China on Monday unveiled its time-of-year station module aboard a Chang Zheng 5B rocket. The Mengtian module lifted off at 07:37 UTC and, once docked, will complete the initial structure phase of China’s Tiangong Station.
The launch of Mengtian’s laboratory cabin module, which means “Dreaming of the Heavens,” follows the successful addition of the Wentian module at China’s Tiangong Station on July 24. Like Wentian and the Tianhe main module that was unveiled in April 2021, Mengtian entered orbit aboard the Chinese Chang Zheng 5B (CZ-5B) rocket, also known in English as Long March 5B.
With a mass of 23,000 kg, a length of 17. 9 meters and a diameter of 4. 2 meters, Mengtian will supply an area for clinical experiments in weightlessness, an airlock for exposure to area vacuum and a small robotic arm for extravehicular payloads.
Mengtian is divided into 3 compartments. The crew operating compartment is a pressurized segment containing garage racks for clinical tools, as well as the docking interface that will connect Mengtian to Tianhe’s core module. The paint compartment contains a wide diversity of clinical tools and spaces, including:
The ultracold atom experiment aims to achieve a temperature of 10 picokelvins, which would break the record for the lowest temperature ever achieved by mankind, and surpass an experiment NASA conducted at the Cold Atom Lab aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
This experiment was expected to lead to the progression of a bloodless atomic clock founded in space, based on hydrogen and rubidium. it wouldn’t waste a moment of time in millions of years, according to Zhang Wei, director of the Space Utilization Development Center.
— Tiangong | China Space Station (@TiangongStation) February 14, 2022
Once fully assembled, Tiangong Station will have 23 experimental racks in its pressurized environment. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has already approved more than 1,000 experiments to be conducted aboard the station over the next few years.
Along with direct-to-science technique, the station is also used to teach young Chinese citizens about space. In the past, several question-and-answer queries were conducted from orbit, where schoolchildren can simply ask questions of station team members. The last consultation took position in March 2022.
Outside the equipment’s pressurized paint compartment is the unpressurized shipping module, which also comprises the airlock the equipment will use to release payloads outside the station. Pressurized and non-pressurized sections feature reaction control formula (RCS) propellants. to help direct the loose flight of the module and station once docking is complete.
At the end of Mengtian is the module. This includes places to buy outside experiments, a communication antenna and two solar panels to force the station. The solar panels are saved first to have module compatibility on the CZ-5B fairing and deploy in some time after launch.
Once in orbit, Mengtian will operate in loose flight as it adjusts its orbit to identify an encounter with Tiangong. In preparation for its arrival, the Wentian module moved to its final position on the station’s starboard port on 30 September. Tianhe port, where Mengtian will dock first. After a few months in this port, you will move to the port side of the station. This will give Tiangong its final T-shape, concluding its meeting phase.
Tiangong Space Station
The Tiangong Space Station, which means Palace in the Sky, is one of the two area stations that lately orbit the Earth, the other being the International Space Station. Compared to the ISS, Tiangong is small, with a projected mass of about 100,000 kg when assembled. That’s about a quarter of the ISS. It revolves around the Earth at an altitude between 381 and 385 km, with an orbital inclination of 41. 47 degrees.
On board, life is structured according to China Standard Time (CST). The team woke up at 07:00 (23:00 UTC) and started work an hour later, until 21:00 CST (13:00 UTC). The team, consisting of project commander Chen Dong, operator Liu Yang and formula operator Cai Xuzhe, arrived aboard Shenzhou-14 in June and is expected to return to Earth in December.
In the future, China intends for the Tiangong equipment to be permanent, without interruption of human presence. Before the departure of Shenzhou-14, a replacement team will arrive aboard Shenzhou-15, scheduled for launch on November 26. Another resupply of the station is planned with the Tianzhou-5 mission, scheduled to blast off on Nov. 12.
