On April 25, 2024, news came from the China Manned Space Engineering Office that the astronauts for the Shenzhou-18 mission had been identified, reminding people of the existence of a person.
She is Wang Yaping, the first female astronaut on the Chinese space station, and she is a hero. But being a hero is not an easy task. Wang Yaping has also faced a lot of hardships and made many sacrifices for the space journey. After returning to Earth, his body was so weak that he couldn't even walk.
What the hell is going on?
Train hard
With the continuous development of China, science and technology are also becoming more and more advanced, especially in the field of aviation. In the past 60 years, from two bombs and one satellite, to the current space station Tiangong. The hardships that have come through it are self-evident. And Shenzhou 18 is preparing to go into space again.
At the press conference on April 24, 2024, it is planned that the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft will be launched on the 25th. The three crew members, that is, the astronauts, also made a collective appearance. Three handsome young men, which are eye-catching.
Although they are all post-80s, they don't have much experience in space. Except for the commander Ye Guangfu, who once carried out the mission of the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft, the other two are newcomers. But even if they are newcomers, their strength is not inferior to anyone.
While lamenting the country's strength, people can't help but think of a female astronaut, she is Wang Yaping. As a woman, she successfully landed in space and became the first person on the space station. You must know that if you want to become an astronaut, going to space is not an easy task.
The layman doesn't know about the harshness of space, but that doesn't mean it's a good place. In space, there is no oxygen for human survival. This is the most critical and deadly point, so astronauts must wear special clothing once they leave the capsule.
Wang Yaping has also been out of the warehouse, and her bravery is admirable. And that's not all, there is a lot of hard training to become an astronaut. After Wang Yaping returned to Earth, she also recalled this experience in the face of interviews with reporters.
For her, it's devil's training. It is a biological fact that women are slightly weaker than men in terms of strength. Therefore, in people's subconscious, they will assume that men are stronger than women. Such stereotypes make it quite difficult for women to get ahead in certain areas.
Take aerospace as an example, almost all of the astronauts that people come into contact with, whether at home or abroad, are men who have never seen women. The emergence of female astronauts has only appeared in recent years, and Wang Yaping is the first batch in China. And she was able to break through the encirclement and become an astronaut with unimaginable sacrifices.
The first choice is astronaut training, and becoming a qualified astronaut is not an easy task. The daily training is painful, because the sky environment is extremely harsh, so the astronauts have to be very physically strong. Relevant departments have even made targeted training, just to let the trainers better understand and adapt to the space environment.
People are quite curious about their training, after all, it is an area that is difficult for ordinary people to reach. The reporter also asked Wang Yaping about related issues, and Wang Yaping also knew everything. Vestibular training is particularly disgusting, where you have to sit in a fast-rotating chair.
It's like a strengthened version of the pendulum, except that the speed and rotation of the amusement park are definitely not comparable to the chairs of vestibular function training. Some people have questioned whether this kind of training is necessary? Actually, it is really necessary, because there is no gravity in space.
Astronauts are almost always suspended in the capsule, sometimes even upside down. Although there is no gravity, handstands are quite uncomfortable, and astronauts need to use these trainings to cope with situations that exist in space. And this is not the most uncomfortable training, Wang Yaping said that underwater training is the king of them.
What is underwater training, how can it be involved underwater when it is obviously going into space?
困难重重
Wang Yaping said that underwater training is to wear more than 120 kilograms of equipment and conduct uninterrupted training underwater. Although the buoyancy of the water made it easier for them, it didn't get that much better. She also said that after every underwater training, her hand holding chopsticks was shaking.
Although Wang Yaping did not describe too much about how difficult their training was, it was revealed in just a few sentences that it was not easy to become an astronaut. For Wang Yaping, although these difficulties are difficult, she can still persevere, and the most difficult thing for her to adapt to is the hypergravity endurance training.
This is a must for astronaut training, and it is related to the condition of astronauts after the launch of manned spacecraft. It is not easy to leave Earth and go to space. Throughout human history, except for a few powerful countries that have been able to build manned spacecraft, other countries have not had the slightest ability.
This alone is enough to prove that China is strong and prosperous. Therefore, when a manned spacecraft wants to break away from the Earth's gravity, it must fly to space at a very high speed. Such a speed will inevitably lead to a hypergravity situation, and the astronaut will be subjected to multiple G's of gravity.
If you haven't received hypergravity endurance training, you may have been unconscious before the manned spacecraft reached into space. Just like some people who have been on a roller coaster ride and will faint at some point, unbearable will lead to fainting.
Hypergravity endurance training, as the name suggests, is to improve the astronaut's tolerance for overweight and overload values. According to Wang Yaping, the hypergravity endurance training will be carried out in a centrifuge. During the training process, it can even make people feel quite uncomfortable and have some physiological problems.
But all training is humane, because the training of astronauts itself is a bit of a push to the limits of human beings. So there's a button inside that you can stop at any time as long as you can't stand it. However, Wang Yaping never pressed the stop button, because she has a tenacity and the spirit of not admitting defeat.
