In recent years, China's aerospace industry can be said to have made a number of major breakthroughs, in addition to carrying out lunar exploration projects, but also completed the task of space station construction. Among them, on the Tiangong space station, in addition to having a core capsule and a cargo spacecraft, it is also equipped with a mechanical arm. This robotic arm has a length of about 10 meters and has seven joints, which means that it has seven degrees of freedom, which is really extremely flexible.
It is worth noting that the Chinese mechanical arm once completed the space grasping test, first separating the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft from the core module of the Tianhe, and then the mechanical arm successfully lifted the cargo spacecraft. The core module node is then moved to the central plane, and after a reverse operation, the cargo spacecraft and the core module are successfully docked and relocked. On the surface, this is a Chinese space station, or a Chinese robotic arm showing muscles above a height of 10,000 meters, but in fact, it shows the "high level" of China's robotic arm, and the information expressed behind it is definitely not simple. Presumably, everyone must have remembered the incident of the two Starlink satellites of the United States approaching the Chinese space station in succession, and if it were not for the Chinese space station to evade in advance, the consequences might be unimaginable.
Now that China's space robotic arm is carrying out grasping and lifting experiments, it seems that it is also warning the United States and Musk SpaceX not to think that The Chinese robotic arm does not have the ability to grasp and lift satellites. At the beginning, he chose to dodge, which was entirely in the security of the Tiangong itself. From the grasp test, it seems that the sealing cabin of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft carries about 4.6 tons of cargo, plus about 1.9 tons of propellant, and the overall weight may be about 7 tons. The maximum grasping capacity of the robotic arm developed by the mainland has reached 25 tons, which means that the grasping and lifting test seems to be only "pediatric" for the robotic arm. Of course, after the successful completion of the grasp and lift test, it was also to prepare for the docking of the Tiangong in the later space station modules of the Wentian and Mengtian space station.
Therefore, the Chinese space station publicly shows muscles, in addition to deterring Western countries, but also to ensure that the docking of the space station can be carried out smoothly after that. I don't know when Musk and NASA see the strength of the Chinese robotic arm, do they dare to let the Starlink satellites approach the Tiangong space station? It is not difficult to see that today's Chinese aerospace has achieved leaps and bounds in many fields, and even Western countries may be ashamed of themselves.
Of course, today's Chinese aerospace still has certain deficiencies in many fields, such as no heavy launch vehicles and no manned moon landing. However, with the announcement of the mainland's upcoming development of heavy launch vehicles, once successful. It means that China's manned moon landing and further exploration of Mars will also be on the agenda. At that time, I wonder how Western countries will feel?
(Text/Hua Qiang)