The assembly of the Tiangong area station began with the launch in April 2021 of the Tianhe main module. In July 2022, Wentian docked, meaning Mengtian’s arrival in November will see all of the station’s initial permanent modules docked to the complex. No other plans to expand the station have yet to be announced.
China also plans to launch Xuntian, China’s Area Telescope (CSST), in December 2023. Although it is not a component of the Tiangong area station itself, it is designed to operate in an orbit close to that of the station, allowing it to dock. for maintenance.
The telescope has a mass of 15,500 kg and is supplied with a two-meter number one mirror that will allow a three-hundred-to-350 times larger viewbox than Hubble. It is expected to capture up to 40% of the sky with a 2. 6-gigapixel sensor. camera during its operational life of ten years. It will be operated through the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Chang Zheng 5B
Mengtian showed up aboard a Chang Zheng five B rocket. The Chang Zheng series five are the toughest rockets in China’s existing fleet. With a height of five meters 6. 97 and a measurement of five meters of propellers CZ-five-300, each equipped with two YF-100 engines. Each propellant produces 2,400 kN at sea level, bringing the total rocket’s thrust at liftoff to 10,620 kN. The thrusters provide maximum thrust in the early flight levels, with the longer central combustion level acting as an aid and proceeding to burn up to orbit is much needed.
The edition used for this version is Chang Zheng 5B. This specification does not come with the CZ-5-HO moment level used in other editions and is used to lift very heavy payloads in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Three of its 4 statements, adding Monday’s, have been faithful to the assembly of the Tiangong-area station, whose modules are the heaviest payloads China has introduced into LEO.
The design of the CZ-5B means that the core level will have to enter orbit with its payload. This creates a challenge that has led to foreign complaints because the high level is not able to leave orbit, but goes out of control to re-enter. at any time along the path of its orbit with no way to direct it to a safe zone of influence.
In the past, this has led to higher rocket policy on social media, as other people tried to track and wait for the core level after the payload separated. The massive descent tube in the middle of the core was detected after a re-entry into the past, having survived the end of past missions.
There was no update in the technique or the installation of more hardware that would save you that rocket behavior.
In the end, a variant of the CZ-5, called CZ-5G, is planned. This three-core variant is the rocket China can use to launch manned lunar missions. It will feature up to 21 YF-100K engines in the first stage. More main points about its functions have not yet been published, and a first flight in many years is still planned.
The rocket that introduced Mengtian bore the serial number 5B-Y4. If the maximum time the serial number of Chinese rockets corresponds to the order in which they are introduced, this is not the case.
The launch took place from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, a spaceport in Wenchang, Hainan, a location selected in part for its proximity to the sea.
One of the goals of Wenchang’s implementation is to “avoid the sacrificed area”: to ensure that there is no potential danger to citizens in the vehicle’s stolen path. , when the rocket stages and payload fairings fell to Earth after separation.
China has conducted experiments with grid fins on some of its previous rockets to steer the stages as they descend. These experiments have not yet been mass-produced.
Take a look at the symbol in the virtual atlas @Soar_Earth here: https://t. co/bH2TjsGGBp ?️ https://t. co/rgafJTEf20 pic. twitter. com/fSohZrjsma
– Harry Stranger (@Harry__Stranger) October 6, 2022
Wenchang is lately used to launch CZ-5, CZ-7 and CZ-8 rockets and will also feature an announcement launch pad in the future. Mengtian will be Wenchang’s twentieth launch in total, the Launch Complexes 1 and 2 missions.
The rocket was deployed from its rendezvous construction to the launch pad on 25 October, allowing final arrangements to be made with the rocket in position on the launch pad. The CZ-5 launch pad moves between the rendezvous construction and the launch pad rails.
The Wenchang region also expects economic expansion of the developing release industry. With more and more people moving to the domain to work, there is also a theme park under construction, a recreation domain on the lake, and a massive coastal allocation involving tourism and vacation industry advertising.
(Main image: Launch of Wenchang’s Chang Zheng 5B. )
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