On the evening of April 25th, the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft was successfully launched, and the astronauts who participated in this mission were Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, among which Ye Guangfu went to space for the second time and entered the Chinese space station for the second time, in 2021, Ye Guangfu carried out the Shenzhou 13 mission, after more than 2 years, Ye Guangfu went to space again, and returned to the Chinese space station again as the commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission.
The three astronauts who participated in this mission are all very young, all of them are post-80s, among which the commander Ye Guangfu was born in September 1980 and is now 43 years old, while astronaut Li Cong was born in October 1989 and is now 34 years old; and astronaut Li Guangsu was born in July 1987 and is now 36 years old. Commander Ye Guangfu is the second batch of active astronauts on the mainland, while astronauts Li Cong and Li Guangsu are from the third batch of astronauts.
Judging from the current astronaut combination, including the astronaut crew of the previous Shenzhou 17 mission, they are all very young, and they are all led by the second batch of young astronauts, which also shows that in the mainland astronaut team, young astronauts are becoming the main force of the mainland manned space mission.
Considering that we will have 2 Shenzhou manned spacecraft to the Chinese space station every year, and 6 astronauts will go to space every year, these young astronauts will have more opportunities to enter the Chinese space station to carry out flight missions in the future, and some astronauts will even have the opportunity to participate in the future manned lunar landing program.
Previously, we have officially announced that we will achieve a manned landing on the moon before 2030, that is, in the next six years, and now astronauts in their thirties and forties have every opportunity to participate in manned lunar missions and realize their dream of walking on the moon. In the selection process of the third and fourth batches of astronauts, the needs of space station missions and manned lunar missions have been taken into account.
Astronauts Wang Yaping, Fei Junlong and others also said in interviews that they hope to walk on the moon one day in the future, and they are always preparing for another trip to space. In fact, every astronaut is either on a mission or preparing for a mission.
The Chinese space station was hit several times
The Shenzhou 18 spacecraft has been launched, and the time of this mission is also 6 months, from the overall mission point of view, these three astronauts need to complete a series of scientific experiments and experiments, including more than 90 trials (experiments) in addition to the work related to the normalization of space station operation.
During the Shenzhou 18 mission, the astronauts are expected to carry out 2-3 out-of-cabin activities, as well as 6 out-of-cabin cargo airlock missions.
The reason why everyone pays more attention to the out-of-cabin activities of the Shenzhou 18 astronauts is that their task is still relatively arduous. Although since the Shenzhou 12 mission, the astronauts of each spacecraft have carried out out-of-cabin activities, and astronaut out-of-cabin activities have become a normal thing for us, but the mission of Shenzhou-18 astronauts is still relatively challenging.
Previously, the Shenzhou-17 astronauts had carried out two out-of-cabin activities and carried out extravehicular repair work on the solar wing of the Chinese space station Tianhe. The Shenzhou-18 astronauts need to install space debris protection devices on the space station, as well as complete tasks such as the installation and recovery of extravehicular loads and extravehicular equipment.
From the Shenzhou-17 astronauts going out of the capsule to repair the solar wings extravehicular to the Shenzhou-18 astronauts needing to install space debris protection devices, this is actually to protect our space station. Because there are countless small space particles in low earth orbit, although the size of these small fragments is relatively small, they travel at a considerable speed, and once they collide with a spacecraft, they may cause damage to the spacecraft.
During the previous inspection, the crew found that the solar wing cable of the Tianhe core module was damaged by the impact of small particles in the space, resulting in the loss of part of the power supply capacity. Therefore, the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft carried out maintenance tools, and the astronauts of Shenzhou-17 carried out extravehicular repair of the solar wing during the out-of-cabin activities, which became the first extravehicular maintenance mission in the mainland, eliminating the impact of the impact on the solar wing of the core module.
And now that the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft has been launched, according to the plan, the astronauts of Shenzhou-18 will complete the installation of space debris protection devices. The safe operation of the space station is further ensured by installing debris protection and reinforcement devices on external pipelines, cables and key equipment, as well as maintenance and repair out of the cabin.
Of course, it is not enough to strengthen the protection of the space station, and more ways to deal with the threat of these space debris are needed. In fact, in the face of the threat of these small space debris, our space station also has many means to deal with it. In the past, our space station has carried out many evasions, that is, changing orbits to avoid those large space debris to avoid collisions.
Although these spacecraft face the threat of space debris, it is actually something that cannot be avoided, not only on our space station, but also on the International Space Station. We've seen the ISS hit by space debris on multiple occasions before, or re-orbited to avoid being hit by space debris.