Tiangong - Chinese Space Station

[GELORD]

LIVE: November 03, 2022 UTC 01h00mn
http://w.yangshipin.cn/video?type=2&vid=2017388803&pid=600134538&ptag=4_2.5.2.23195_sina
中国空间站“T”字基本构型即将完成组装

[GELORD]

CCTV13 LIVE: https://tv.cctv.com/live/cctv13/?spm=C28340.P33mzKYr9

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/wulei2020/status/1587992308527509504

China Manned Space Agency has announced the country completed the #transposition of #Mengtian lab module at 9:32 a.m. (BJT) on Thursday. Mengtian separated from the combination first, then it rotated and finally re-docked with #Tianhe core module at a permanent position.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/segeryu/status/1587995902622695424

Time-lapse video of Mengtian's experimental cabin after indexing: fine adjustment of the robotic arm ~ re-docking completed

[FutureSpaceTourist]

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/wulei2020/status/1588086675246182402

Congratulations! Shenzhou14 crew have entered their new home — the #Mengtian lab module！

Let's hear what they have to say！

Earlier this morning, the Mengtian completed its rotation and was relocated to the port side of the space station.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/segeryu/status/1588069456181628934

Happy new cabin

[Rondaz]

China announced the completion of the assembly of the configuration of its orbital station.

China completes basic configuration of its Tiangong space station.

07:52 03.11.2022

BEIJING, November 3 - RIA Novosti. China successfully completed the assembly of the main configuration of its Tiangong space station on Thursday, after the successful re-docking of the Mengtian laboratory module, three compartments of the station formed a T-shaped object in orbit, according to China's manned flight program administration.

"The movement of the Mengtian laboratory module was successfully completed on November 3 at 9:32 a.m. Beijing time (4:32 Moscow time) ... The crew of the Shenzhou-14 ship will enter the Mengtian module in the afternoon," the agency said in a statement.

The module first undocked from the station, after which, using the manipulator, it moved to a certain angle and docked with the side docking port of the Tianhe compartment, the whole process took about one hour.

The move of the Mengtian laboratory module marks the completion of the in-orbit assembly of the basic T-configuration of the Chinese space station.

The launch of the Mengtian module using the Long March-5B carrier rocket took place on October 31 at 15.37 Beijing time (10.37 Moscow time) from the Wenchang Cosmodrome on Hainan Island , approximately 13 hours after launch, the module docked with the main compartment of the station in orbit height of 400-450 kilometers.

The Mengtian module weighs 23 tons, is 17.9 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter, and has 110 cubic meters of airtight interior space, including 32 cubic meters of living and working space. The equipment installed in the experimental module will be used to study microgravity and conduct experiments in the field of fluid physics, materials science, combustion science and fundamental physics.

The basic configuration of the Tiangong station now consists of the main compartment of the Tianhe and two laboratory modules docked with it, Wentian and Mengtian, the three objects together weigh approximately 69 tons. During further operation, it will be possible to simultaneously dock a maximum of two manned spacecraft (during a crew change) and one cargo ship to the station, and in this case, the entire complex of three modules and three spacecraft will weigh about 90 tons. At the moment, a cargo ship "Tianzhou-4" and a manned "Shenzhou-14" are docked to the station from three compartments.

China began construction of the Tiangong National Orbital Station on April 29, 2021, when the Tianhe main module weighing 22.5 tons, 16.6 meters long and with a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters was successfully launched into orbit. The main module is equipped with two docking stations for experimental compartments, as well as three docking ports for docking manned and cargo ships. In July of this year, the Wentian laboratory module weighing 23.2 tons, 17.9 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter successfully docked with the station.

The total living space of the station after completion of construction reaches approximately 110 cubic meters, it can simultaneously accommodate three astronauts or six people during a crew change. The designed operational resource of the station is designed for 15 years - until 2038. In addition, at the end of 2023, it is planned to launch the Xuntian Autonomous Astrophysical Module with an optical telescope, which will periodically dock with the station for maintenance.

