Some time ago, when the "Tough" manned Dragon spacecraft flew to a low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometers with 4 tourists, some people were very excited, because it was 100 kilometers higher than the International Space Station and nearly 120 kilometers higher than the Chinese space station. But, you know what? On May 5, 2020, the test ship of a new generation of manned spacecraft launched by China with a long 5B carrier rocket flew up to 7900 kilometers of Earth orbit, 2100 kilometers higher than the new generation of American lunar spacecraft "Orion", which is almost the farthest manned spacecraft for mankind after "Apollo". In this way, it is really "there is a sky outside the sky, and there is a boat outside the ship".
Does the Dragon spaceship fly high?
We flew at 15.8 times the altitude of it
Seeing this, there must be someone looking for stubble, "Apollo", "Orion" are all lunar spacecraft, what is your new generation of manned spacecraft? Sorry, our new generation of manned spacecraft, not only lunar spacecraft, but also mars spacecraft and solar system deep space exploration spacecraft, of course, it can also travel to and from low Earth orbit, docking the Chinese space station, and even transform into a cargo spacecraft. It is modular design, the return capsule is the same, plus different propulsion modules can be.
We are not only a lunar spacecraft, but also a fire spacecraft
Not only that, but our new generation of manned spacecraft is more advanced in many technologies than the latest "Orion" in the United States. For example, it is the world's largest manned spacecraft, whether it is the external size or the internal space, it is far more than "Orion", and "Orion" is similar to the Dragon spacecraft, surpassing "Apollo".
Sorry, our ship has the largest exterior and interior space
Inside our new generation of manned spacecraft
Inside the Orion spacecraft
Not convinced? We have the data. The launch mass of the new generation of manned spacecraft is 21.6 tons, the return module has an orbital mass of 7 tons, the landing weight is 6 tons, and the habitable volume is 13 cubic meters, while the "Orion" return capsule launch mass is 25.8 tons, the on-orbit mass is 8.5 tons, the landing weight is 6.1 tons, the habitable volume is only 9 cubic meters, and the manned Dragon spacecraft is only 9.3 cubic meters, which is a big gap with us.
Inside the cabin of our new generation of manned spacecraft
Interior of Orion
Why is the "Orion" spacecraft heavier than us, but the habitable volume of the return capsule is nearly 4 cubic meters smaller than ours? This is because its technology is older. For example, the "Orion" return capsule uses the "Apollo" era of thermal insulation tile materials, the thickness of 1 cm, and ours has been updated for two generations, the thickness is only 3 to 4 mm, which significantly increases the habitable volume of our new generation of manned spacecraft.
Orion return capsule
Orion's insulation tiles
How does the insulation tile play like a starship?
So why has the heat insulation tile material in the United States not made much progress for decades, and why do you have to move out of the "old antique" of the "Apollo" era? In fact, it is not that their science and technology workers do not work hard, but they just point out the wrong technology tree. After the space shuttle was invented, the United States abandoned almost all spacecraft and space station projects and focused on it. But the space shuttle is only used in low-Earth orbit, and will not return to Earth at extremely high speeds like the lunar spacecraft, so the demand for thermal insulation materials is not so harsh.
The lunar landing spacecraft and the low-Earth orbit spacecraft return speed is completely different
So when 2 space shuttles exploded one after another and the United States had to stop using this manned tool, it found that not only could not build the core capsule of the space station, but even the heat insulation tile material had not improved for a long time, and had to take out the products of the "Apollo" era.
The space shuttle can't go to the moon again
At the same time as we developed the "Chang'e-5" return capsule, we applied its thermal insulation tile material to the shrinkage return module of the new generation of manned spacecraft, which withstood the test, but still felt dissatisfied, so we made up a new generation of "lightweight carbon-based micro-ablation heat-proof materials" and applied it to the proper return module of the new generation of manned spacecraft test ships. After re-entry, the performance is better than expected, so our lunar spacecraft is ahead of the American "Orion" generation in thermal insulation tile materials.
Our technology originated in the Chang'e-5 return capsule
The Americans themselves are not confident in the insulation tile material of "Orion", so they have developed an insurance design that makes the inclination of the side wall of the return capsule quite large, so that when re-entering the atmosphere, the heat flow can be avoided through a pneumatic shape. In general, the larger the inclination angle of the sidewall of the spacecraft, the lower the performance requirements for the heat-proof material, the smaller the inclination of the sidewall, and the higher the performance requirements for the heat-proof material. But in this way, the internal space of the Orion spacecraft's return capsule is further compressed.
The bulkhead is so tilted, I thought it was science fiction, it turned out to be a lack of technology
All in all, in the face of advanced Western technology, we must have self-confidence, in many ways, our technology has surpassed the West, leading the world. In addition, it is said that our new generation of manned spacecraft will conduct the first manned test flight around 2026, and around 2030, the Chinese will be sent to the moon and successfully returned, so let's look forward to that exciting time.
A new generation of manned spacecraft returns to the capsule