How do residents of the Chinese space station "pass the time" after flying three to six months in orbit
◎Our reporter Fu Yifei and Cui Shuang
On June 16, Ji Qiming, assistant to the director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, confirmed at the press conference of the Shenzhou 12 manned mission that the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft will be crewed by astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo. It consists of three people.
How to select astronauts?
Where is the arduous task?
What preparations have they made for the upcoming life in space?
Huang Weifen, the chief designer of the astronaut system of China's manned space engineering, known as the "female astronaut coach", revealed the secrets one by one.
"God Twelve" crew takes on some special tasks
The mission of the space station is arduous and complicated. Huang Weifen said frankly that flying in orbit for three to six months poses a huge challenge to the training of astronauts and the development of supportive payloads.
The first is the challenge of physical fitness.
"The cumulative effect of long-term weightlessness on the human body's musculoskeletal and cardiovascular functions has increased significantly, and the mission of exiting the cabin also has higher requirements for the upper limb strength of the astronauts." Huang Weifen said, during the manned flight, the astronauts have to experience overweight. , Vibration, noise, weightlessness, rotating impact and other environmental conditions.
Living in a small environment for a long time, away from family members and familiar environments, weightlessness, vibration, and noise can easily make them feel irritable, depressed and other bad moods.
In addition, because the mission of the space station is extremely difficult and complex, astronauts need to master a lot of professional knowledge and skills, including the ability to live and work in orbit for a long time; artificially control the rendezvous, docking, evacuation and compartments of manned spacecraft, cargo spacecraft, and experimental cabins The ability of translocation, etc.; the ability to perform tasks such as out of the cabin.
For the Shenzhou 12 crew, there are still some special tasks.
"The Shenzhou 12 mission is the first strategic flight of the space station mission. Therefore, they have to complete some relatively unique tasks, mainly participating in the long-term residence of the space station mission, regeneration and life support, exit activities, space material supply, and robotic arm operation control. And other key technology verification." Huang Weifen said, a series of experimental tests such as the study of human physiological behavior ability in space flight, the analysis and processing of medical samples, etc. will be carried out, and the space station management, material inventory, daily maintenance, etc. will be carried out as follow-up tasks. Lay the foundation.
The old and the new match the old with the new
Huang Weifen introduced that according to the plan, there were 4 manned flights in the space station’s key technology verification and construction phases.
In view of the characteristics of these 4 missions, the astronaut system selected 4 flight crews at a time in accordance with the principles of overall planning, matching of new and old, inheritance and development. Each crew was composed of 3 astronauts, and the commander was composed of Astronauts with experience in manned flight.
“In the selection, we comprehensively considered the matching of flight experience, requirements for out-of-cabin activities with their respective tasks, age-old-new-old collocation, psychological compatibility and other factors to determine the crew.” She said, “We have increased our clinical The investigation of potential problems has increased the susceptibility of high-altitude decompression sickness to ensure that the physical fitness and health of the astronauts can meet the requirements of the mission."
In terms of psychological quality, it takes into account the characteristics of long-term tasks, the needs of different roles for the characteristics of psychological quality, compatibility, etc., and focuses on evaluating the emotional stability of the crew and the ability to deal with crisis.
In order to improve actual combat capabilities, she introduced that each group of astronauts participated in a 30-day comprehensive simulation verification test. In the simulation cabin, the astronauts worked and lived in accordance with the orbital life system and flight procedures.
Space science education will become a normal job
In the future, astronauts will stay on the space station for three to six months. How will they spend their free time?
What should I do if I am sick?
Huang Weifen introduced that astronauts can listen to music, play games, watch videos, watch live TV in real time, and make calls to the ground at any time.
They can also send messages, pictures, videos, etc. to relatives and friends on the ground through the local area network.
She revealed that the astronauts also carried personal items within the weight limit, such as favorite books and photos.
When asked whether the Shenzhou 12 crew would conduct "space teaching", Huang Weifen said that although there may not be large-scale science live broadcasts such as space teaching, on-orbit space science education must be the normalization of future space station missions. One of the tasks, such as conducting popular science activities in conjunction with astronauts’ life, work, and experimental tests.
In addition, the spacecraft is also equipped with more than a hundred commonly used drugs and medical equipment. If astronauts become ill, they can deal with it in time. "Because of the long flight time, our training on medical knowledge and skills for astronauts has also increased greatly. Their self-rescue and The ability to rescue each other has been greatly improved." Huang Weifen said.