Female astronauts hold up "half the sky" in space
Pang Zhihao
On October 16, the "Shenzhou 13" spacecraft sent three astronauts into the "Tianhe" core module of China's "Tiangong" space station, including female astronaut Wang Yaping.
They will stay in the core cabin for 6 months.
This will not only set the record for the longest continuous stay of our astronauts in orbit, but will also be the first female astronaut to usher in our space station.
Wang Yaping will also go out of the cabin and become the first woman in China to walk in space.
So, what is the difference between the selection and training of male and female astronauts?
What difficulties do female astronauts have to overcome, and what advantages do they have in space?
1 Female astronauts need to overcome more difficulties
Because manned space activities have the characteristics of arduous tasks, complex skills, special environments, and high risks, they need to overcome a series of difficulties and obstacles such as weightlessness, overweight, hypoxia, loneliness, vibration, and noise. The quality requirements are very high, otherwise it will be difficult to complete space missions, and female astronauts are no exception.
At present, the selection and training standards for male and female astronauts are basically the same, and there is no specific selection and training standard for female astronauts.
It's just that female applicants who participate in the selection of astronauts have one more gynecological examination than male astronauts, and the pregnancy is tested before all radiological examinations. Those who are pregnant cannot participate in the selection.
However, in the early space activities, due to political, technological and other factors, there were obvious differences in the selection requirements for female astronauts between the United States and the Soviet Union.
For example, in order to be the world's "No. 1 in space," the selection of the first female astronauts in the Soviet Union did not fully adopt the selection criteria for male astronauts.
Tereshkova, who became the world's first female astronaut in space in 1963, was selected from skydivers, not pilots.
According to job characteristics, professional astronauts can be divided into flight experts and mission experts.
Flight experts are selected from fighter pilots, but mission experts are not necessarily.
So far, more than 100 female astronauts have been selected all over the world, and their number accounts for only 10% of the total number of astronauts, and most of them are mission experts, with very few flight experts.
This is due to the physical and psychological differences between male and female astronauts. For example, women have more fat, less hemoglobin, short average height, low average weight, and low aerobic exercise capacity.
It is more difficult for women to enter the space flight, especially to solve some special problems.
For example, from the perspective of sanitation, female astronauts need to use more water and bring some sanitary supplies.
2 The first female astronaut in space came from the Soviet Union
The first female astronaut in the world to enter space was Tereshkova of the Soviet Union. She flew the Vostok 6 to the sky on June 16, 1963.
Tereshkova had no experience in flying an airplane, and was not very comfortable with high-speed flying when she first went to the sky.
She completed the biomedical and technological expedition during this flight and proved that women can also live and work normally in space.
However, within 19 years after Tereshkova went to heaven, the Soviet Union did not send any more female astronauts to the sky. Until August 19, 1982, the Soviet Union sent a second female astronaut, Savitskaya, into space. It was the first woman who made her a spacewalk in the world during her subsequent flight.
Savitskaya also accomplished her mission brilliantly. On July 25, 1984, Savitskaya became the world's first woman to walk in space during her last space flight.
While serving as a random engineer on the "Soyuz T-12", she went to the "Salute 7" space station to complete the metal cutting and welding work.
This success shows that women can not only work and live on the manned space station, but also effectively engage in various operations outside the cabin.
On March 22, 1995, Russian female astronaut Kondakova returned from space on the "Soyuz TM-20" spacecraft. She lived on the "Peace" space station for 169 days, creating a world where women stayed in space continuously at that time new record.
The purpose of this flight is to study whether women can quickly adapt to the weightless environment, and how long-term space flight affects women.
Because women have stayed in space for less than 15 days before, and Kondakova has lived and worked in space for nearly half a year.
In 2014, Serova became the first Russian female astronaut to board the International Space Station. This is the first time a Russian woman has returned to space after nearly 20 years.
Serova stayed on the "International Space Station" for 6 months.
3 The United States has the most female astronauts into space
Although the United States lost to the Soviet Union in terms of competing for the world’s first female astronaut in space and the world’s first female astronaut in space walks, there are only four female astronauts in space compared to Soviet Russia. The number of astronauts is even greater, reaching nearly 50.
The mother of the first space flight was Fischer in the United States. She took to the sky on November 8, 1984 on the space shuttle Discovery.
Female astronauts who are married and give birth go to space and choose natural childbirth rather than caesarean section to give birth, the purpose is to avoid scar rupture.
In the process of space flight, sometimes there is a low pressure situation. At this time, due to the high pressure of the human body, it is easy to cause scars to open.
The first female pilot and commander of the space shuttle was Collins. She entered space as a pilot on the space shuttle Discovery for the first time on February 3, 1995, and on July 23, 1999, on the Columbia for the first time as commander. The space shuttle went into space.
The female astronaut with the longest duration of a single extravehicular activity was Helms of the United States. She and a male astronaut took 8 hours and 56 minutes to exit the capsule on March 11, 2001. This is still world record.
The first female commander of the International Space Station was Whitson, who became the first female commander of the International Space Station on October 12, 2007.
