"This time, Chinese astronauts may plant several crops of rice in space"

From the successful launch on the afternoon of July 24 to the perfect docking on the 25th, the arrival of the Wentian laboratory module not only provides astronauts with a larger on-orbit working and living space, but also marks a key step forward in the construction of China's space station and national space laboratory.

At around 3 a.m. on July 25, the Chinese space station's Wentian laboratory module, which was successfully launched on a Long March 5B rocket, caught up with the Tianhe core module assembly after 13 hours of in-orbit flight.

In the past, when Chinese astronauts entered space, they had to wait for the astronauts in the cabin. The spacecraft was in orbit and waited for the astronauts to arrive. This time, the Wentian capsule docked in orbit, which was the first time that Chinese astronauts had to wait for the cabin in space. And the one they were waiting for was a huge thing with a mass of more than 20 tons, making the docking unprecedentedly difficult.

Another tense factor comes from the solar panels of the Wentian module. Like the core module, the solar panels of the Wentian module are also made of flexible materials independently developed by my country. In order to ensure sufficient energy supply after the space station is built, the solar panels of the Wentian module are 55 meters long when fully unfolded, which is equivalent to the height of a 20-story building.

Zhang Jun, deputy chief designer of the GNC subsystem of the space station system of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: It will shake. The docking accuracy and stability index of rendezvous and docking are relatively high. Once it is fully deployed, the vibration is very large, which will destroy the index. So when entering orbit, it is in a semi-deployed state for the first time, and a second deployment is performed after the combination is formed.

Seven hours after the successful cooperation between Wentian and Tianhe, three astronauts entered the Wentian laboratory module.

Li Zhe, chief designer of the space station system technology experiment subsystem of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: The Wentian module is less than 18 meters long, slightly longer than the core module. It forms a combination with the core module, and the activity space is expanded from one large bay to two large bays.

From the appearance, the Wentian experimental module is obviously different from the Tianhe core module. The Wentian module is mainly divided into three parts: the working module, the airlock module and the resource module. The main activity space for astronauts is the cylindrical working module and the airlock module next to it. The largest working module in the space is where astronauts work, but it is actually their second rest area in space.

Li Zhe, chief designer of the space station system technology experiment subsystem of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: There are three sleeping areas, but they are vertical. However, there is no concept of horizontal and vertical in orbit, so the effect is the same for astronauts in orbit. There is also a sanitary area, which is a one-to-one backup of the core module.

What is the function of the airlock? Before this, the astronauts of the two flight crews of Shenzhou XII and Shenzhou XIII entered and exited the spacecraft through the node cabin of the Tianhe core module, but this will not be the main passage for astronauts to enter and exit the space station in the future. After the launch of the Wentian module, this airlock will take on this function.

Wang Wei, Director of the Space Station General Research Office of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: Because the node module is the hub of the space station, if there is a malfunction and it cannot be sealed, the connectivity of the entire space station will be destroyed. Therefore, a dedicated hatch was designed on the Wentian experimental module at the beginning. Once Wentian is connected, it will mainly exit the cabin from this dedicated hatch. The hatch made of the core module node module can serve as a backup.

Making different functions "backed up" is the most important means for aerospace engineering to ensure the safety and reliability of the system. The launch of the Wentian module not only provides more support and backup for the astronauts' lives and work, but more importantly, it has complete functions in flight control, manned environment, energy management, information management, etc., just like the Tianhe core module. If the core module is the most powerful brain of the Chinese space station, the Wentian experimental module is the "backup brain" that can take over at any time.

Wang Wei, Director of the Space Station General Research Office of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: The developers are more worried about the core module flight stage, because it has no backup, only this one module, and now the flight performance is very excellent. After the "Wentian" is launched, it can serve as a backup for the core module. So even if there are some disturbances, we will feel more confident and the overall reliability will be higher.

Scientific experiments are the main purpose of the Wentian laboratory module's launch. What kind of research will be conducted in the laboratory module? At the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the reporter saw the cabinet design for various experiments in the National Space Laboratory.

Zhang Wei, director of the Application Development Center of the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: The Wentian capsule is actually the first real experimental cabin, which includes four scientific experimental cabinets: life ecology, biotechnology, hybrid gravity and glove box. After the successful launch of the Wentian capsule, it will be able to support a large number of scientific experiments.

This time, the four experimental cabinets in the Wentian Experimental Module are mainly conducting research on space life sciences. In the life ecology experimental cabinet, two types of plants will be the first subjects to begin experiments.

