In 2021, China's aerospace industry has ushered in another year of rapid progress, and has made significant achievements in the fields of manned spaceflight, Mars exploration and lunar exploration. Today we will come to the "pan a plate" since the past year, China's aerospace has made ten major achievements.
There is a "palace que" in heaven:
China has officially entered the era of the space station
On April 29, 2021, the Core Module of the Chinese Space Station Tianhe was successfully launched. Subsequently, it docked with the Tianzhou-2 and No. 3 cargo spacecraft, the Shenzhou-12 and 13 manned spacecraft, and a total of 6 astronauts were stationed successively, marking the official entry of China's aerospace into the era of the space station. According to the scheduled plan, the Tiangong space station will also usher in two experimental modules and several Tianzhou/Shenzhou docking missions in 2022, so as to complete the entire construction.
Schematic diagram of the Tiangong space station
(Source: People's Daily)
On September 21, 1992, China's manned spaceflight project officially began. 29 years of unremitting exploration have gradually made a series of romantic names such as "Long March", "Shenzhou", "Tianzhou" and "Tiangong" gradually become a reality. Nowadays, China finally wants to have its own "Heavenly Palace Que", and the "Heavenly God" astronauts can travel freely between heaven and earth, so that the ancient flying myth of Chinese civilization can shine from dream to reality!
There are "gods" in the sky: the space station application has reached new heights
The construction of the space station is a milestone event that appeared after the development of human manned space technology to a certain extent, and it is the pinnacle of human industrial civilization. It can promote the development of aerospace and even many related manufacturing industries, and is the only way for the technological development of any space country.
The Tiangong space station is not only of great significance to the project, but also of great significance to improving the overall level of science and technology in China. Compared with the previous manned space missions mainly to achieve technological breakthroughs, the Tiangong space station has reached the stage of "great harvest" of technological investment, emphasizing the value of scientific exploration and practical application, and creating a "space laboratory" for China to explore the universe. Therefore, the first year of Tiangong operation also witnessed the rapid progress of China's manned spaceflight and scientific applications.
The Shenzhou 12 astronauts successfully completed their first outgoing activities
(Source: Manned Space Office)
For example, the astronauts of the Tiangong space station have achieved four difficult outbound walks, each lasting 6-8 hours, much longer than the 20-minute outbound walk breakthrough achieved by Shenzhou VII in 2008. And Wang Yaping also took the "first step" for Chinese women to enter space. At present, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu are stationed in space, and they expect to work for about six months, which will surely break the record for the longest stay of Chinese astronauts.
In addition, the space station has also achieved a number of technological breakthroughs such as rapid rendezvous and docking, radial docking, etc., which has greatly enhanced the performance of related technologies. In terms of specific applications, the type and number of scientific experiments on the space station will also far exceed the sum of all previous missions. In terms of aerospace science, the "space classroom" of space interaction between heaven and earth has also planted the seeds of spaceflight in the brains of hundreds of millions of students.
Zhu Rong "Xia Fan": The Chinese Vulcan set foot on Mars
On May 15, 2021, after a 296-day journey in space, the Zhurong Mars rover and its landing combination carried by the Tianwen-1 Mars rover successfully landed in the southern part of the utopian plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, achieving an unprecedented major breakthrough in China's aerospace history: Tianwen-1, which became China's first artificial Mars satellite; Zhurong, becoming China's first Mars rover (Mars rover). Zhu Rong, derived from the name of the "Vulcan" in ancient Chinese mythology, successfully set foot on Mars!
Zhu Rong poses with Mars taken by a separation camera on the landing platform
(Source: China National Space Administration)
At present, Zhu Rong has exceeded the scheduled three-month working time and is still working normally on Mars. It has traveled more than 1400 meters, and each step is a new record in the history of Chinese aerospace exploration on Mars. Zhu Rong is also continuously sending various scientific research data revealing the mysteries of Mars to the earth, and has also become a model of international scientific research cooperation, conducting on-orbit communication relay tests with the ESA Mars Express mission, and realizing the "space handshake" between China and Europe on Mars.
