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Unexpectedly, 52 years later, the Dongfanghong-1 satellite is still flying in the sky?!
If someone hadn't actually photographed it, I wouldn't have believed it to be honest.
Just a few days ago, a video of "century with the frame" made netizens collectively break through the defense:
△Image source: Tencent Video
In the video, the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite passes by the Chinese space station, launching two artificial celestial bodies that are nearly half a century apart and "looking at each other" in the night sky.
Some netizens lamented the miracle of the gathering of two "stars" separated by half a century:
But what surprised more netizens was that the "Dongfanghong No. 1" was still in the sky:
After all, the first artificial satellites launched by the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan in the same period have all crashed due to various reasons such as orbit and power.
The significance of "Dongfanghong I" itself does not need to be repeated, it is the first artificial satellite on the mainland. As the "one star" in the "two bombs and one satellite", it carries the dreams and original intentions of several generations of astronauts.
The launch of "Dongfanghong I" marks the beginning of China's exploration of space.
After this, the development of the mainland's aerospace industry has "blossomed and scattered" all the way --
Sun Jiadong, chief designer of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite, became the chief designer of the mainland's first lunar exploration project, opening the road of lunar exploration and deep space exploration on the mainland;
Qi Faxuan, one of the technical leaders of the "Dongfanghong I" satellite, served as the chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, and the mainland began to write history in manned spaceflight;
Chen Fangyun, chief designer of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite measurement and control system, became one of the founders of the Beidou satellite navigation system;
……
But in fact, the "Dongfanghong I" satellite, which has been flying in space for 52 years, was originally developed on the basis of almost nothing from theory to industry.
More than 5,000 people, on the basis of 200 million yuan of funds, used pens and abacus to complete the whole process of satellite design, production, manufacturing and launch step by step.
For the first time in the universe, there was a voice from China
In 1970, for the first time in the universe, there was a voice from China.
The successful launch of China's first artificial satellite, Dongfanghong I, opened a new era in China's space history.
Because the satellite emits the song of "Dongfang Hong" to the world in space, it is named "DongfangHong I".
It weighs 173 kg and is a spherical polyhedra with a diameter of 1 m and is equipped with four 3 m long whip antennas.
After the satellite lifted off, it orbited the ground for 114 minutes, transmitting telemetry parameters and scientific detection data while playing the song "Dongfang Hong" at a frequency of 20.002 MHz.
Today, China's annual Space Day is set on the day of launch - April 24.
But looking back at the development of Dongfanghong No. 1 from 0 to 1 at that time, everything was so difficult.
At the end of the 1950s, China officially proposed to make artificial earth satellites.
Prior to this, the Soviet Union had successfully launched the world's first artificial satellite. The United States followed suit, sending Explorer One into space in 1958.
At this time, China was still far from the conditions for launching satellites in terms of economy and talent.
Even the satellite and rocket models on display at the 10th anniversary of 1959 were hand-typed by young scholars.
According to CCTV, at that time, these young people's understanding of rockets and satellites was not as good as that of today's middle school students.
And even if the model is made, there are still a bunch of practical problems that cannot be solved, such as the design parameters cannot be selected, the test conditions are poor, and the required production and processing equipment is not supplied...
Chinese scientists did not think of learning from the big brother of the Soviet Union, and also ran to Moscow to investigate, but the result was helpless.
And due to the limited national strength, they decided to lay the foundation first and devote themselves to the research and development of rockets, high-altitude physical exploration and other equipment.
Until the successful launch of the Dongfeng-2 medium-range missile, it marked that China basically had the ability to launch artificial earth satellites.
Driven by Qian Xuesen, Zhao Jiuzhang, and others, the development of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite was officially put on the agenda.
△ Source: Xinhua Net, music device
They also set up a Flag with a higher starting point: China's first satellite will be around 100 kilograms.
At that time, the first soviet satellite weighed 83.6 kg, and the first satellite of the United States was only 8.2 kg. The heavier the satellite, the higher the requirements for rocket engines and equipment.
But in the end they were done, and the actual weight reached 173 kg.
It was not until February 20, 1968, when the China Academy of Space Technology was established, that the development of Dongfanghong No. 1 was officially put on the agenda.
Qian Xuesen served as the first dean, with a research and development team of more than 5,000 people and a central allocation of 200 million yuan.