At the moment, the station is the crew of the manned spacecraft "Shenzhou-14" of three people, who arrived at the "Tiangong" in July. The Shenzhou-14 crew is expected to take part in the first crew rotation at the Chinese orbital station, after which Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will return to Earth in December this year , while the Shenzhou-15 crew will remain in orbit.

https://ria.ru/20221103/kitay-1828852768.html

[edzieba]

https://twitter.com/segeryu/status/1587995902622695424

Time-lapse video of Mengtian's experimental cabin after indexing: fine adjustment of the robotic arm ~ re-docking completed

That's unexpected: the translation arm detached from the core module (remaining attached to Mengtian) rather than vice-versa after completing the translation.

:EDIT:: Unexpected based on visualisations, but looking closely at the approach footage both Mengtian and Wentian possess their own arms:

https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1587867932188704771

First-person video of Mengtian laboratory cabin module docking with Tiangong Space Station (CSS). Full HD:

[Rondaz]

The Chinese National Space Laboratory will start operation following the completion of the construction of #Tiangong China Space Station..

https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1587997840940314627

[Satori]

Can some of our Chinese-speaking friends translate what it is written on the screen?

Thank you.

[eeergo]

Core stage reentry might be interesting, but the payload is even more:

Mengtian has been (quickly!) relocated to the side port via the "Lyappa-like" arm and has already been accessed by the crew!

https://twitter.com/SegerYu/status/1588069456181628934

This means CSS is now complete, at least in its initial core configuration, as is the third of three major steps in the Chinese manned space program, alongside the recent establishment of permanent habitation with SZ-13/14, and the upcoming SZ-14/15 rotation! Quite a momentous occasion.

CSS will enter full utilization operations now, and possible expansions with the backup units of the primary modules may take place. Of course, there's also the Moon, and the next-generation capsule to replace Shenzhou

EDIT: Videos of the relocation: https://twitter.com/SegerYu/status/1588008450990440449

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Can some of our Chinese-speaking friends translate what it is written on the screen?

Thank you.

08:48:05 Docking ring pulling back to initial position

08:48:08 Capture locks locked shut

08:48:09 Docking ring pull back completed

08:48:19 Start of module rotation mechanism motion

09:17:35 Module rotation completed

09:19:50 Soft capture of docking ring

09:19:51 Docking ring moved out to contact position

09:26:06 Module rotation mechanism arm separation completed

All times are UTC+8.

[Rondaz]

Watch China's Shenzhou-14 crew enter Mengtian lab in space for 1st time

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/segeryu/status/1588219258575945728

The exposure platform was also launched yesterday👆👇

twitter.com/segeryu/status/1576347831837020160

[Rondaz]

US Alternative. What gives the world the Chinese space station

08:00 04.11.2022 (updated: 08:15 04.11.2022)

MOSCOW, November 4 - RIA Novosti, Nikolai Guryanov. China has completed its own multi-module orbital station. This makes manned flights into deep space possible. But the project has not only technical and scientific goals. Beijing has received dividends in both domestic and foreign policy.

Chinese "World"

Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) is the second multi-module space station currently in operation. And the only national one - the ISS belongs to several countries.

In April 2021, the Tianhe (Harmony of Heaven) base module was launched into orbit. Then two laboratories were added to it - "Wentian" ("In Search of Heaven") in July and "Mengtian" ("Dreams of Heaven") in November.

In 2023, they plan to launch an autonomous module with the Xuntian (Sky Sentinel) telescope into the same orbit, which can sometimes dock with the station for maintenance.

Tiangong flies around the Earth at an altitude of 400 to 450 kilometers. The orbital inclination is 41.5 degrees. This is slightly lower than that of the ISS (51.6), which makes it possible to better view China from the window of the "palace". Interestingly, such an inclination does not allow launching spacecraft to the station from Russian spaceports - they are located at too high latitudes.

The main advantage of Tiangong over previous space stations is its “youth”. The computing power of an ordinary modern car has long exceeded that provided by Americans traveling to the moon . If the ISS was created on the technologies of the 90s, then Chinese engineers had the opportunity to use the latest electronics and materials.

