If the human space industry is coming step by step in the stubborn struggle against nature, then on May 11, the earth has given us another vivid lesson.
On this day, the Shenzhou space station, which was flying in space, suffered an unprecedented blow. In just 24 hours, its orbital altitude plummeted by nearly 1 kilometer, almost falling below the safety bottom line of 374 kilometers! Even the Harukaku International Space Station was embarrassed by this "extraterrestrial" raid and fled in space.
What happened to nature that made the great powers retreat? Let's unravel this bizarre space horror chronicle together!
The strong revolve around the earth
Is the rotation of the earth eternal? From nature's point of view, this is impossible.
As a member of the solar system, the Earth is actually just a gravitational trap firmly controlled by the star Sun. As a star itself, the Sun itself often undergoes various violent activities inside, such as erupting flares and releasing a large stream of high-energy particles.
Once these energetic particles hit the earth, they may directly interfere with the magnetic field environment around the earth and cause a "geomagnetic storm". Its intensity depends entirely on the intensity of the solar activity, sometimes as small as almost no trace, and sometimes as large as sweeping the world in all directions.
In the 80s of the last century, there was a large geomagnetic storm, which almost caused hundreds of satellites to fail instantly, which can be called catastrophic. And at the beginning of May, a series of large-scale flares occurred on the sun, bringing great disasters to the space environment around the earth.
In an instant, a large number of high-energy particles from the sun swept across the space areas around the earth like countless locusts, forming a magnetic field riot that had never been seen before. Everywhere I went, even the spacecraft far away in space were not spared, and all of them were bald!
The proud son is struggling to survive in space
Among them, the first to suffer is the Shenzhou space station and the international space station, the two major human science and technology artifacts. On weekdays, they can proudly hover hundreds of kilometers in the sky around the earth, but once the sun is angry, they quickly turn on their defenses and shrink into a ball.
Although the International Space Station is not as powerful as the Shenzhou Space Station, it is also in a slump and hasty to avoid it. In just 10 days from May 1 to 11, its apogee orbit altitude shrank from 417 km to 415.3 km, and its perigee altitude shrank from 412 km to 410.8 km.
And the situation of the Shenzhou space station is even more miserable. In contrast, its orbital altitude is not as impressive as that of the International Space Station, and it can only swing around 395 kilometers, so it suffers even more.
On May 11 alone, the orbital altitude of the Shenzhou space station folded nearly 1 kilometer, falling from 382 kilometers in a straight line to 374 kilometers, hovering up and down, almost losing the last safety bottom line!
Immediately, the Shenzhou space station ushered in the moment of life and death. Fortunately, the astronauts were sober-minded, immediately activated the orbit control system, and finally began to carefully raise the orbit altitude again after a little respite at 374 kilometers.
If the orbital altitude of the Shenzhou space station drops again, it will collide with the atmosphere and be damaged by high heat, and it will collapse. At that time, the extremely expensive space station will be burned, and the astronauts will never recover.
How cruel is heavenly punishment? It was a tragedy that humans were forced to use their bare hands and had to start the turbine engine to increase the horsepower and inject kinetic energy into the spacecraft to escape from death!
Space is not a gentle country
If the human space industry is a life-and-death contest with the forces of nature, then the tragedy of this battle really impresses us.
I have to admire the astronauts' unruly situation, and finally resolved this space catastrophe. But at the same time, we were also reminded of how small human beings are.
A spacecraft flying in space is like a small boat sailing on the ocean. Although most of the time, everything is calm, but once in a while, when the tsunami tide comes, the boat will not escape the fate of the boat.
The only way out is to do everything possible to catch up with the lost speed in order to regain the track and avoid being destroyed and annihilated. However, even if he narrowly escaped the catastrophe, the monstrous waves still raged in the space area.
When the geomagnetic storm erupted on May 11, the spacecraft suffered not only from orbital descent but also from a variety of energetic particles and ionizing radiation. If it weren't for the multiple layers of protection built into the space station, the astronauts' lives would be in danger.
It can be seen that there is really no gentleness in the space area, and it is full of crises. If humanity wants to stay on its feet in this inaccessible land, it must be mentally prepared to confront and overcome the terrifying environment.
By contrast, we are currently only in low-Earth orbit a few hundred kilometers from Earth, and ambitious deep space exploration programs are even more dangerous. Perhaps one day, we will see astronauts encounter cosmic ray baptism that is several times more violent than this geomagnetic storm, and face a greater threat to life.
At that time, survival was the most important thing compared to minor problems such as spacecraft damage and orbital descent.
Although this sudden "extraterrestrial attack" has brought great trouble to Shenzhou and the International Space Station, in the final analysis, it is just a small "horror". After all, under the imminent and scientific response of the astronauts, the two space stations quickly returned to normal orbital operation.
However, this incident has also resounded the alarm for us mankind: there are all kinds of unpredictable and unknown risks in space, which are enough to threaten the safety of life. In the face of this extreme environment, we must have a high degree of humility and awe, strive for perfection and make all kinds of precautionary preparations, so that we can make steady progress and sustainable development in the vast interstellar world.
Human space exploration has a long way to go!