△ Qian Xuesen
According to Xinhua Net, Pan Houren, deputy head of the overall design team of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite, recalled:
Two hundred million yuan at that time, it was really not easy.
Because in addition to funding, the older generation of astronauts have almost nothing.
Many of the difficulties during this period were solved by the "soil method".
For example, an important process in satellite manufacturing, riveting, because at that time the satellite factory was converted from a scientific instrument factory, and this was not done, and there was no riveting gun and truss for fixing workpieces.
The workers relied on a small hammer and used their bodies as trusses to knock the rivets one by one.
Under these conditions, they solved several process problems and then came to multiple environmental simulation test phases.
Qi Faxuan, one of the technical leaders of the "Dongfanghong I" satellite, once recalled that when the summer test was conducted, because the satellite factory did not have a low temperature laboratory, he wore a large cotton jacket to the Navy's cold storage for testing.
△ Source: Cosmic Song "Oriental Red"
The conditions are tough, but the technology is constantly iterating.
On the eve of the establishment of the institute in 1967, Dang Hongxin, a pioneer and academic leader of the discipline of tribology in China, worked with the team to solve a key problem of satellite transmission.
They chose a copper-based conductive dry film that successfully solved the problem of ultra-shortwave antenna signal transmission difficulties at -100 °C to 100 °C.
The reason why the earth can receive the musical signal of Dongfanghong No. 1 is indispensable to the credit of Dang Hongxin's team.
△ Video source: Cosmic song "Oriental Red"
The signal problem is solved, but the satellite itself has to withstand extreme temperature changes.
At the time, this was a world-recognized conundrum.
To this end, Chinese scientists have developed a complete temperature control system to balance the temperature inside the satellite, but the normal operation of the system requires a lot of electricity, and the power carried by the satellite is very limited.
Finally, they thought of using the heat generated by other instruments to help the satellite control the temperature, and its external material was made of aluminum alloy material treated according to temperature control, which solved the problem of high power consumption.
Soon after two or three years, they had completed their goal of the first artificial satellite.
On April 24, 1970, the Long March 1 carrier rocket carrying the Dongfanghong No. 1 satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit, completed the exploration mission for more than 20 days, and stopped transmitting signals on May 14 of the same year.
China has since become the fifth country in the world to independently develop and launch satellites.
From the official establishment of the project to the successful launch of the satellite, China's completion time is less than five years.
And to this day, Dongfanghong I is still flying in space, overlooking the development of China's spaceflight. Most of the satellites of the same period have fallen into the atmosphere.
How exactly is this done?
Why Dongfanghong 1 is still running on orbit
We have to start with the whole technical solution at that time.
At that time, the Dongfanghong-1 satellite was designed, and the main task was to conduct satellite technology tests, detect the ionosphere and the density of the atmosphere.
Therefore, in terms of orbital design, it is a perigee of about 441 km, the apogee of about 2368 km, and a low-Earth elliptical orbit at an angle of 68.5 degrees to the earth's equatorial plane.
We know that satellites do not need power to fly around the earth in space, and fly entirely by inertia. Theoretically, if there is no resistance, there is no energy consumption and it will fly forever.
But in fact, space is not empty, especially in the Earth's low Earth orbit there are still traces of gas, the closer to the Earth there are more gas molecules, which is why the current space station has to actively ascend every once in a while.
As we mentioned above, Dongfanghong I operates on an orbit of 441 km perigee and 2368 km apogee.
For comparison, the ISS currently operates in orbit at a height of 420 km. It can be seen that even the perigee of Dongfanghong 1 is higher than the orbit of the International Space Station. As a result, Dongfanghong I has received little resistance to its orbit.
As for another, more common destination, entering the atmosphere (about 100 km to 300 km) and burning and disintegrating, it is also necessary to wait for the Year of the Monkey.
According to the latest data, the latest perigee height of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite is 428 kilometers, and the apogee height is 2030 kilometers.
That is to say, after half a century of operation, the perigee of Dongfanghong I was reduced by only 13 kilometers.
But to launch such a high-orbit satellite is not simple, at first the "Long March-1" theoretical basis dongfeng-4 missile, did not have the power to launch the satellite to an altitude of more than 400 kilometers.
Therefore, the "Long March 1" has been greatly optimized on the basis of dongfeng 4, including upgrading the rocket to three stages, etc. In the end, Dongfanghong 1 was successfully sent to the designated orbit.