At the same time, the conceptually new space object is more similar to the Mir station than to the ISS, notes Andrey Ionin , corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, chief analyst of the GLONASS non-profit partnership. Tiangong has roughly the same structure as a Soviet orbital outpost and a similar mass.

Three Sky Palace modules weigh 69 tons. Docking with the maximum possible number of ships - two manned and one transport - increases this figure to 90 (the mass of the Mir was more than 100 tons, and the ISS - 420). In the future, the size of the station can be increased with new compartments.

"Tiangun" is designed for the work of three taikonauts (from the Chinese taikun - "space"). They have 110 cubic meters of living space at their disposal. During a shift change, six people can be at the station at the same time.

Unlike the ISS and Mir, the Heavenly Palace will not be "inhabited", but "visited" - that is, the crew is not supposed to stay permanently at the station.

A standard manned mission lasts six months. As shown by the Soviet, Russian, and then international experience of long-term flights, such a period allows a person to be in space continuously without any special health consequences, Ionin explains. The first rotation of the crew on the Tiangong was scheduled for December.

China is going to send two manned spacecraft and two transport vehicles to the station every year.

The “warranty” period of operation of the object is 15 years, until 2038. It can be extended, but such a design still has a life limit. In this, the Chinese project is similar to the ISS, which has almost exhausted its resource. Interestingly, one of the concepts of the Russian orbital Service Station (ROSS) assumed the replaceability of any of its elements according to the Lego principle, thus, the service life became infinite.

When one economy is not enough

According to Ionin, although the Chinese station does not give the world astronautics anything fundamentally new, it helps the country master critical technologies for space exploration.

“To paraphrase Neil Armstrong , this is a small step for all mankind, but a huge step for China,” the expert says. — The country acquires two main competencies. The first is the creation in space of long-term manned objects capable of existing for decades. This is a kind of skill that theoretically you will not get. They are only achieved through practice. The word "creation" means both development and subsequent operation, the operation of the mission control center, the solution of constantly arising problems, and so on. The second is a set of technologies associated with a person's stay in space for a long time."

They were owned by the Soviet Union before they were created, and then by Russia . The United States entered the ISS project in many ways in order to gain this experience as quickly as possible and first-hand, Ionov points out.

China didn't have that opportunity. Partly because of the attitude towards the independent development of the space industry, partly because of external restrictions. So, in 2011, Congress banned NASA from cooperating with the China National Space Administration (CNSA), cutting off Beijing from American space technology. According to Ionov, the interaction between Russia and China in this area was quite favorable, although "somewhat cautious."

"But it was a theoretical experience. Further space exploration - manned flights to the Moon, Mars , and so on - is impossible without gaining practical skills. You need to learn how to create habitable objects. Make it so that a person can stay in space for a long time, adapt, maintain health, and then undergo post-flight adaptation on Earth. China is following this path: it gains experience that can only be acquired on its own. You can’t learn to fight or explore space from textbooks,” the expert emphasizes.
The creation of its own station is extremely important for Beijing in a political sense as well.

“Chinese society is in a state of self-assertion as a great power,” explains sinologist Nikolai Vavilov. - The country's economy has grown more than 50 times over the lifetime of one generation. However, this is not enough for China to acquire the status of a great power in the eyes of its own people. This requires progress in other areas.”

One of them was the victory at the Beijing Olympics, where the national team took third place. Achievements in space should be considered in the same row, the expert believes.

“The creation of the station, and, what is important, without the help and cooperation with other states, means that China has acquired the highest status in science and high technologies. A similar effect was achieved in the middle of last year, when the construction of the Beidou satellite navigation system was completed," Vavilov notes.

Science: Russia in action

An extensive scientific program is planned for Tiangong. Some of the experiments, in fact, will be a repetition of those that were carried out on Mir and the ISS. Thus, the country will receive its own material and check the reproducibility of experiments (and this is an important aspect of scientific work). But there will also be innovative research. They will touch upon the formation and evolution of the cosmic structure, dark matter and dark energy, exoplanets and stars. “We look forward to achieving a number of major discoveries,” Hao Chun, head of the China Manned Space Program Office (CMSA), said in April.