Zhang Tao, head of the space life science instrument team at the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: The scientific goal is to enable seeds to grow into seedlings, to plants, and finally to bloom and bear seeds under microgravity conditions. In the space there is microgravity, and possibly radiation, while on the ground there are no such factors, so the growth cycle, fruiting, and even the flowering cycle and seed setting will be different. From a process perspective, it is very valuable for scientific research.

The rice launched into space this time is a dwarf rice variety called "Xiaowei" specially bred by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Compared with traditional rice, its shape is more suitable for planting in the space station.

Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: It is short, about 20 centimeters, and up to 30 centimeters. It was originally for theoretical research so that people can grow it anywhere. We hope that it will succeed, and after it arrives in space, it will start to take root and sprout, and gradually the whole life cycle can be realized.

If the experimental results go well, the astronauts on duty at the space station may have to take time out from time to time to do some farm work and plant a few crops of rice in space.

Cang Huaixing, a researcher at the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: After thoroughly studying the laws of plants in space, we can further cultivate food crops suitable for growing in space. In the future, whether it is the moon or even Mars, it will be very meaningful to grow food crops on Mars.

In the Wentian cabin, this one life ecology experiment cabinet alone can provide five experimental platforms, and each platform can have multiple experimental subjects.

Cang Huaixing, a researcher at the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: We can conduct research on zebrafish and duckweed, two organisms that constitute a very miniature ecological unit. There is also a project to conduct lung cell culture experiments on it. It is possible that radiation factors in the sky will cause lung cells to change and eventually evolve into tumor cells, which means cancer at the cellular level. Researching this is also very meaningful.

In addition to the experimental cabinets dedicated to life sciences, there are also some "public" experimental cabinets that provide special research conditions launched into space, including variable gravity science experimental cabinets, scientific glove boxes and low-temperature storage cabinets, which can provide more detailed experimental conditions for space science experiments.

In addition to the experimental cabinets inside the cabin, there are also many space exposure platforms outside the cabin for scientists to conduct experiments in a more open space environment. Currently, nearly a thousand scientific research projects have been planned for the entire space station.

Wang Ke, deputy chief engineer of the space application system of China's manned space program and director of the integrated technology center of the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: When we were on Tiangong-1, the target spacecraft had a life science experiment, which cost dozens of kilograms at the time. The entire mission was less than 500 kilograms, and it accounted for nearly one-tenth of it, with only one plant. How do we put it on the space station now? We only need to bring the plant growth unit up, which only costs a few kilograms. Our experimental cabinets provide all the lighting, environmental control, and data processing. This cabinet is equivalent to a field laboratory, and one experimental cabinet can support hundreds of scientific experiments in a rolling manner.

In order to enable astronauts to complete these tasks efficiently, the Chinese space station has built a payload operation management center on the ground. Scientists designing space experiments can monitor equipment debugging and operation progress in real time through videos and other information transmitted from the space station, and provide online guidance to astronauts.

Guo Lili, researcher at the Space Application Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: We call it remote science, or remote operation. Now the better way to use it is to realize the uplink and downlink network communication process through relay satellites. We can see the progress of the experiment in real time, discover some phenomena, and adjust strategies, plans or parameters in time to obtain better results.

For the Shenzhou-14 astronauts, the mission of building the National Space Laboratory is not over yet. Three months later, the second experimental module, the Mengtian experimental module, will be launched soon. After the Mengtian module is in place, the scientific research capabilities of the National Space Laboratory will be greatly enhanced again.

Zhang Wei, director of the Application Development Center of the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: We look forward to the birth of the first mouse in space and the nurturing of space life. We hope to prepare a large number of new materials to meet the needs of the country. At the same time, through future space astronomical observations, we hope to make new discoveries or reveal new laws on major issues such as the origin and evolution of the universe.

When the Shenzhou 14 crew set off in June, everyone said that this was the crew with the heaviest mission, and now it seems to be true. The rendezvous and docking was completed at 3:30 a.m. today, and the astronauts started their day's work at 8 a.m. There are a lot of states to set up and tests to be carried out. The cargo packages in the cabin will then be unpacked and the equipment will be installed. The work schedule is full. After the packing is completed, a series of space experiments will be carried out immediately, and extravehicular activities will also be carried out.

Our little friend "Wentian" is here, and in a few months, our little friend "Mengtian" will also go to space. We all look forward to the day when the three modules will meet and the Chinese space station will be basically completed.

Source: CCTV News Client