"Her Power" shines on China Space Station (Building Dream "Space House"-China Space Station Construction Notes (13))
In a blink of an eye, the Shenzhou 13 astronauts have been stationed in the Chinese space station for more than one month, and have spent one-sixth of their space life in six months.
During this period, three Chinese astronauts completed important tasks such as exiting the capsule.
Wang Yaping, who entered into space for the second time, became China's first female astronaut to walk out of the capsule, setting a new record in China's aerospace and also contributing "her strength" to the development of the world's aerospace.
Out of the cabin activities attract the attention of the world
On November 7, Beijing time, the crew of Shenzhou 13 astronauts carried out their first out of the capsule.
After getting out of the cabin door, Wang Yaping moved along the exit handrail to the installation operation point to assist Zhai Zhigang in installing the robotic arm suspension and adapter.
In addition, she also stood on the robotic arm to test typical movements outside the cabin.
The historic "first step" of the Chinese female astronauts was accurate and steady.
Before Wang Yaping, since 1984, 15 women around the world had carried out space outing activities.
Wang Yaping's walk out of the cabin this time also attracted the attention and admiration of the world.
Former NASA astronaut Katie Coleman sent a message to Wang Yaping: "When you look out the window, you see the vast stars, you see the earth, don’t forget, women all over the world also look out the window through your eyes. ,including me."
Behind the success is China's deep accumulation and hard power.
For female astronauts participating in flight missions, the Shenzhou 13 mission has made more perfect preparations for the spacecraft and space station.
Lin Xiqiang, a spokesperson for China’s Manned Space Engineering and deputy director of the Office of China’s Manned Space Engineering, said that the Shenzhou 13 mission analyzed the physical characteristics and individual needs of female astronauts, focusing on targeted aspects such as life security and health security. Designed to ensure long-term flight, healthy living and efficient work of female astronauts.
During the exit mission, Wang Yaping wore a new extravehicular space suit with the golden yellow of the stars in the national flag.
According to experts, this new outer suit is exclusively for female astronauts, and its size is specially designed according to Wang Yaping's figure.
In terms of structural design, the new outerwear has been optimized for fit, which makes the alignment of the knee and ankle joints more accurate, and is suitable for small and thin female astronauts.
When working out of the cabin, the new outer suits are well-fitted and flexible to help the astronauts reduce physical exertion, improve work efficiency, and smoothly perform the mission.
The Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft launched earlier, in addition to carrying garments and other garments for female astronauts, also brought sanitary products, cosmetics and other items to provide adequate protection for the female astronauts’ space life.
In the next five months of life on the space station, Wang Yaping will also have an exclusive mission-to teach the "Second Space Lesson" on the space station.
During the Shenzhou 10 mission in 2013, Wang Yaping gave a vivid space lesson to 60 million primary and middle school students across the country.
The message of "Flying dreams never lose weight, and scientific dreams have infinite tension" has planted space dreams in many children's hearts.
It can be expected that the second "Space Teaching" in the near future will be more exciting and more interesting.
Unique advantages and hard training
In an interview, Wang Yaping said that her previous flight experience gave her a deep understanding of the advantages and characteristics of female astronauts.
"Women's unique affinity, toughness, patience, and carefulness play a unique advantage in task completion and crew coordination."
In space activities, female astronauts have many advantages.
Pang Zhihao, the chief science communication expert of national space exploration technology, said that in terms of body size, female astronauts are small in size and can easily control the movement of the body during space walks, and can complete some detailed tasks more flexibly. In terms of physiology, women can interact with estrogen and estrogen in a weightless environment in space. Magnesium’s metabolism is better than that of men. The iron content and waste produced in the body are lower. It is less prone to thrombosis, iron poisoning, vasospasm, heart rhythm disorders and other problems. It is more suitable for manned spaceflight. In terms of psychology, female astronauts are more sensitive to the space environment. The adaptability is longer, the ability to tolerate loneliness is stronger, the problem is more comprehensive, the language expression and communication skills are also stronger, and the male and female astronauts work together with high efficiency and less error rate.
In addition, the entry of female astronauts into space is also conducive to comprehensive medical research.
It can be said that without women participating in manned spaceflight, the results of space life science research are incomplete.
Exploring space, women can hold up half of the sky.
However, the harsh environment of space will not be changed by the arrival of women, nor will the threshold be lowered specifically for women.
Manned spaceflight activities require arduous tasks, complex skills, special environments, and high risks. They need to overcome many difficulties such as weightlessness, overweight, hypoxia, vibration, and noise, and require high physiological and psychological conditions for astronauts.
In astronaut training, the training content and standards for female astronauts and male astronauts are basically the same.
Wang Yaping said that when doing high-intensity and high-load out-of-cabin training underwater, astronauts need to wear a 200 kg underwater training suit, which requires a very heavy training load for six or seven hours.
Since the body is not as strong as a male astronaut, Wang Yaping has no advantage over the control ability of the extravehicular spacesuit.
Wearing the same clothes often requires twice the strength to complete the action.
In order to narrow the gap with male astronauts, they can only practice non-stop.
Gu Zhiming, Wang Yaping’s physical training instructor, said that every time he trains, Wang Yaping will increase his arm strength for the task of exiting the cabin, practice shot puts, push-ups, and barbell lifts.
After each practice, although the body is very exhausted, Wang Yaping is very happy because the technique has improved again and he has taken a step away from his dream.
"Everyone has full confidence in the female astronauts going out of the cabin, and I have confidence myself." Wang Yaping once said before carrying out the Shenzhou 13 mission.
After entering the space station and exiting the cabin smoothly, her dream finally came true.
Female tech workers take on important tasks
In recent years, China has increased the training of female astronauts.
From the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft transported the first female astronaut Liu Yang into space in 2012, to now Wang Yaping successfully exited the capsule, the female power of China's spaceflight shines in the sky of the universe.
In the process of realizing the dream of China's Space House, from front to behind the scenes, there are many female scientific and technological workers taking on important responsibilities and taking the lead, delivering positive energy to women all over the world to fear hardships and pursue their dreams.
Huang Weifen, the chief designer of the astronaut system, known as the "female coach" of astronauts, has been involved in the selection and training of astronauts nearly 30 years ago.
Once, in the absence of systems and materials, and no training experience, Huang Weifen only took three months to hand over an overall plan design for astronaut training.
Under her leadership, China's astronaut training system grew out of nothing.
As space heroes travel through space, Huang Weifen has also become an indispensable person behind the heroes, vividly showing the spirit of "achieving extraordinary with the ordinary, making famous with no name".
The chief designer of the Long March 2 F carrier rocket is easy to lead the development team to tackle key problems in China's next-generation carrier rocket, and has made a series of significant progress.
In the space station construction and launch mission, it is easy and colleagues not to miss any detail to ensure the safe and smooth launch.
As she said, "At that moment, the lives of astronauts are pinned on us.'Manned spaceflight, life is a matter of life' is not a slogan, but a promise we give to astronauts."
Wu Hao, the special commander of the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew’s first space out-of-vehicle activity, is the first female special commander of the space station’s out-vehicle activity and the only female instructor in the out-vehicle activity training group.
During the exit activity, the ground support team communicated directly with the astronauts through the "Dawn Post".
During the 10-hour activity, Wu Hao's "Dawn Understanding" has been guiding and supporting every action of the astronauts.
Wu Hao said, “Astronauts are all selected from a million. As astronaut instructors, we have to work hard to become better.”
With the construction of China's space station, "her power" will definitely shine even more in the vast universe.
Our reporter Liu Yao