The landing of the Return Capsule of the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft uses 1 main parachute, the landing of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft return module also uses 1 main parachute, and the Landing of the American Manned Dragon Spacecraft uses 4 main parachutes.
On April 16, the significance of the victory of the Shenzhou 13 astronauts is extraordinary, representing that the Chinese space station has perfectly passed the technical verification stage and is about to enter the rapid construction stage, in 2022, the Chinese space station will once again usher in 6 spacecraft, two manned spacecraft, two cargo ships and two scientific experiment modules, which is exciting to think.
Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu have entered the medical isolation period and rehabilitation period, and will not appear for the time being, but the three astronauts of Shenzhou 14 are about to appear, and it is expected to meet with you in mid-May, they will become the "new weather vane" of China's space station construction, and the list of Shenzhou 14 astronauts is very hotly discussed.
Have you seen the live broadcast of the return of Shenzhou 13? When the return capsule landed on the Dongfeng landing field, there was only a very large main parachute, and because the wind reached level 5 at that time, the return capsule hanging under the parachute kept shaking, and Zhai Zhigang in the return capsule said such a sentence: "Dangling leisurely."
In fact, there are 4 parachutes in the return capsule of Shenzhou 13, including guiding parachutes, deceleration parachutes, main parachutes and spare parachutes.
Looking back at the details of the Shenzhou No. 13 return capsule parachute throwing, after crossing the 5-minute black barrier to a height of 10 kilometers, the parachute started, first opened the "guiding umbrella", the guiding umbrella is also called "conical belt umbrella", because it is "hollowed out", only the size of the dress, the role is to bring the deceleration parachute out.
The parachute is also called "conical band parachute", is the second open parachute, its role is to decelerate, the deceleration parachute exists for only a dozen seconds, but the role played is very huge, the speed from 200 meters per second to 90 meters per second, the main parachute officially debuted after the reduction parachute cut.
The main parachute, also known as the ring parachute, covers an area of 1200 square meters, which is almost equivalent to the area of three basketball courts, and the area is large, so its resistance is large, and the speed is reduced from 90 meters per second to 7 meters per second. If there is a problem with the main parachute, resulting in too fast landing speed, then at an altitude of 5 kilometers, the return capsule system automatically opens the backup umbrella, which adds another layer of support for astronauts.
On March 30, the Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft departed from the International Space Station and successfully returned to the ground 4 hours later, according to the footage at the time of landing, the Soyuz MS-19 return capsule also used a large main parachute, similar in shape to the main parachute of the Shenzhou spacecraft, and the size was also very close, but the color was different.
Looking around the world, there are only three countries in the world that can produce manned spacecraft, China, Russia and the United States, let's take a look at how the US spacecraft manned spacecraft, that is, the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft, there are pictures showing that when the Dragon spacecraft returns to the sea, there are 4 main parachutes.
What's going on? One parachute can be solved, why use 4 parachutes, is it that the US space technology is not as good as China and Russia?
On November 8, 2021, the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft named "Endeavour" carried 4 American astronauts back to Earth in the dark of night and splashed into the sea, so the American search and rescue personnel launched a search and rescue operation in the dark, and quickly rescued the 4 astronauts from the sea.
According to the photos taken by the infrared camera, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft used 4 parachutes, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft's parachute technology followed the American Orion return capsule landing technology, the Orion return capsule main parachute was three, and the number of Manned Dragon spacecraft parachutes was only increased from 3 to 4.
The orion return capsule parachutes each have a diameter of about 34 meters and an area of about 900 square meters, and the total area of the main umbrella is 2700 square meters. At present, it has not been found how big the four parachutes of the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft are, but I personally believe that it should be about 2700 square meters, and the reason why the area is larger than the mainland is because the dragon spacecraft return module weighs 6.1 tons, and the Shenzhou return capsule weighs 3 tons.
The four parachutes of the SpaceX manned dragon spacecraft can reduce the speed to 7 to 8 meters per second, see no, whether it is the 4 main parachutes of the American spacecraft, or the 1 main parachute of the continental Shenzhou spacecraft, the role played is used to slow down, so the American aerospace is not inferior to people, in fact, it is a higher skill.
Where is the return capsule using 4 parachute technology? 4 parachutes to open at the same time is obviously more difficult than a parachute to open, the number of parachutes is larger, the most feared problem is that the parachutes are entangled with each other, so the technology is high here.
Why do American spacecraft use 4 parachutes? This is because after the 4 parachutes are opened at the same time, the stability of the return capsule is definitely better than that of 1 parachute, even if it encounters strong winds, it will not be too much of a swing, and the comfort level of the astronauts must have improved a lot.
However, the difficulty of opening 4 main parachutes at the same time is large, then it is easy to have problems, on November 8, 2021, there was a small problem with the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft parachute, 3 parachutes opened normally, and the other 1 parachute opened 75 seconds late, wasn't it opened at the same time, why did it open at night? SO NASA launched an investigation. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration