As of March 2022, the Chinese space station has welcomed two groups of astronauts, Shenzhou 12 astronauts and Shenzhou 13 astronauts, Shenzhou 12 astronauts have safely returned to the ground as early as half a year ago, and Shenzhou 13 astronauts have also been stationed on the space station for more than 5 months, returning in mid-April.
Tianzhou 2 will disintegrate in the atmosphere
At this time, the Chinese space station had a new dynamic, at 15:59 on March 27, the Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft that had docked on the space station dock for 10 months left, which meant that the mission of Tianzhou 2 was over and would disintegrate in the atmosphere.
Under the control of the Beijing Flight Control Center, the Tianzhou 2 spacecraft chose the opportunity to re-enter the atmosphere, and the atmospheric friction made this multi-ton big guy quickly disintegrate, and finally burned to ashes. Tianzhou 2 is a cargo spacecraft that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, why destroy it at this time?
The Tianzhou 2 spacecraft has three major uses, which is an irreplaceable means of transport for the construction of the Chinese space station, transporting materials to the Chinese space station, verifying fuel replenishment technology and playing the role of the space station's garbage collection station.
Tianzhou 2 is the first cargo spacecraft to dock with the Tianhe core module, with a total length of 10.6 meters, a diameter of about 3.35 meters, and a solar wing spread of 14.9 meters, in May 2021, Tianzhou 2 delivered about 6.8 tons of supplies, 2 tons of fuel, and about 4.8 tons of supplies to the Chinese space station, including food, tools, instruments, and 2 sets of space suits.
When Shenzhou 12 returned to the ground with three astronauts, Tianzhou-2 separated from the backward interface of the Tianhe core module and flew around to the node module in front of the Tianhe core module, carrying out forward fuel replenishment for the first time.
Tianzhou 2 can not return to the ground, burning in the atmosphere is its fate, when it completes the transportation and fuel replenishment, it naturally becomes a "garbage recycling station" on the space station, specially used to store garbage, food packaging bags, discarded dirty clothes, sanitary waste, waste electronic equipment and so on.
Why destroy Tianzhou 2 at this time?
First, free up the interface to meet the new cargo spacecraft
The core module of the Chinese space station has a total of 6 pairs, 1 backward interface and 5 pairs located on the front node module, and the rear pair interface is specially used to dock cargo spacecraft to facilitate the transportation of materials and garbage.
Tianhe core module node module has 5 pairs of interfaces, in fact, this is not much, the upward pair of interfaces has been added escalators, has been changed to the entrance and exit of astronauts out of the cabin activities, left pair interface and right side interface, 2022 will usher in the sky experiment module and dream test module.
Simply calculated, there are still two idle pair interfaces left on the Chinese space station, the forward interface and the downward interface of the core module node, but in fact they are not idle, one interface is used to dock the Shenzhou manned spacecraft for a long time, if two groups of astronauts reside on the space station at the same time, then both interfaces must be used to dock the Shenzhou spacecraft.
Tianzhou 2 has been docked on the front interface of the core module node module until there is no separation, and now the Shenzhou 13 astronauts have entered the return preparation stage and plan to return to the ground in mid-April, which means that the launch of the Tianzhou 4 cargo spacecraft has entered the countdown to deliver supplies to the space station.
Before Tianzhou 4 arrives at the space station, the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft must be transferred from the backward interface to the forward interface, leaving the backward interface to Tianzhou 4, then the Tianzhou 2 spacecraft located on the forward interface must leave early.
Second, reduce the consumption of propellant
Now that the Qian Experimental Module and the Dream experiment module have not yet been launched, the Tianzhou 2 spacecraft can indeed choose to temporarily dock at the left interface of the front node module, or the right interface, but for every 1 ton of mass increased by the space station, the propellant consumption will increase by 1 point.
Third, there is no point in existence
The existence of the Tianzhou 2 spacecraft has little meaning, the Tianzhou 2 spacecraft does not have the ability to return to the ground, and can only be used as a garbage collection station for the time being, but now there is another garbage collection station - Tianzhou 3, which will soon usher in Tianzhou 4, and then use it as a garbage recycling station is redundant, and also occupies an interface.
The Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft is stored in the domestic garbage and work garbage, including "sanitary garbage", which will definitely emit a special smell over time, so it is better to destroy it early.
end
Although the Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft is a high-tech spacecraft, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it is not a pity to destroy it at this time, and its departure means that the Tianzhou 4 spacecraft and Shenzhou 14 will arrive soon, which means that the Chinese space station will enter the stage of comprehensive construction, which is a "happy event".
Shenzhou 14 launch is only a month away, Shenzhou 14 astronauts are ready, 10 choose 3, but for the time being has not yet announced the list, for the sake of rigor, to wait until the last few hours to announce, now what we can do is applaud China's aerospace, then look at who has a name in the list of Shenzhou 14 astronauts. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration
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