui will understand that there are three concepts in this:

The first is "hand control", the original automatic rendezvous and docking method is automatically completed, this time it is the astronaut "driving" the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft close to the space station assembly. For example, just like driving a car, it was originally autonomous driving, and now it has been changed to manual driving.

The second is "remote", this time the astronauts are actually not on the cargo spacecraft, but in the core module of the space station, the astronauts through the remote way to "remotely drive" the cargo spacecraft to their own side.

The third is "docking", and the docking mechanism completes the connection between "Tianzhou-2" and the space station assembly.

"Tianzhou-2" docked three kinds of explorations four times

Since its debut in 2011, China's aerospace rendezvous and docking technology has gone through 11 years. In the past 11 years, China has successfully implemented 17 accurate and reliable docking. Since the construction of the Chinese space station began in 2021, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft has participated in rendezvous and docking four times. The four times are:

The first time: On May 29, 2021, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was successfully launched, and 6.5 hours later, it successfully docked at the rear-facing interface, completing the first docking mission of the Chinese space station.

The second time: On September 18, 2021, the "Tianzhou-2" successfully transferred from the backward pair interface to the forward pair interface through a 180-degree circumference, and once again achieved accurate docking, further verifying that the docking mechanism has the ability to reliably dock multiple times on orbit.

The third time, on January 6, 2022, after about 47 minutes of close cross-system coordination, the space station robotic arm translocation Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft test was a complete success, which was the first time that China used the space station robotic arm to operate a large orbiting vehicle for transposition tests.

The fourth time, on January 8, 2022.

Three types of "space kisses" help space stations assemble in orbit

According to Yuan Huiling, there are currently three ways of rendezvous and docking: automatic rendezvous and docking, robotic arm assisted rendezvous and docking, and astronaut hand-controlled rendezvous and docking, all three of which have been tested on the "Tianzhou-2", accumulating experience for the subsequent assembly and construction of Chinese space stations. Specifically:

Automatic rendezvous and docking, the control system automatically realizes the on-orbit rendezvous and docking process of the two aircraft, the system has high accuracy and the response is faster than manual operation.

The hand-controlled rendezvous docking is the "backup" of the automatic rendezvous and docking. In the case of the failure of the automatic rendezvous and docking mode, the astronaut can complete the close rendezvous and docking of the two aircraft through manual operation. Yuan Huiling said that from this point of view, the astronaut's "driving level" is very high, "at that time we looked at it, and when approaching, the conditions were well controlled." He further introduced that in fact, this is not the first time that China's aerospace has tested hand-controlled rendezvous and docking. On June 24, 2012, shenzhou 9 astronauts piloted the spacecraft to dock with the Tiangong-1 target vehicle. At that time, the hand-controlled rendezvous and docking had been verified, but the difference was that it was not a "remote" operation at that time.

Robotic arm auxiliary rendezvous and docking is another supplement, but also for later exploration, for example, once there is a problem in the rendezvous and docking process, it may be possible to hover the robotic arm to capture the aircraft, "grasp" the aircraft and let it lean over for docking. (End)