At 3 am Beijing time on the 19th, the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and the Shenzhou -11 manned spacecraft successfully implemented the rendezvous and docking. This is the first time that China has simulated the way of rendezvous and docking of future space stations. That is, manned spacecrafts use their own mobile capabilities to actively track space stations. The success of this rendezvous and docking has laid a solid foundation for our country to build its own space station in the future.
According to reports, this rendezvous and docking session is mainly divided into the following four steps.
From Shenzhou XI experienced 5 times of orbit to the orbit of Tiangong 2;
The two astronauts returned to the spacecraft's return capsule, sealed the hatches of the return capsule and the orbital capsule, replaced the space suits, and made some preparations.
The Shenzhou No. 11 took the initiative to approach Tiangong No. 2 and successively made four berths at distances of 5, 400, 120 and 30 meters. The location, posture and distance of the spacecraft were confirmed several times by the sensitive instruments and communication equipment of the spacecraft. And other parameters are normal. In the 120m parking point, if there is a problem with the automatic docking procedure, it will switch to the astronaut manual operation mode.
At the 30-meter berthing point, Shenzhou XI stretched out the catch and stuck it in the gantry 2's plate catcher. After the slow recovery of the catch lock, the spaceship and the tempura gradually narrowed, and when the docking ring was fully engaged, 12 hooks in the docking ring are hooked to complete the docking.
After three hours of successful docking, the two astronauts have already stationed Tiangong-2. According to reports, the assembly will be on-orbit flight for 30 days. During the two astronauts, they will work and live according to the flight manual and operation guide, and carry out a series of scientific experiments as planned.
Here, the so-called rendezvous and docking refers to the process in which the tracking aircraft and the target aircraft meet on the space track and join together in the structure. Because the two aircraft that are docked are in outer space more than 300 kilometers from the ground and are operating at a high speed of 7.9 km/s at the first cosmic speed, in this case, the height, position, attitude, and relative speed of the aircraft must also be achieved. The precise adjustment of various parameters to achieve docking, so both at home and abroad, this technology has always been recognized as a space problem.
China is the third country in the world to fully master the technology of space rendezvous and docking. On November 3, 2011, Shenzhou No. 8 and Tiangong No. 1 completed the first rendezvous and docking in the history of Chinese aerospace at 1:36 am Beijing time. At 14:14 on June 18, 2012, Shenzhou No. 9 successfully merged with Tiangong No. 1 to complete the first manned rendezvous and docking in the history of China's aerospace. At 13:18 on June 13, 2013, Shenzhou No. 10 successfully docked with Tiangong No. 1 to complete the first manned rendezvous and docking application mission in China. In three missions within three years, China completed a total of eight rendezvous and six dockings on track, covering a variety of rendezvous and docking modes such as automatic and manual, forward and backward, Yangzhao, and shadowed areas. The system has broken through and mastered Reciprocal docking technology.
Before China, only the United States and Russia had systematically mastered the complete rendezvous and docking technology in the world.
At that time, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union saw that the United States had achieved the first place in manned spaceflight. It then changed its development thinking and made great efforts to carry out research in the field of space stations. It eventually became the first country in the world to successfully launch an international space station. , Salute 1.
Perhaps due to the launch of the Salyut 1, Russia, which inherited most of the resources of the former Soviet Union, has become the world’s most frequent country in spacecraft rendezvous and docking. From the successful launch of the Salyut 1 space station on April 6, 1971, to the Mir space station that has been in orbit for 15 years, a total of three generations of space stations were launched during 23 years. Nearly one hundred rendezvous and docking missions were conducted. The success rate exceeded 90%, and there were about 8 failures, which mainly occurred in the initial stage.
The United States continues to research, develop, and improve its own rendezvous and docking technology in the manned space program. As early as in the Apollo Moon Plan, the United States developed and launched the Gemini Constellation series of spacecraft in order to develop and validate key technologies in the rendezvous and docking. And on December 15, 1965, with the participation of the astronauts, the US Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 spacecraft successfully achieved the world’s first space-to-air exchange meeting. In the following 1995-1998, the U.S. follow-up launch of the space shuttle successfully completed 9 rendezvous and docking missions with the Mir station.
Compared with the United States and the Soviet Union, China's rendezvous and docking technology started late and its technology accumulation was relatively weak. However, with a clear development plan and arduous efforts, the manned space flight to the space laboratory was achieved through only a few launches. The rapid development of docking. As Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s manned space project, said: “In the future, with the further maturation of space laboratory technology, China’s own large-scale space station construction will also enter a period of rapid development.â€
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