The staff of the Rocket Institute installed hoisting equipment. Courtesy of respondents
"Yesterday was the first full-process rehearsal, wednesdays and Fridays, and sundays are the official shows." On the morning of February 15, in the gap between the work of just finishing a meeting, Zhang Wenwen was interviewed by the Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter. By "performance," she means the closing ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
On February 4, at the moment when the main torch of the Beijing Winter Olympics was lit, Zhang Wenwen could not help but shed tears on the scene. "In two years, the hard work and dedication of the 'comrades-in-arms' flew through their minds like a movie." She described her mood at the time.
The Olympic Special Office of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (hereinafter referred to as the "Rocket Academy") of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, where Zhang Wenwen is located, has undertaken the technical support tasks of as many as 11 projects, including the stage, air facilities and ground display systems for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. "To put it in layman's terms, it's about using technology to turn the director's team's ideas into reality." She explains.
In addition to technical support, what astronauts brought to the Winter Olympics is the first initiative to manage industrial projects with the "space model" and the "space spirit" that shines for the country. Zhang Wenwen's circle of friends recorded the gradual reduction of the countdown to the Winter Olympics, from hundreds to a hundred, then to dozens, and finally to five, four, three, two, and one. Now, the countdown has ended, and Zhang Wenwen's Winter Olympic time is still in a tense and orderly manner.
The opening and closing ceremonies are "foolproof"
Speaking of the upcoming closing ceremony, Zhang Wenwen expressed her confidence in a unique way of technical people: "Judging from the entire closing ceremony process and the arrangement of the program, it is not like the opening ceremony, which has so many large-scale mechanical actions, and the risk is relatively small. ”
Action, risk, these are the keywords in the mind of the Special Staff of the Rocket Academy Olympics. In their own words, "The director and the cast are responsible for the wonderful, and we are responsible for the success or failure".
As an astronaut, it is not uncommon to deal with success or failure and risk. But the brightly lit Olympic opening and closing ceremonies may be even more challenging for them than the launch of rockets. "If the rocket launch encounters some special circumstances, we can also postpone it, choosing the next time window. However, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games cannot be postponed, and there is only a one-time display opportunity, so the pressure is still very large. The requirement for launching a rocket is foolproof, and the requirement for the opening ceremony is 'foolproof'. Zhang Wenwen told Shell Financial Reporter.
The execution of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games " ten thousand people and one gun" has amazed the world. The opening and closing ceremonies of this year's Beijing Winter Olympics did not adopt the "sea of people tactic", and the number of participants was only 20% of the time of the 2008 Olympic Games. The use of a large number of technical elements brings a full sense of science and technology, and at the same time, it also greatly increases the risk points faced by the special staff of the Rocket Academy Olympics who are responsible for the realization of technology.
Taking the stage as an example, the main stage of the National Stadium "Bird's Nest" itself is a giant LED screen, with an area of 10,552 square meters and composed of more than 40,000 LED modules. These screen high resolution, high refresh rate, waterproof, snowproof, antifreeze and other characteristics, but also let the guarantee maintenance difficulty coefficient double magnified, the amount of engineering is "2008 Olympic Games LED stage 10 times".
In the early test, there were occasional problems with individual screens, and after troubleshooting, the special office immediately "zeroed out" all the work in accordance with aerospace standards: all processes started from scratch, rolled over and restarted, and reorganized until all possible risk points were completely eliminated.
"Some of our downstream suppliers were very surprised by this 'zeroing' approach at the beginning, and did not understand why after a small problem occurred, they had to start all over again." Zhang Wenwen told Shell Financial Reporter that as the work progressed, they also began to realize that this is indeed a very scientific management method, and they are also ready to learn from the system management model of aerospace in future projects.