The success of this mission has also laid a solid foundation for the development of the mainland's subsequent space technology.
Half a century of China's space road
The launch of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite has ended, and China's space journey has just begun.
In the next 50 years, the scientists who initially participated in the "Dongfanghong I" satellite project went deeper into more complex fields with the space technology they had explored, and completed one impossible task after another.
From manned spaceflight, to lunar exploration and deep space exploration missions, step by step towards the sea of stars.
Wang Xiji, who proposed the technical plan for the "Long March No. 1" carrier rocket to carry the Dongfanghong-1 satellite to the sky and organized the development of it, once again supported the burden of the chief designer of the mainland's first "retrievable satellite" after the end of the Dongfanghong-1 mission.
In 1975, the first retrievable satellite on the mainland was successfully launched and recovered, successfully taking the first step in manned spaceflight.
After that, Chen Fangyun, chief designer of the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite measurement and control system, and collaborators jointly proposed the "double satellite positioning system", which became an important theoretical basis for the Beidou satellite navigation system;
Qi Faxuan, one of the technical leaders of the "Dongfanghong I" satellite, was appointed as the chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, and carried out a total of four unmanned spacecraft tests and countless ground tests.
In 2000, two Beidou navigation satellites were successfully launched, and China finally had an independent satellite navigation system.
In 2003, Shenzhou V successfully ascended to the sky carrying Yang Liwei, and China truly realized a manned space mission for the first time.
Hu Shixiang, the "launching general" responsible for launching the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite, also served as the deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space project at that time, witnessing the historical process of the mainland from launching the first satellite to successfully carrying manned spaceflight.
Also this year, Sun Jiadong, chief designer of "Dongfanghong No. 1", became the chief designer of China's lunar exploration project, further extending the mainland's space dream from low Earth orbit.
In 2007, the mainland's first lunar exploration satellite "Chang'e-1" was launched, successfully entered the orbit around the moon and flew around the moon, officially opening the era of lunar exploration on the mainland.
In 2008, shenzhou 7 was launched and entered a predetermined orbit, and Chinese astronauts realized spacewalks for the first time and mastered the technology of space outgoing activities.
In 2017, Tiangong-2 and Tianzhou-1 completed rendezvous and docking, taking an important step in the construction of China's space station; in 2020, the "Chang'e-5" probe was launched and successfully returned with lunar samples; in the same year, the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system was officially opened...
Just a few days ago, a video of Dongfanghong No. 1 being "in the same frame" with the Chinese space station detonated the whole network.
It was co-produced by Zhu Jin, a researcher at the Beijing Planetarium and editor-in-chief of The Astronomical Enthusiast, and Wang Zhuoxiao, a doctor of astrophysics at Tsinghua University, using telephoto tracking and wide-angle short exposure.
△ Zhu Jin on the left and Wang Zhuoxiao on the right
This day happens to be April 24, the launch date of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite, which is also Zhu Jin's birthday. Every year on this day, he would go to see if dongfanghong no. 1 was in transit.
△ When shooting (authorized: Qiao Hui)
In the first 2 days, Zhu Jin also happened to take photos of the Chinese space station (Tiangong space station) in the same frame as Dongfanghong No. 1.
In the photo, the trajectory of Dongfanghong-1 and the Chinese space station is jointly frozen in the night sky, which is also called the legendary "century frame" by netizens.
When talking about the progress and impact of continental space exploration in recent years, Zhu Jin sighed:
In recent years, China's deep space exploration, lunar exploration and manned spaceflight have developed a lot, which has also influenced some children to pay attention to the starry sky, and then may pay attention to astronomy.
It is expected that the mainland's space technology will develop better and better.
Reference Links: [1]https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20220424V02UZJ00[2]https://www.sciencenet.cn/skhtmlnews/2018/11/4063.html[3]https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zinTVi7zGBuADiqIqmuuvw[4] https://heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=4382&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=CET[5]https://open.163.com/newview/movie/free?mid=TFTKM9INN&pid=JFTKM9IN5[6] https://weibo.com/1697045860/LpWogBBNY?type=comment[7]http://news.cctv.com/science/20060928/103731.shtml[8] http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-04/24/c_1125902168.htm[9]http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-04/24/c_1125897682.htm[10] http://news.cntv.cn/lm/655/11/39051.html[11]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oEF6lmrz5c