In the face of reporters' questions and interviews, Wang Yaping always understated. But what she said made people feel that all success was not easy to come by. Wang Yaping stayed in space for more than 180 days, that is, nearly half a year. For ordinary people living on Earth, half a year flies quite quickly. But for Wang Yaping, it was a long experience.
Because there is no gravity, everything you do in space requires a new approach. If you are an acute person, I am afraid it will be difficult to adapt to life in space. What makes people even more lamented is that astronauts actually drink reclaimed water, that is, a source of drinking water for secondary processing.
Reclaimed water is not a good source, it can even come from the urine that the body excretes. Many people find it difficult to accept and even question why other water sources should not be used for drinking. Although the country's aerospace technology is the leading one in the world.
But in the face of the vastness of the universe, no matter which country it is, it is insignificant. It is almost impossible for astronauts to live like the Earth when they arrive in space. The first choice is that resources are quite scarce, and everything depends on the earth for transportation.
The amount of material that can be sent into space at a time is also quite limited, so if you can save it, you can save it. Otherwise, when the materials in the cabin are used up, the delivery is not timely and there is no spare materials, then it will be called a day of failure. In this way, it seems that it is also clear that astronauts drink reclaimed water.
Above space, astronauts face many tests. When they return to Earth, they still deal with many problems, what is going on?
Explore meaning
The environment in space is very different from that on Earth, which makes it difficult for astronauts to adapt when they return to the ground. In particular, some conditions change that cause them to have some physiological problems. Take Wang Yaping as an example, more than 180 days of life in space have made her apply to life in space.
Now that she has returned to Earth, she has a bloated face and even difficulty walking. This happens because there is no gravity in space, and it is not difficult to do anything. Therefore, without deliberate and specialized training, the muscles of the human body will atrophy quickly. When she reached the ground, she had difficulty walking because her calf muscles were too weak to support her body against the Earth's gravity.
It's not a big deal, and after targeted training, she can recover quickly. Not only walking, Wang Yaping also has to face a series of physiological problems, and if she wants to use the earth quickly, she will need a while. But judging from the clips of her interviews at this stage, Wang Yaping seems to be recovering quite well.
With the launch of the manned spacecraft Shenzhou 18, many people lamented the country's strength, but at the same time, they couldn't help but have some questions in their hearts. Judging by the above, space is not at all suitable for human beings. Every time an astronaut goes to space, he or she has to pay a lot of sacrifices, even in danger of his life.
This is by no means empty talk, and now the technology is relatively developed, and the technology of manned spacecraft is relatively mature. However, in the early years, many astronauts died. Almost all of this happens abroad, and it is almost impossible to see such a situation happen at home.
If it is so difficult, why is the country obsessed with this project? In fact, there are many challenges in the aerospace field, and it can even be regarded as a high-investment, low-income existence. Except for a few big countries in the world, almost no country has been able to make a fortune.
There are even many countries that need to rely on the technology and equipment of major countries in order to reluctantly step into the aerospace field. Even if the threshold is high, the return is small, but there are still a large number of countries that follow suit. The fundamental reason is because of the aerospace field, although it can be regarded as a low return, but it can't stand the fact that once something is discovered, it will have a big impact.
Moreover, in the national strategy, the new track of aerospace is a place to compete. Because of the need for technical support, it is almost always a friction between several large countries. By going into space, we can learn about the structure and truth of the world.
Understand what kind of existence the earth is on, such an unknown and empty space is full of dangers. Even a small carelessness in space can lead to the death of an astronaut or damage to a machine. Even though the conditions are so harsh, countries are still moving forward in the field of aerospace without looking back.
In the early days, the development of astronautics could even measure the strength of a country. But for now, this rule still exists. Looking at the countries that have made some achievements in space exploration, almost all of them are world powers or developed countries. Because of this, there has been a wave of aerospace craze, which has made rapid progress in aerospace.
At that time, the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed, and the United States and it would often fight in the ring. In any way, it has become the home of their competition, and even in the aerospace field. It was the development of that time that made people realize the importance of aerospace technology.
With its own strength, China has successfully closed the gap with the rest of the world, and even surpassed it in some aspects. That's the case with aerospace, and we've even built our own space station, Tiangong. This is the hard work of countless technicians and the efforts of astronauts.
As a representative of female astronauts, Wang Yaping successfully interpreted what female power is and what it means to be a woman. Her presence will also affect thousands of girls who have a dream of spaceflight, giving them the confidence to realize their dreams.
Primary sources
This article was originally published in Xinhua News Agency's new media report on September 21, 2022 on "Authoritative Interview|Zhang Yang Talks to Wang Yaping: 183 Days of Return to Space".
The original article was published on China Youth Network on November 28, 2022 on "Wang Yaping: Astronaut Training is to Challenge the Limit".
The original article was published in Luzhong Morning News on April 24, 2024 on "The resumes of the three members of the Eighteen Crew of God are announced, and some people dreamed of being a singer as a child".
The original article was published on the China Military Network on June 2, 2022 on "Space Journey (2)丨How difficult is astronaut training? This project even Wang Yaping called "the most challenging".