Why do we need to build a space station? Written after the launch of Shenzhou 19

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: China Science Expo

Producer: China Science Expo

The "family portrait" of the Shenzhou 19 astronaut crew and the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew was taken at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center on October 30, 2024.

(Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Jie)

According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, at 12:51 Beijing time on October 30, 2024, the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew successfully opened the "door" to welcome the Shenzhou 19 astronaut crew from afar to the Chinese space station. The astronauts born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s gathered in the Tiangong, completing the fifth "space reunion" in the history of Chinese spaceflight. Afterwards, the two astronaut crews took a "family photo" to report their safety to the people of the country who care about them.

Among them, Wang Haoze, an astronaut born in the 1990s, was still in junior high school when Yang Liwei realized the Chinese people's long-cherished dream of flying into space in 2003. 21 years have passed, and China's manned space program has developed rapidly, from being able to take a spacecraft to take a turn in space at the beginning to living in its own space home, the "China Space Station".

When it comes to the space station, we can't help but mention an old question: why do we want to build a space station?

The Earth is the cradle of mankind, and it has nurtured countless civilizations and wisdom. However, humans are not satisfied with this limited world. With a desire for the unknown, we step into space step by step to explore the mysteries of the universe. The space station, as the pinnacle of human aerospace technology, is a product that has gone from imagination to reality, carrying the dream of mankind to the stars and the sea.

space station

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

The Origin and Imagination of the Space Station

As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, science fiction writers began to describe the prototype of space stations in their works. These imaginative works not only aroused the curiosity of readers, but also deeply influenced many aerospace engineers and scientists.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, known as the father of human spaceflight, first introduced the feasibility of living in space from a technical perspective in his book "Dreams of the Universe" in 1895. He envisioned a space habitat orbiting the earth to explore the possibility of long-term human survival in space. After that, Tsiolkovsky envisioned different forms of habitats, such as wheel-shaped and cone-shaped, in his subsequent articles and works, further enriching the imagination of space stations.

In 1923, German space pioneer Hermann Oberth called for "space stations to appear in scientific literature rather than in fiction." He first proposed the term "space station" and envisioned its scientific applications. This proposal marked the transition of space stations from science fiction to scientific research.

In 1928, Hermann Nordin, an Austrian military officer and rocket expert of Slovenian descent, described a wheel-shaped space station shaped like a "doughnut" in his book "Problems of Space Travel". He gave a detailed description of various details of manned space station, and this design directly influenced von Braun's early design concept of the space station. Von Braun's "space wheel" aroused people's enthusiasm for space stations as human space residences.

History and Development of Space Stations

In the 1950s and 1960s, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union directly promoted the development of space technology. In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial earth satellite, marking the official entry of mankind into the space age. In 1961, Russian Yuri Gagarin first boarded a spacecraft into space and became the first astronaut in human history. In 1969, American Armstrong stepped on the moon, leaving human footprints on the lunar surface. These milestone achievements not only proved the possibility of human survival in space, but also promoted the design and development of space stations.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

(Photo source: The Paper)

In 1971, the Soviet Union launched the Salyut 1 space station, the first space station in human history. From Salyut 1 to Salyut 5, the first generation of space stations had a simple structure and only had one docking port. However, their successful launch and operation accumulated valuable space life experience for mankind and laid the foundation for the development of subsequent space stations.

Representative works of the second generation of space stations include the Soviet Union's "Salyut 6" and "Salyut 7" and the United States' "Skylab". "Salyut 6" and "Salyut 7" have two docking ports, which extend their time in orbit and improve space science and application capabilities. "Skylab" is the first experimental space station in the United States. It has been in space for 2,246 days and has provided a valuable space scientific research environment for American astronauts.

In 1976, the Soviet Union began to build the Mir space station. As a large assembled space station, Mir consists of six modules and has carried out more than 30,000 scientific experiments during its service. More than 100 astronauts from 12 countries have successively entered Mir to work and live, making it an important platform for human space research.

In 1983, then-US President Reagan proposed the idea of ​​building an international space station. After nearly a decade of exploration and multiple redesigns, the design of the international space station was finally completed in collaboration with Japan, Canada and several European countries until the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia joined.

In 1998, the first component of the International Space Station, the Zarya functional cargo cabin, was successfully launched. In 2010, the International Space Station completed basic construction and entered the full-scale application stage. The International Space Station adopts a truss-mounted cabin structure, weighing more than 400 tons and as large as a football field. It is not only the largest manned spaceflight complex in low-Earth orbit, but also an important base for human space research.

Dawn functional cargo hold

(Image source: Grey Machine Wiki)

The significance and value of the space station

The realization of the space station has undoubtedly laid the foundation for mankind to leave the earth and take the first step into the universe. It has become a frontier base for mankind to study the universe and develop space resources, which has far-reaching significance and value.

First, the space station provides humans with unique research conditions . In special environments such as microgravity and radiation, scientists can study basic physical phenomena such as human survival, life phenomena, fluid physics, and combustion. These studies not only help solve the problems faced by humans in long-term survival in space, but also provide important scientific basis for human exploration of the universe.

Secondly, the space station is an important test platform for human survival in space . On the space station, humans can survive for a long time and conduct various scientific experiments. Through long-term research and observation, scientists can understand the physiological and psychological changes of humans in the space environment, providing valuable experience for future human space exploration.

Space Shuttle and Space Station

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

In addition, the space station is also an important springboard for humans to move toward deeper space . Through the technical verification and scientific experiments conducted on the space station, humans can accumulate the technologies and experience needed to solve future space exploration problems such as the lunar base and Mars base. These technologies and experience will provide strong support for humans to move toward deeper space.

Astronauts prepare experimental materials

(Photo source: China's official website for manned space flight)

The advent of the space age is both an opportunity and a challenge for China. Fortunately, in the early 1990s, in the face of increasingly fierce global scientific and technological competition, in order to occupy a place in the high-tech field and catch up with the world's scientific and technological development trend, the Party Central Committee made a major strategic decision to implement manned space flight projects and formulated a development plan with the goal of building a space station, pushing China onto a new track of space development. From then on, the Chinese people took a new step into space.