One of the brightest events will be the study of combustion under weightless conditions. The fire will be lit in a special sealed chamber located in the Mentian module. The spread of the flame, its extinction and the formation of soot will be monitored using high-speed imaging.

The flagship experiment will be the High Energy Cosmic Ray Detector, or HERD. A device weighing about four tons, developed jointly with European scientists, will be installed on the anti-aircraft (“upper”) side. With its help, scientists hope to reveal the secret of dark matter.

China emphasizes its openness to the world, inviting other countries and international organizations to cooperate on Tiangong.

"In the development of manned space exploration, China has relied on its own strength, but it has always been facing the world. We look forward to the Chinese space station becoming a space home for all mankind as soon as possible," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman  Zhao Lijian said , commenting on the successful launch of the Mengtian module.

Back in 2016, China signed an agreement with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), as a result of which nine foreign scientific projects were selected for implementation in the Sky Palace. In addition to European researchers from France , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , scientists from countries for which space is difficult to access - Mexico , Peru and Kenya will be able to implement their ideas .

Russia is also involved. The Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INASAN), together with Indian colleagues , has developed a spectrograph for the study of nebular gas (SING, Spectroscopic Investigation Of Nebular Gas), which will allow observing planetary nebulae and supernova remnants in the ultraviolet range. It is expected to start operating in 2023. True, there are fears in the Indian media that worsening relations between Beijing and New Delhi amid clashes on the border of the two countries may prevent him. In the meantime, preparations for the study are going according to plan.

According to Vavilov, inviting developing countries to participate in the project also allows Beijing to solve geopolitical problems.

“Against the background of developed countries, China's success does not seem so outstanding. Obviously, Beijing is positioning itself as the leader of developing countries. There is a kind of positioning from the opposite - from the United States, which is wreaking havoc, trying to achieve economic privileges in working with third countries, primarily Latin America , Africa . Beijing demonstrates that there is an alternative to the global leader - in space, in culture, in science, in the economy, in sports," the expert believes.

Future: a ship several kilometers long

In recent years, China has made significant progress in space exploration with the help of drones. So, in 2020, the Chang'e-5 apparatus not only successfully landed on the moon, but also brought regolith samples to Earth. In 2021, the first Chinese rover Tianwen-1 (Questions to the Sky) began work. The next step in the independent space program is to land a man on the Moon or Mars. When exactly this will happen, Beijing has not yet said, but preparations are already underway.

With an eye on a manned mission to the Moon, a super-heavy launch vehicle "Changzheng-9" ("Long March") is being developed, which should bring a payload mass of up to 140 tons into low reference orbit (LEO) and up to 50 tons into geostationary orbit (GSO) . The rocket is expected to fly in 2030. The United States , we recall, planned to return to the natural satellite of the Earth in 2025, but these dates may be shifted to the right. And the risk of losing the new lunar race worries  Washington .

China also has more ambitious developments. Last summer, the country's National Endowment for Natural Sciences called on scientists to join a five-year project to study the mechanics of an "ultra-large spacecraft several kilometers long." It should become "the main strategic aerospace tool for the future use of space resources and the exploration of the mysteries of the universe."
According to the published plan, the modular spacecraft will need to be launched in parts and assembled already in space.

Approximately $2.3 million was allocated for development. The deadline is in five years. The challenge for researchers is to minimize the weight of the spacecraft in order to reduce construction costs.

It is not yet clear whether this project will be realized, and if so, after what time. However, the pace of development of the Chinese space program gives hope that in the foreseeable future, people will have a real chance to fly to other planets.

https://ria.ru/20221104/kosmos-1829008297.html

[Rondaz]

Solar transit of the fully assembled and "H"-shaped China Space Station!

https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1588422680608641024

[Rondaz]

The exposed payloads platform on Mengtian was flipped at 07:19:11UTC on NOV.03

https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1588336422414848000

[Rondaz]

A better video of the module movement:

https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1588491647427674112

[Rondaz]

China Space Station transit sun. H or T? Or TIE?

https://twitter.com/mickeywzx/status/1588459901336006657