Xihe took off, and China entered the era of sun exploration
On October 14, 2021, China successfully launched the first solar exploration science and technology test satellite "Xihe". Its important mission is to study the only precious star that human beings can rely on, the sun, and to deeply understand its magnetic field origin and evolution, the acceleration and propagation of high-energy particles and other important physical processes, so that China has officially entered the era of sun exploration.
Xihe Tanri art renderings
Xihe is the name of the mother of the sun god in ancient Chinese mythology, and it is romantic to use such a special name to describe a satellite that explores the origin of the sun. In addition, the protagonist of another solar myth, "Father Kwa", is also in the making, which will be a solar observatory facing the sun 24 hours a day, revealing the sun's every move.
Xihe Tan sun, Quao's father chasing the sun, is a new myth written in the process of Chinese aerospace research on the sun.
Thousands of rivers and mountains are just waiting for idleness,
The Long March rocket launch broke records
In 2021, China's rockets achieved a total of 55 launches, not only ranking first in the world, but also helping human spaceflight to break the record for the highest rocket launch in history. Among them, the number of launches of the Long March series rockets exceeded 400, and 48 arrows and 103 spacecraft were implemented throughout the year, and the launch mission set a new annual record.
China's strongest rocket in service, the Long March 5
(Image source: Tea-tia)
The Long March series of carrier rockets took 37 years from the 1st to the 100th; to the 200th, it took another 7 years; to the 300th, it took more than 4 years; and to the 400th, it took only more than 2 years. In the intensive launch mission in 2021, the shortest interval between the two launches is only more than 4 hours, and it has achieved a continuous victory of intensive implementation of 4 missions in 7 days. With the rapid increase in the number, the quality and quantity of the launched payload are also rising, which is the most direct proof of China's rapid development in spaceflight.
The name of the Long March rocket comes from Mao Zedong's famous poem "Seven Laws and Long March", written in October 1935, when the Long March was not completely over. The poem describes the spirit of the Red Army during the Long March, which is not afraid of hardships and bravely marches forward, and the most famous sentence is the beginning of the sentence "The Red Army is not afraid of expeditions and difficulties, and thousands of rivers and mountains are only idle." In the future, the Long March will continue to march!
The long seven armor returned, and the Long March rocket was historically expanded
After the setback of the initial launch, the Long March 7 A (A) rocket finally returned on March 11, 2021, and made a new contribution on December 23, 2021! The Long March 7 A rocket is an extension of the Long March 7, absorbing the advantages of the gold medal rocket Long 3 B and realizing the three-stage and half configuration. Changqijia whole arrow completely uses non-toxic safety propellant, focusing on high-orbit tasks, its transport capacity, especially the synchronous transfer orbit capacity, has increased to 7 tons, filling the gap in China's geosynchronous transfer orbit between 5.5 tons and 7 tons of carrying capacity.
Close-up view of the Long March 7A rocket before launch
(Source: Aerospace Science and Technology Group)
Changqijia adopts the design concept of "generalization, serialization and combination", which is easy to achieve mass production and high-density launch. It also tested the Ka-band 6M satellite data space-based measurement technology for the first time, directly to the skylink relay satellite, greatly reducing the dependence on the Yuanwang space survey ship, and will gradually open a new era of Long March rocket telemetry.
Space Beacon, "Heavenly Chain" links heaven and earth
Earth's rotation is a huge obstacle to telemetry for space missions, and when spacecraft cannot be observed by ground and sea telemetry stations, they enter communication blind spots. To this end, our solution is to build a signal relay path linking heaven and earth above the equator at a height of 35,786 kilometers, like a "space beacon", so that information exchange can be carried out unimpeded.
Behind the smooth progress of the "Tiangong Classroom" is the escort of the Tianlian series of satellites
(Image source: CCTV)
China's relay satellite communication system, its name is "Tianchain". After several years of construction, the Tianchain-1 system finally came to an official end on July 6, 2021. At the same time, the Tianlian-2 system has also been successively launched, and a series of upgrades have been carried out on the basis of the previous one. Students can participate in the "space classroom" unimpeded, astronauts can use super "space Wi-Fi" in space, and Long March rockets and spaceships can travel freely in space, all of which are inseparable from the hard work of Tianchain behind the scenes.
