"Tianzhou No. 4" delivery was successful! At 5:54 a.m. on May 10, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft docked with the core module of the continental space station Tianhe, and the 6.5 tons of cargo carried on it had arrived at the space station.
Tianzhou-4 "courier" set off at 1:56 a.m. on May 10, took the Long March 7 delivery truck to the mainland space station orbit, 10 minutes later has entered orbit, 27 minutes later launched the solar panels, and then with the mainland space station assembly continues to approach, the day 8:54 and the space station assembly successfully docked, using a rapid rendezvous docking technology, from the beginning of the launch to the docking completed 6 hours and 58 minutes, and the original planned 6.5 hours of docking time is close.
How is this done? Li Zhihui, deputy commander-in-chief of the cargo spacecraft system of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, said that first of all, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft needs independent long-distance guidance, which is through the jet orbit of the engine, so that the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft rises from an orbit of 200 kilometers to the orbit of the space station of 393 kilometers, and then the spacecraft turns into a close-range autonomous control state, constantly approaching the space station assembly, starting the docking procedure at a distance of 19 meters and continuing to complete the rendezvous and docking.
From the above figure, it can be seen that the Tianzhou-4 spacecraft is docked with the rear side of the core module of the Tianhe space station, and the front node module is connected to the Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft; the following picture shows the shape of the continental space station assembly after the docking of Tianzhou-4, and its total length has reached 37.8 meters, comparable to the height of a 13-story building.
The mainland's first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, met and docked in 72 hours, the docking time between the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft and the core module of Tianhe took about 8 hours, and the docking of Tianzhou-3 and Tianzhou-4 was about 6.5 hours.
We know that the courier delivery is not only fast, but also to be able to send more, Tianzhou No. 4 "courier brother" has done this, it for the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft astronauts to bring work supplies and daily necessities, according to Li Zhihui, this time The Tianzhou No. 4 spacecraft has a total of more than forty lockers, respectively equipped with the astronauts need daily necessities and leisure, entertainment and other items, of course, as well as the maintenance equipment and products required for the space station and some equipment needed for scientific research project experiments.
Speaking of scientific research projects alone, they are mainly equipment and equipment for carrying out space science experiments, and some planned space projects also include some experimental projects for society and colleges and universities, including wheat, soybeans, sorghum, corn and other plant seeds, and space breeding experiments must also be carried out.
Li Zhihui also said that there is a low temperature lock cabinet that carries out space science medical experiments upwards, that is, we commonly known as the refrigerator, but it is a "space refrigerator", and we still use a refrigerator is still very different, in the design and manufacture it needs to have the characteristics of "light weight, small size, absolute flame retardant", etc. The developer takes the existing nano aerogel material as the substrate, and the aerogel material is "vacuumed" through a special process, and the vacuum insulation plate with good heat insulation, air insulation and puncture resistance is prepared. Based on it, a "space refrigerator" with thermal insulation and stable operation is created.
The fact that the Tianzhou-4 spacecraft can hold so many goods also shows that it is quite large. In fact, the load of the uplink cargo inside is as high as 6.5 tons, and the truck with a rated load of 6.5 tons on the ground is not very small, while the diameter of the Tianzhou-4 spacecraft is 3.35 meters, and the length reaches 10.6 meters, which is also the largest cargo spacecraft currently in service, and has the ability to refuel spacecraft such as the space station in space, this ability is currently only available to the cargo spacecraft of China and Russia, but the fuel of the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft is only a few hundred kilograms, while the mainland's Tianzhou 4 can be refueled with about 2 tons in orbit.
The launch of the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft also represents that the continental space station has entered a comprehensive construction stage, and the next step will be the launch of the wentian and montien space experiment modules, and the "T" basic configuration of the continental space station assembly will be built before the end of the year.
Resources:
"CCTV News" May 10 article "Tianzhou-4 and space station assembly successfully rendezvous and docking"
"Beiqing Network" May 10 article "Revealed: What is the magic of the "VIP Refrigerator" that flew to the sky with the "Tianzhou No. 4"? 》
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