Sleeping, breeding, becoming an internet celebrity, astronauts have "new careers"

On July 24, the Long March 5B carrier rocket "lifted" the Wentian experimental module into space. As China's space station grows, astronauts spend more and more time in orbit, taking on a lot of construction and maintenance work and scientific experiment tasks. At the same time, they are also required to guest star in more interesting "new professions". Let's take a look.

Try to use the toilet while sleeping

At the end of July this year, the Chinese space station welcomed a new duplex structure, the Wentian Experimental Module. In fact, this experimental module is more like a "three-story building" with a different world. After more than a month of observation, "onlookers" on the ground found that the astronauts living here have several "new jobs".

The first floor of the experimental module is the work module, which includes five major areas: work area, sleeping area, temporary dining area, sanitary area and exercise area. As a result, the astronauts have obtained at least five or six "new jobs" and can experience different happiness.

The Wentian experimental cabin is equipped with 3 sleeping areas and 1 bathroom.

In the work area, the astronauts played with their mobile phones first... In fact, they were transformed into installers, successfully building a manned orbital environment, including the setting up of the environmental control and life support system, sanitary area, sleeping area, space kitchen, etc., and also unlocking and functionally testing the onboard scientific experiment cabinets, completing equipment installation, material sorting and other tasks.

In the sleeping area, astronauts become "sleep testers". You know, the small bedroom in space is no longer a traditional home nest. The special vertical sleeping compartment design allows astronauts to have a good sleep as much as possible. Theoretically, in the space environment at an altitude of 400 kilometers, gravity is almost negligible, and astronauts can sleep as comfortably as they want. However, the "sleep tester" must fix his body, otherwise he may lose his sense of direction when he wakes up and forget the directions of east, south, west and north.

In addition, he needs to move around in the sleeping area as much as possible in order to score this small world. Content includes multiple indicators such as temperature, noise, vibration, and even standards such as "whether it is comfortable to sleep standing up", to ensure that people who go to space in the future can sleep well and soundly here.

The temporary dining area allowed the astronauts to experience the joy of being a "chef" and a "food safety inspector." A "chef" does not actually need particularly advanced cooking skills. After mixing ingredients processed into compressed blocks or toothpaste-like shapes with a certain proportion of water, delicious fish-flavored pork shreds, Kung Pao chicken and other delicacies can be obtained.

The key is the next step, where the "chef" quickly transforms into a "quality inspector" to test whether the food can provide enough energy for the astronauts who are working hard in space, and to prevent embarrassing incidents such as sudden diarrhea and "air pollution" from occurring.

After a big meal, everyone needs to do some proper exercise. Astronauts often have round faces due to the surge of blood in a weightless environment. They need to sweat more on space treadmills, space bicycles and other exercise equipment to get back to a pointed face as soon as possible. They also need to show off their good figures during the video link between the sky and the earth.

In the new exercise area of ​​the experimental module, experienced astronauts will act as "fitness coaches" to guide others on how to efficiently, safely and scientifically gain a stronger body in a weightless environment. As the saying goes, "talking without practice is just empty talk", "fitness coaches" will impart the most professional fitness knowledge and personally demonstrate standard movements.

Finally, coming to the sanitary area, the "toilet experiencer" has to experience the whole process of using the toilet in space with mixed emotions to ensure that the toilet has strong flushing power and the environment is clean and hygienic.

Changing clothes brings more joy to breeding

The airlock on the second floor of the experimental cabin is square outside and round inside, and is equipped with a "changing room" and "laboratory".

The cylindrical "dressing room" is where astronauts prepare for an extravehicular mission. Before the romantic spacewalk, astronauts must transform themselves into "models" and put on the extravehicular space suits that have been prepared in the "dressing room" warehouse, and walk onto the "T stage" - the airtight transition space for the extravehicular mission. They will carry out complex and meticulous decompression work to ensure that the "models" can safely walk from the normal pressure area in the cabin into the low pressure area in space that is close to a vacuum, and show themselves to the billions of dazzling stars and unknown alien creatures in the universe, and then turn around beautifully and return from the low pressure space to the normal pressure cabin.

Appearance of the Wentian Experimental Chamber

After the "models" leave the space, they will immediately transform into "explorers". Don't worry, there are foot limiters installed on the robotic arm outside the cabin to fix their feet and enable them to move safely outside the cabin with the robotic arm.

In addition, a "selfie stick" is installed on the handle of the panoramic camera outside the cabin to facilitate the "explorers" to take pictures in space.

The "laboratory" of the airlock is the extravehicular exposure test platform, which has a square shell and 22 load adapters. Astronauts act as "crane drivers" in the cabin and use the mechanical arm to drop various test loads of different shapes into the position of the standard load test interface. It is plug-and-play, and there is no need to go out of the cabin for dangerous manual operations.

The resource cabin on the third floor of the experimental cabin provides energy and power, and is the "source of life" for astronauts in space. No matter how carefully it is taken care of, it is not excessive. Here, astronauts are transformed into "electricians" to ensure the normal operation of high-performance generators and distributors.

In addition, the astronaut "photographer" also has to set up lighting and chase lights while shooting and recording videos in the "photography base" equipped with two gimbal lights and four high-definition cameras.

In the "three-story building", astronauts do all kinds of high-tech work, but they have not forgotten their new identity. The special space environment allows the impact of weightlessness to be directly demonstrated. Questions such as "Can you walk in space gracefully?", "Can a ping-pong ball float on water?" and "Can bubbles leave a water ball?" will be answered one by one by the astronaut "teachers" through experiments.

"Flying experts" can also be "farmers" and "breeders". They plant plant seeds and seedlings in life ecology experimental cabinets, and carefully raise animals such as zebrafish, revealing the effects of microgravity on biological growth, development, and metabolism. This will promote a deeper understanding of the essence of life phenomena and provide a theoretical basis for human health and medical development.

As "onlookers" on the ground, don't just watch the fun, please imagine: When will such a comfortable smart room be available on Earth? Can the smooth communication between the earth and the sky be used to share the beautiful moments in real time when we are outing in the wild? What surprises will the food grown and cooked in space bring? Is there a hope that a strong energy system can serve our daily lives?

As manned spaceflight technology develops further, astronauts will have more "new professions" and the selection threshold for "flying masters" will become lower and lower. I believe that before long, the space tourism of a cursory glance will not satisfy everyone's appetite. It is better to set a small goal now and find a new job in space in the future.