Astronauts become the bridge between technology and art
"China's aerospace can be said to represent the most advanced level of science and technology in our country at present. The closing ceremony of this Olympic Games is basically all about the realization of ideas through scientific and technological means. Talking about why China Aerospace Science and Technology Group can become a technical "grasp general" unit for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhang Wenwen told Shell Financial Reporter that the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics have a total of four performances, which require not only a product or a set of solutions, but a system project spanning more than ten professions.
In addition to the "heavy equipment of the country" such as the Long March series of rockets, the aerospace institute represented by the rocket institute has also worked for more than 40 years in terms of civil science and technology and application. Making space technology benefit people's livelihood is also what astronauts have been doing. However, the aerospace team, which is accustomed to hard technology, has also experienced the initial "pain" when facing the director team that is good at artistic effect creativity. Cao Ling, one of the technical support leaders of the Rocket Academy, found himself "almost nothing" after communicating with the director team for the first time.
A "Let's determine the specifications, shall we?" The answer to the question may be: "Here you want a crystal clear feeling." ”
There is no mission statement, no core parameters, the goal has changed, and the method must be "adapted to local conditions". Colleagues in the Olympic project found that there is a bridge between technology and art, and astronauts are the bridge in the middle. In the face of many tasks in 11 major items, the special team of the Rocket Academy for the Winter Olympics first formed a technical plan, carried out the development of the initial sample, and then communicated with the director team with the initial sample effect, and then iterated the program according to the communication results. "Initially, a plan had to be iterated more than 20 times, and then our plan could inspire the director and produce unexpected artistic effects." Cao Ling said.
The refreshing ice and snow five rings at the opening ceremony, in the original design, were originally designed to be hit on the five ring structure with light. However, how the illuminated five rings should present a glittering effect has always plagued the director team and the special task team. In the process of polishing the plan, the special task team proposed a bold "five-ring self-illumination" scheme, which designed the five rings as a giant display, which in turn could present any effect the director wanted to achieve. Thus, there is this 143 square meters of area, weighing 3.2 tons, the thickness of only 35 centimeters of ice and snow five rings, in the "bird's nest" rose up in the scene.
Technical battle: the stage accuracy error is controlled in the millimeter level
The hard work and sweat of the astronauts for the Winter Olympics is still hidden behind the scenes.
Under the LED stage in the "Bird's Nest", which has the largest area in the world, is a steel skeleton welded from a steel structure weighing about 5,000 tons and nearly 6 stories high, which supports the stage and hides key structures such as the ice cube. "A steel stage of this scale is stable enough to require a set of beams to be 'supported' on the side like an arm, but the bird's nest building structure is special and does not allow the construction of beams." Zhao Jinbiao, head of ground stage support, said.
Therefore, the staff took the method of measuring the elevation by square meter and testing the stability of the screen by block to weld the fixed steel structure. In the hot summer, under the scorching sun, the surface temperature of the steel structure reaches fifty or sixty degrees Celsius, the staff welds for several hours, and many people against the arms of the steel structure are scalded with blisters, which is to control the accuracy error of the world's largest stage in the millimeter level.
In the Winter Olympics, the strength of aerospace science and technology in the civilian field also ushered in a highlight moment. However, Zhang Wenwen, who is the head of the civil field of the Rocket Institute, admitted that when she accepted this task, "our first thought is that the Winter Olympics is such a major activity of the country, and at such an important historical node, astronauts can participate in and contribute their share of light and heat to the motherland." ”
Now, in front of Zhang Wenwen, in addition to the next three "performances", there are also the dismantling of the corresponding equipment and the restoration of the original appearance of the venue after all the activities. "Just like building blocks, when dismantling, it involves the whole body, in fact, demolition is more dangerous than the construction process." Ms. Zhang expects the demolition and restoration efforts to run until May. In addition to other matters, the Rocket Institute's Winter Olympics project is estimated to be completed in June.
It was not until another hot summer day came that the astronauts' Olympic journey in the name of ice and snow came to a complete end.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Xu Promised Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreader Liu Baoqing