Whitson is also the female astronaut with the longest accumulated space flight time, reaching 665 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes.
She also maintained the world record of 10 women's spacewalks, accumulating 60 hours and 21 minutes.
American female astronaut Williams "ran" a marathon for the first time in the "International Space Station" on April 16, 2007.
On September 16, 2012, 46-year-old Williams completed the triathlon on the International Space Station, becoming the first person to complete the sport in space.
She used the resistance exercise equipment, exercise bikes and treadmills on the "International Space Station" to complete the "swimming", cycling and running events in 1 hour, 48 minutes and 43 seconds.
The female astronaut who has stayed the longest in space in a row is Koch of the United States. In 2020, she set a world record for women with a continuous stay of 328 days in space.
4 China customized extravehicular space suits for female astronauts
The first two female astronauts in our country were selected from married but not pregnant transport plane pilots. At that time, there were no female fighter pilots in our country.
Our astronauts are all married, so that firstly, the physical and psychological qualities are more mature; secondly, they have flight experience and the flight time meets the standard.
On June 16, 2012, the "Shenzhou 9" manned spacecraft sent China's first female astronaut Liu Yang into space.
After going to heaven, Liu Yang investigated the physiological and psychological changes of women in the space environment, collected relevant medical first-hand data, strengthened the psychological construction of the crew, and provided important reference information for the current long-term investigation team of China's space station.
Liu Yang completed 15 space medical experiments in this mission.
In order to ensure the living conditions of China’s first female astronaut in space, scientific and technological personnel have made improvements to the "Shenzhou Nine" spacecraft, and modified the in-vehicle spacesuits and seats she used, and added female astronauts. The in-cabin clothing spare parts bag is equipped with a set of in-cabin pressure suits for female astronauts and a female-specific hygiene kit.
Women's hands are slender, and the original gloves are bulky. Therefore, a special model for female astronauts' hands was developed and women's special gloves were developed.
It is reported that taking into account the needs of female astronauts in the sky, the height and relative position of the urine and feces collector have also been partially modified, and there are special equipment for women, such as adapters.
Chocolates, sweets and blood foods were also prepared for the female astronauts.
Wang Yaping, like Liu Yang, is the seventh batch of female pilots in China. Born in January 1980, she went to the sky on the "Shenzhou 10" spacecraft in 2013 and worked on the "Tiangong-1" for 12 days.
In addition to routine aircraft status monitoring, equipment control and space experiments, she is mainly responsible for space teaching and crew life care, becoming China's first space teacher.
In this "Shenzhou 13" spacecraft mission, more perfect preparations were made for the spacecraft and space station for female astronauts.
Prior to the launch of the "Tianzhou-3" cargo spacecraft, there were clothing cargoes aimed at women, including extravehicular space suits suitable for female astronauts and other changing clothes.
In addition, there are hygiene products, cosmetics, etc., which are specially prepared for female astronauts.
In terms of overall design, the women’s extravehicular spacesuit sent by "Tianzhou III" has the same performance as other second-generation "Flying" extravehicular spacesuits, but the size is specially designed according to Wang Yaping's figure, so it is more Fit and flexible when exiting the cabin, it can reduce physical exertion and improve work efficiency.
One of the important reasons why foreign female astronauts are less out of the cabin is because there are no women-only extravehicular spacesuits.
According to the plan, this time, Wang Yaping will perform the first female spacewalk mission in China, thus giving birth to the first female astronaut in China to explore the experience of female spacewalking.
Female astronauts are small in size and can easily control the movement of their bodies when walking in space, and can complete some detailed tasks more flexibly.
5 Female astronauts have unique advantages in space
After decades of research and practice, people have discovered that the role of female astronauts in space activities is different from that of male astronauts. Female astronauts also have their own unique advantages in space, such as:
In terms of physical structure and psychological quality, female astronauts have a longer-lasting adaptability to the space environment, stronger loneliness resistance, and stable psychological quality;
Female astronauts feel more sensitive in some aspects, have more detailed minds, consider problems more comprehensively, pay more attention to ways and methods when dealing with problems, and have stronger language expression and communication skills;
Female astronauts can bring vitality to the crew. Men and women working together can make the two parties cooperate smoothly, proactively, with high work efficiency and low error rate;
Because women are better than men in the metabolism of estrogen and magnesium in the environment of weightlessness in space, the iron content and waste produced in the body are also lower, so they are not prone to thrombosis, iron poisoning, vasospasm, heart rhythm disorders and other problems. They are more suitable for long-term loading. Human spaceflight
Women’s going to heaven is also conducive to comprehensive medical research. Without women participating in manned spaceflight, the results of space life science research would be incomplete.
Practice has shown that during the space flight, the female astronauts had no abnormal menstruation.
On the other hand, during menstruation, decompression sickness is likely to occur if you go out of the capsule, which is caused by the decrease in blood volume of the whole body, so female astronauts are not suitable for spacewalking during menstruation.
In the future, humans will land on Mars.
Due to the long distance to Mars, it is better for the Mars crew to be equipped with a female astronaut, both physically and psychologically.