Time flies quickly, and there will be two big moves in our manned space mission this month, one of which is the launch of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft. As the first manned spacecraft to go to China's space station this year, the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft has also attracted a lot of attention, one of which is whether there will be a female commander. Judging from some details, there is a high probability that there will be no female commander in this mission, and everyone may be a little disappointed.
In the space station era, astronauts' missions will be more complex than when manned spacecraft flew alone, requiring more and more complex scientific tasks, and flying in outer space for longer periods of time. In the early days of manned spaceflight, the flight time of the Shenzhou manned spacecraft was only a few days, ten days, or a month, and the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft flew in orbit for almost one month. After entering the space station era, the duration of a single mission is several months, and the longest has reached 6 months.
The more complex and longer flight missions also have higher requirements for the combination of astronauts, and an astronaut with very rich flight experience and outstanding ability is required to serve as the commander of the mission. From the perspective of flight experience and flight technology, astronauts who have carried out space missions before have the ability and conditions to serve as commanders.
After returning to Earth after the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft mission, astronaut Jing Haipeng gave 120 points to the three astronauts of this mission, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, who were "flying in the sky".
Therefore, there are many astronaut candidates who can serve as the commander in our current astronaut team, which makes it impossible for us to speculate who the commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission may be. However, there is one detail that hints that there may not be a female commander.
Because it is very close to the launch time of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, and the astronaut crew to participate in this mission has been selected a long time ago, these astronauts are seizing the time to participate in a series of mission training, and it stands to reason that they will not make a public appearance in the near future. Female astronauts Liu Yang and Wang Yaping both made public appearances in March and were interviewed by the media, which may mean that neither of these two female astronauts will participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission.
At present, there are three batches of active astronauts on the mainland, and the selection of the fourth batch of reserve astronauts has also been completed, and they are about to be listed, and there are only three known female astronauts, in addition to Wang Yaping and Liu Yang, there is also a female astronaut who has not yet made a public appearance.
Considering that serving as the commander of the flight mission requires rich flight experience, Wang Yaping and Liu Yang have such abilities, but both of them have made public appearances in the near future and may not participate in this mission. And this female astronaut, who has not yet made a public appearance, has not yet carried out a space mission, and obviously does not meet the requirements for serving as a commander. In this way, the Shenzhou 18 mission may really have no female commander.
The commander of Shenzhou 18 is suspected of being exposed?
First of all, let me explain that the official has not yet announced the situation of the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew, so the current news about the astronaut crew and commander is just speculation, not necessarily true and accurate, everyone can refer to it.
Here's the thing, a science blogger named "Beijing Blue Dragon" posted such a message on social platforms, he said that Henan astronaut Chen Dong went on the expedition again, and also attached a screenshot of the suspected astronaut Chen Dong's circle of friends.
According to the content of the circle of friends in the screenshot, it may imply that Chen Dong may be participating in closed task training in the near future, so he wants to "see the flowers bloom" and "smell the fragrance of flowers but become a luxury". The authenticity of this screenshot is unknown, and it cannot directly indicate that astronaut Chen Dong is the astronaut crew or commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission.
In previous interviews, many astronauts have said that for astronauts, they only have two states: flying and preparing to fly. That is, the astronauts are either on a space mission or preparing for a mission, including a series of training.
For example, astronaut Wang Yaping mentioned this in an interview, after returning to Earth from the Shenzhou 13 mission, she quickly devoted herself to the new normal training, hoping to maintain a better condition, ready to go to space at any time, and also hope to have the opportunity to land on the moon and walk the moon in the future.
Therefore, it is normal for astronauts to have no time to see the flowers bloom and smell the fragrance of flowers, because in order to maintain a better condition and be able to go to space at any time, they basically participate in training every day, including 58-year-old astronaut Yang Liwei also said that he is also participating in relevant training.
Of course, from all aspects, astronauts, including Chen Dong, are capable of going to space again or serving as the commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission, and we also hope that these astronauts will have the opportunity to return to space to carry out flight missions. Even if some astronauts will not participate in the Shenzhou-18 mission, it does not mean that they will never have the opportunity to go to space again.
Because we have now entered the era of the space station, we will launch 2 Shenzhou manned spacecraft to carry out flight missions every year, and 6 astronauts will go to the Chinese space station every year, and there are still many opportunities to go to space again.
Shenzhou 18 has a major upgrade
The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, which is about to be launched, has made major upgrades in some aspects, one of which is to switch to more advanced large-capacity lithium-ion batteries instead of continuing to use nickel-cadmium batteries.
Since the Shenzhou 1 spacecraft, the Shenzhou spacecraft has been using nickel-cadmium batteries, and when the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft was launched, media reports mentioned that the launch of the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft was the "final battle" of nickel-cadmium batteries in the field of Chinese spacecraft, and the follow-up Shenzhou spacecraft will apply lithium-ion batteries with higher specific energy.
From Shenzhou 1 to Shenzhou 17 spacecraft, nickel-cadmium batteries have been used for more than 20 years, and being able to do so much actually shows that the performance of nickel-cadmium batteries is also very superior, which is very suitable for the use of spacecraft. It's just that after entering the era of the space station, nickel-cadmium batteries are no longer able to meet the current needs, so lithium-ion batteries with better performance are used.