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The Soviet Union Soyuz 11 cosmonauts returned to Earth from space, but when people opened the door of the return capsule, they were horrified to find that the three cosmonauts who thought they would be able to return safely had already died at this time.
Why did the Soyuz-11 astronaut die from boiling fluids and lack of oxygen when entering the Earth's atmosphere?
1. Hasty launches.
In 1969, the American astronaut Armstrong landed on the moon for the first time, and the Soviet space program lagged behind the United States in the lunar landing, so it had to change its development strategy and began to develop space station technology, which triggered the competition between the two major powers in the aerospace field, which promoted the rapid development of space technology, but also exposed many potential safety hazards because of competition.
It was against such a "hasty" background that Soyuz-11 was launched.
In order to catch up with and surpass the United States, the Soviet space director was very nervous, and under the pressure of such a task, the space director often ignored some details in order to improve the launch efficiency, which led to many space accidents, and the launch of Soyuz-11 was carried out in this context.
The launch of Soyuz-11 was repeatedly postponed until June 6, 1971, when Soyuz-11 was hastily launched and took off.
Before the launch and takeoff, the astronauts only underwent minimal training due to haste, and there were some problems with the design of the Soyuz-11's return capsule, which is why the astronauts could not survive when the return capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The Soyuz-11 re-entry module consists of three parts: the "Atmospheric Re-entry Module", the "Transfer Module" and the "Propulsion Module".
Because the connection of these three parts is bolted, so when entering the earth's atmosphere, the atmosphere re-entry module will be separated, and then enter the earth's atmosphere will also be subject to great resistance, the purpose of this design is to reduce the weight of the return module, thereby reducing the thrust of the propulsion module, so as to reduce the use of fuel, but such a design is a test again and again for the life safety of astronauts.
2. The cause of death of the three astronauts.
The launch of Soyuz-11 was not met with much resistance, and the astronauts also went into space without any problems, and the astronauts carried out scientific experiments in space for about 6 days, and also broke the flight altitude record in this mission, reaching an altitude of 474 kilometers, and after the last combustion, Soyuz-11 also began to enter the Earth's atmosphere.
After entering the Earth's atmosphere, the Soyuz-11 return capsule did not experience great resistance, and soon the return capsule also landed on the territory of the Soviet Union.
When the staff opened the hatch of the return capsule, they were horrified to find that the three astronauts who thought they could return safely had unfortunately died at this time, and the death of the three astronauts was also outrageous, the faces of all three of them were swollen because of the boiling of body fluids, and they looked very terrifying.
According to the signs, this is more like an injury caused by the external environment to the astronauts, so people began to wonder if it was because the astronauts did not close the door of the return capsule in time when landing, so that the atmosphere from the outside world would quickly pour into the return capsule, and the astronauts breathed pure oxygen in space, while humans on Earth breathed nitrogen-oxygen mixture.
In an environment of pure oxygen, the human body will die due to oxygen poisoning, and if the astronauts do not breathe in time, they will enter the earth's atmosphere again, then they will die due to lack of oxygen.
However, this speculation is not reliable, according to experiments, the human body can breathe in the environment of nitrox mixture and pure oxygen, so what is the cause of death of the astronaut at this time?
After investigation, it was finally found that when the Soyuz-11 astronauts encountered an accident, they were exposed to the space environment because the valve of the return capsule was not tightly closed, and when the astronauts entered the earth's atmosphere, they would produce high temperatures due to air friction, and the water on the astronauts would also boil due to the high temperature.
However, there is no fireproof material above the return capsule of Soyuz-11, so it will cause the vacuum environment in space to directly drain the astronauts' water, and eventually cause the astronauts to die due to boiling of body fluids and lack of oxygen.
3. After the accident.
After the Soyuz-11 accident, the Soviet space program was hit hard, the head of space was also removed because of the accident, and the originally planned space station was forced to burn up, but this did not make the Soviet Union give up space development, but the Soviet Union paid more attention to space safety.
Later, the space station and space shuttle developed by the Soviet Union were also subject to very strict safety inspections, and before the launch of the Soviet space shuttle, the staff and astronauts would conduct many simulation training to ensure the safety of the astronauts' lives.
The occurrence of aerospace accidents is often closely related to factors such as ignoring potential safety hazards and acting hastily, and safety awareness and standards in the aerospace field are very important.
The competition between the Soviet Union and the United States in the field of space promoted the rapid development of space technology, but it also exposed the risk of being centered on competition.
Every astronaut who has given his life for the cause of space is a hero, and their sacrifice deserves our respect and remembrance.
The rise of China's aerospace represents the rise of a new space power, and the realization of China's space program in the future will bring new hope to mankind to explore space.
The dream of human space exploration will continue, and in the future, more ambitious plans such as the establishment of a scientific research station on the moon may be realized, and space technology will continue to promote the development of human civilization.