At 6:56 on October 16, 2021, the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft successfully docked with the Tianhe core module of the Chinese space station, and formed a four-compartment (ship) combination together with the Tianzhou-2 and Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft. As one of the core products of the space station, the installation of the docking mechanism is from Wang Shuqun's team.
Wang Shuqun is the leader of the assembly team of the docking agency of the 149 factory of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and has participated in the scientific research and production and launch missions of Shenzhou, Tiangong, Tianzhou, Chang'e and other types of space equipment, for more than 30 years, he is like a "screw", rooted in the front line of aerospace production, from a technical school student to a big country craftsman, leading a group of craftsmen to build the country's heavy weapons.
"Choosing spaceflight is a lifelong affair"
Docking institutions are now well-known, but few people knew about them in the 1990s.
In 1996, Wang Shuqun entered the senior engineering training class with the second place in the intermediate engineering examination, and in the training process, he caught up with the product development of the docking institution. In this way, he formed a lifelong fate with the docking mechanism.
At the beginning of the development, Wang Shuqun thought that as long as two or three years, the team could assemble qualified products according to the drawings.
But the fact is that the docking mechanism can be called the "Shu Dao" of the "manned spaceflight" project, which not only involves mechanical, electrical, liquid and other issues, but also a series of problems such as materials and processing technology, and even has a complex structure and unimaginable high-precision requirements that have never been seen before, and more and more difficulties make the work difficult.
"Can the docking agency make it in the end?" More and more people around began to wander.
Wang Shuqun chose to continue to hold out. In those years, he led the team, one hurdle after another, constantly learning new knowledge, solving new problems, and gritting his teeth. "Choosing spaceflight is a lifelong thing." Wang Shuqun said.
Wang Shuqun at work
Wang Shuqun still remembers an "episode" before the launch of Tiangong-1.
Before the launch of Tiangong-1, the docking mechanism could not unlock the separation during the last thermal vacuum test. For a time, the technicians could not determine the problem, if the problem could not be solved in the short term, it would not only cause huge economic losses, but also may affect the flight plan of Tiangong-1. At this time, someone mentioned that Wang Shuqun could take a look.
After receiving the call, Wang Shuqun rushed to the test site for the first time, and through system analysis, he listed all the fault possibilities, analyzed and eliminated them one by one, and quickly located the problem on a transmission shaft in a certain device. Later, tests confirmed that this was the cause of the accident. After troubleshooting, all tests are normal.
At 1:36 a.m. on November 3, 2011, the Tiangong-1 target vehicle and the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft completed their rendezvous and docking for the first time, marking that China has become the third country in the world to independently master space rendezvous and docking technology.
Sixteen years of grinding a sword, Wang Shuqun's persistence, finally in exchange for success.
"Let astronauts go on missions with confidence"
For the docking mechanism of the final assembly of Wang Shuqun's team, astronaut Yang Liwei gave a high evaluation of "being able to let astronauts perform the mission with confidence".
In this regard, Wang Shuqun said that aerospace products are "100-1=0", and only by doing every work to the extreme can we ensure the successful completion of every space mission.
In the docking mechanism, 12 docking locks are the key components. In order to ensure the success of docking and separation, not only can the gas of the relevant cabins not leak, but also the cabins must be "seamless". The 12 locks must be synchronously locked and separated synchronously, which is like "tightening a screw" in space.
In order to achieve these two synchronizations, Wang Shuqun has undergone many experiments, but there is always a serious deviation between the separation posture and the design requirements, and this deviation is irregular.
Since that day, Wang Shuqun has been working this issue.
I think when I walk, I think when I sleep, and sometimes I can't help but use my hands at the dinner table. "It was like a demon during that time." Wang Shuqun said.
After nearly a year of repeated experimentation, Wang Shuqun finally found that the problem was in the steel cable transmission used in the lock hook. Finding the crux of the problem, Wang Shuqun immediately proposed the corresponding process plan, which solved the problem that had plagued the docking agency team for nearly two years.
The accuracy of the movement position of the docking ring in the docking mechanism is another key factor affecting the success or failure of the docking. The upper fulcrum mounted on the butt ring and the lower fulcrum on the butt frame form a closed-loop loop system with a total drive chain length of about 6 meters.
Such a long transmission chain, the ordinary gear transmission accuracy can generally only be adjusted to 3-5 mm, and the movement accuracy error of the docking ring is not more than 1 mm, and the pitch, roll and yaw angles are not more than 2 ', and the requirements are increased by 5 times.
Wang Shuqun rose to the occasion. He carefully analyzed the entire drive chain and creatively proposed a top-down reverse adjustment method. To this end, he designed special equipment, which greatly improved the accuracy of the movement position of the docking ring, so that the accuracy error of the docking ring in each position was not more than 0.5 mm, and the angle deviation in all directions was not more than 1', which solved the problem of difficulty in adjusting the accuracy of the assembly.
From Shenzhou No. 8 to Shenzhou No. 13, Tiangong, Tianzhou, Tianhe core module, the docking mechanism has experienced 12 flight test assessments and successfully completed 15 rendezvous and docking test tasks.
"Without a team there would be no achievement today"
In 2021, China officially opened the curtain on the construction of the space station.
With the increase in the workload of model development, the assembly team of the docking mechanism has also increased from a small team of more than ten people to more than thirty people. But even so, the per capita overtime hours are still close to saturation.
In the past, the production process was a progressive production of "development and assembly at the same time", but now in the 149 factory, the assembly, testing, and test tasks are intertwined, and the team productizes and generalizes the components through the common scheme of the docking mechanism of the manned spacecraft and the cargo spacecraft. In this way, the team can coordinate the production, assembly, testing and testing tasks of the model in advance, reducing the delivery time of a single set of docking mechanisms from 10 months to 6 months.
With the docking agency group batch production, the team needs to promote in both technical personnel and team management at the same time, in terms of skilled personnel, team members are divided into zero, each performing its own duties, shouldering the responsibility of the main post, to ensure the continuity of production; in terms of team management, the posts are staggered and coordinated, and each main post is responsible for the deputy post of another post, so as to ensure the flexibility and variability of the team. As a result, the team effectively solved the contradiction between personnel tension and product quality, realized the "double helix" management structure, greatly saved costs, and effectively improved the efficiency of operations.
"Without the docking agency, I would not have grown today, and without the team working together, I would not have achieved what we have today." Wang Shuqun credits his team with his honor.
Wang Shuqun and his team
In the past three years, Wang Shuqun's national skill master studio has trained 25 technicians and 67 senior workers for enterprises. At the same time, its studio radiates the CNC precision machining studio of aerospace complex structural parts, the aerospace sheet metal precision manufacturing studio, the aerospace valve studio, etc., and has cultivated a group of skilled talents.
"Down-to-earth, looking up at the stars". This is a sentence written by Wang Shuqun on the wall of the Labor Model Innovation Studio, and it is also his oath as a front-line aerospace worker. Wang Shuqun firmly believes that the "down-to-earth" continuous struggle of a group of astronauts will certainly be able to exchange Chinese astronauts for a "looking up at the stars" with ease.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Li Ye Text Editor: Ju Hefei Title Map Source: Courtesy of the Interviewee
Source: Author: Ju Hefei