Shenzhou-18 successfully lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on April 25, and took three astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, to space for a six-month space station mission! It is worth noting that Ye Guangfu served as the commander of Shenzhou 18, and he led two third batch of astronauts to fly to the space to carry out the mission, which is the first "post-80s crew" in the history of China's manned spaceflight, with an average age of less than 40 years old!
Half of the six key missions of China's space station in 2024 have been completed, and there are still two launches and one recovery mission left, including the launch of the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft, the launch of the Shenzhou-19 manned spacecraft, and the recovery of the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft!
Unconsciously, the time for the Shenzhou 18 crew to perform the mission in orbit is almost full moon, but what makes everyone more curious is that there is not much news about Shenzhou 18 so far, and at the same time, it has not carried out an out-of-cabin spacewalk.
According to the original plan, the Shenzhou-18 crew will carry out 2-3 spacewalks and 6 missions to exit the cargo airlock compartment according to the situation, and is currently undergoing routine maintenance and the mission of exiting the cargo airlock.
Shenzhou 18 planned several spacewalk missions are also relatively arduous, to complete the important work content, the simple summary is to "strengthen" the structure outside the space station to prevent damage caused by meteorite particles after impact, so it is very important to say that Shenzhou 18 out of the capsule is very important, so why has the mission not been carried out so far?
First of all, one of the visible influences is from the sun! Intensive solar activity brings a large number of high-energy charged particles to the earth, they continue to impact the earth, because the protection of the earth's magnetic field allows these high-energy particles to gather at the north and south poles, so we can also see the beautiful auroras, but the impact of solar activity on the earth is not only auroras, but also geomagnetic storms!
Since May, solar flares have continued to erupt, and there have been 11 X-class solar flares, accompanied by large-scale coronal mass ejections, bringing large-scale geomagnetic storms to Earth!
Ionospheric disturbances caused by geomagnetic storms will affect short-wave communication and navigation and positioning, and some organisms that rely on magnetic fields to navigate may not be able to find the "north", such as carrier pigeons, in addition to the power system will also be disturbed to varying degrees.
When a geomagnetic storm occurs, it will lead to an increase in the density of the high parts of the earth's atmosphere, which has a greater impact, and will cause interference to some probes and satellites in low and medium orbits, which will cause a drag effect to reduce the orbital altitude of the aircraft.
For example, China's space station and the international space station have previously changed their orbital altitude due to the influence of geomagnetic storms, of course, the orbital altitude is nothing, for the Chinese space station, it can adjust the orbital altitude at any time, after all, the propellant carried by Tianzhou-7 is sufficient.
In addition to changing the orbital altitude of China's space station, a large number of high-energy particles erupted by solar activity will impact the earth, and the radiation of high-energy particle bursts to space stations and other vehicles will increase significantly.
Under the protection of the space station, astronauts naturally do not have to be afraid of the impact of radiation, but when they go out of the capsule for a spacewalk, the radiation in space is much stronger than on the ground, and then catch up with the occurrence of geomagnetic storms, the Shenzhou 18 crew will naturally not carry out a spacewalk.
Another important reason is that if the orbital altitude changes during a spacewalk, it must be a very terrible thing.
As China's space station enters the stage of application and development, the in-orbit rotation of astronaut crews and cargo replenishment have been normalized, and the tasks to be performed by astronauts during their six-month space flight have also been fixed. There are six main categories: spacecraft rendezvous, docking and return, such as the visit and evacuation of cargo spacecraft, survey telescopes and other aircraft; care, operation, care, care, space station complex; on-orbit space tests (experimental); popular science activities, such as space classes, etc.; Handling of anomalies, including spacewalk replacement and repair operations.
The Shenzhou-18 manned flight crew is naturally the same, they want to carry out the first space fish farming, of course, this is not the key, the real difficulty lies in 2-3 spacewalk missions.
We know that the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft carried out two out-of-cabin activities during their six-month space flight, mainly completing the repair of the solar wing of the "Tianhe" core module, which is the first time in China's manned space flight.
The Shenzhou-18 mission will plan to strengthen the debris protection measures of the space station, especially for the pipelines, cables and key equipment outside the space station. At the same time, it is necessary to inspect the extravehicular equipment according to the situation, so it is considered a very difficult spacewalk mission!
Space is very dangerous, there are a lot of meteorite particles and space junk, so the Shenzhou 18 spacewalk mission is of great significance, which is very helpful for the normal use and operation of the space station.
Text/Science Black Hole, Image Source: Internet Invasion and Deletion.