Wonderful continues,
The Chang'e lunar exploration has achieved more historic breakthroughs
Chang'e-3 allowed humans to land on the moon again after a gap of 37 years, Chang'e-4 made humans land on the far side of the moon for the first time, and Chang'e-5 allowed humans to obtain lunar samples again after a gap of 44 years. At present, more exciting breakthroughs are still continuing.
The Chang'e-5 orbiter is still roaming in space
In 2021, China Aerospace released for the first time a sample of 1731 grams of lunar soil obtained by Chang'e-5 and distributed the research to domestic and foreign scientific research staff. Since Chang'e-5's launch and control situation is almost perfect, and its orbiter part still has a large amount of propellant balance, it began to complete various difficult "additional problems".
After sending the lunar soil sample back to the vicinity of the earth, it crossed the ecliptic plane of the earth's orbit around the sun at 13:29 on March 15, 2021, and successfully reached 1 o'clock in the Sun Lagrange, which is the first time that Chinese aerospace has completed this task! For now, it is still traveling in deep space.
Not only that, but Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2 are still working overtime behind the moon, revealing the mysteries of the never-visible lunar surface (due to tidal locking, most of the surface behind the moon can never be seen on Earth).
Heavy weapons have begun to appear, and the future of manned moon landing can be expected
China's existing manned spaceflight mainly relies on Long March rockets (2F, 5, 5B, 7), Shenzhou spacecraft, Tianzhou spacecraft and Tiangong space station, but they are far from enough for future manned moon landings and deeper space. China has determined that a manned lunar landing will be carried out in the future, and a series of preparations are ready, such as the successful test flight of the new manned spacecraft test ship, and the new manned rocket and the heavy carrier rocket have entered the intensive research and development stage. The new model rocket has become the focus of manned moon landing.
Prototype of a new rocket engine
(Source: China Aerospace News)
If you want to do something good, you must first use it, and the core of the rocket is the engine. In 2021, the 220-ton replenishment cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine of the heavy carrier rocket completed the first engineering prototype, which was brilliantly unveiled in the 11th Institute (Beijing) of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, marking the successful completion of the development of the key stage of the engine. Perhaps the significance of the long march 5 is the strongest rocket in service in China, and its core liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen engine YF-77 has a thrust of about 70 tons in a vacuum, "only" about one-third of the new model engine. Although the thrust of the new engine is three times, the difficulty of development and technical complexity can be much more than three times.
Multi-faceted blossoming, China will go farther into deep space
In 2021, the number of rocket launches of humanity has already exceeded the highest point during the Cold War, which also indicates the official arrival of a new space era. The opportunities of this era may far exceed the significance of the former age of navigation, the era of land power and the age of aviation to the current powers of the world, and as a Chinese nation that has suffered greatly but is now in a great rejuvenation, we cannot miss this opportunity.
China's planetary exploration will be a huge solar system exploration program
At present, China's aerospace industry is still making further steady progress. It is expected that in 2022, China's aerospace will continue to maintain high-frequency rocket launches. China and Russia also issued a high-level joint statement on cooperation in the construction of an international lunar research station, which means that the two sides will join hands to set foot on the moon. Chang'e 6, 7, 8 and other Chang'e lunar exploration phase IV missions have also been officially approved. The China National Space Administration also officially announced that China will implement the near-Earth asteroid sampling return and main-belt comet orbital detection mission around 2025 to achieve near-Earth asteroid orbit detection, attachment and sampling return; around 2030, the implementation of Mars sampling and return mission; in addition, jupiter orbit detection and planetary travel exploration mission will also be implemented.
It can be said that this is an era of stars and seas, and Chinese astronauts are this group of tidemakers who ride the wind and waves. They not only let a series of Chinese myths shine from dreams into reality, but also constantly created new space myths in this corner of the universe.
bibliography:
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