China's "Space Kiss" amazes the world
The space station is the darling of mankind's high-tech, integrating the great achievements of modern technology, and its construction and operation are a test of comprehensive scientific and technological capabilities.
Among them, the space rendezvous and docking called "Space Kiss" is undoubtedly one of the most critical and challenging core technologies.
After years of persistent hard work, Chinese scientific and technological workers have successfully achieved this technological breakthrough and continued to consolidate and upgrade it, making it shine in the construction of China's Tiangong Space Station, achieving one space feat one after another.
A big step in historical significance to achieve a breakthrough
Although "space rendezvous and docking" is a vocabulary of aerospace science and technology, it is already well-known to people, and it has become a part of daily life language, which has been spoken and used in daily life.
This has benefited from China's extensive practical activities in this field in recent years. Through extensive news reports, its connotations are familiar to many members of the public.
"Space Rendezvous and Docking" first widely entered the life of Chinese public society in 2011.
On November 3 of that year, the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft approached the Tiangong-1 space laboratory that was launched earlier.
The docking structure of the two gradually contacted, and then went through the steps of capturing, buffering, pulling in, and locking to successfully achieve a rigid connection to form a combined body.
The first space rendezvous and docking implemented by China's manned spaceflight was a complete success, achieving a major technological leap.
Hundreds of millions of viewers witnessed this wonderful scene of historical significance through television footage.
Twelve days after the combination flew, Shenzhou 8 separated from Tiangong-1 and successfully conducted rendezvous and docking tests with it again. This marked China's breakthrough in a series of key technologies such as space rendezvous and docking and combined operations.
To hundreds of millions of viewers, the leap may seem to be achieved in just a few days or even a few minutes, but for Chinese aerospace science and technology workers, this moment is the result of years or even decades of hard work.
Take the rendezvous and docking microwave radar as an example. The project started in 1999.
At that time, the 25th Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation initiated the development of a prototype of the rendezvous and docking microwave radar, and the research team began to tackle technical difficulties.
After 8 years, in 2007, the microwave radar engineering prototype was born.
In 2009, the rendezvous and docking microwave radar was formally adopted by the manned space project.
After that, the prototype product of microwave radar was delivered and applied to the sky, which made great contributions to the successful rendezvous and docking of Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-8, and also marked that China's space rendezvous and docking radar technology with completely independent intellectual property rights has become a world-class level.
Consolidate and improve for ten years and strive for perfection
The first battle is successful, and the Chinese space station has reached a new starting point. The next task is how to further consolidate and improve the stability, richness and efficiency of space rendezvous and docking technology.
To this end, Chinese aerospace science and technology workers have embarked on a new journey that lasted 10 years.
On June 18, 2012, the Shenzhou 9 manned spacecraft and Tiangong-1 established a rigid connection after capturing, buffering and correcting, pulling back, locking and other technical actions to form a composite body, further verifying the China Automated Space Rendezvous The docking technology is stable and reliable.
Six days later, under the precise control of the astronauts, the two completed the space rendezvous and docking.
China's first hand-controlled rendezvous and docking of astronauts was a complete success, which further enriched China's space rendezvous and docking methods and improved the safety of the implementation of space missions.
The Shenzhou 10 mission implemented in June 2013 continued to make progress in space rendezvous and docking technology, especially the successful orbiting flight experiment.
After the separation of Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1, Shenzhou 10 evacuated to a certain distance from Tiangong 1, and then carried out orbit change control according to a predetermined procedure, and flew from above Tiangong 1 to its rear. Under precise control, Shenzhou 10 turned into a forward flight attitude, and Tiangong-1 turned into an inverted flight attitude.
After that, the ground-controlled Shenzhou 10 approached Tiangong 1, successfully completing the close rendezvous.
The test successfully verified the spacecraft circumnavigation and multi-azimuth rendezvous technology, accumulating experience for the subsequent construction of the space station.
In November 2016, Shenzhou 11 carried out a rapid orbit change control verification test.
In September 2017, the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft and Tiangong-2 space laboratory started the "fast forward" mode during the third "hand in hand". In just 6.5 hours, they realized autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking. Compared with the traditional rendezvous and docking mode of more than two days, the efficiency is greatly improved.
Application to improve the construction of the space station outstanding meritorious service
With the official launch of the space station construction task, China's space rendezvous and docking technology has shown its talents and continues to improve in actual combat applications.
On May 30, 2021, the Tianhe core module of the China Space Station welcomed its first visitor-the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft.
Using autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking mode, Tianzhou-2 accurately docked to the rear port of the Tianhe core cabin. The entire process lasted about 8 hours.
On June 17, using the autonomous fast rendezvous and docking mode, Shenzhou 12 successfully docked at the forward port of the Tianhe core module. The entire rendezvous and docking process lasted about 6.5 hours.
This is the first rendezvous and docking of the manned spacecraft after the Tianhe core module was launched into orbit.
So far, relying on space rendezvous and docking technology, China Aerospace has formed a combination of a space station core cabin, a cargo spacecraft, and a manned spacecraft for the first time in space.
It is worth mentioning that after the Shenzhou 12 was separated from the Tianhe core module, it completed the circumnavigation and radial rendezvous test of the core module and the Tianzhou 2 combination, and successfully verified the radial rendezvous technology, which is a great success for Shenzhou. The radial rendezvous and docking on the 13th laid an important technical foundation.
Radial rendezvous and docking is a spacecraft approaching and docking from below another spacecraft. Due to the deviation of the orbital height between the two, continuous orbital control must be implemented during the docking process, and the attitude must be adjusted continuously, which is more difficult.
The success of the Shenzhou 12 radial rendezvous test shows that China Aerospace has the capability to implement radial rendezvous and docking.
Zhang Baoshu
Zhang Baoshu