(East and West Questions) Short Commentary: From "Tianwen" to "Heavenly Palace", why do you persistently seek the universe?
China News Agency, Beijing, April 24th, Question: From "Tianwen" to "Heavenly Palace", why are you persistently seeking the universe?
Author Xu Xueying
"Where is the sky? Twelve points? The sun and the moon belong to you? Lie Xing An Chen?"
When the Shenzhou 13 astronauts returned to Earth, the verification of the key technologies in the first phase of the construction of the Chinese space station was a complete success. The freehand sketches of the stars in Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions" more than 2,000 years ago ushered in a sequel to the outline of science and technology.
Data map: On April 16, the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft return capsule successfully landed in the predetermined area of the Dongfeng Landing Site.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Junchuan
As the seventh China Space Day approaches, looking back at the history of the world and Chinese civilization, human beings have never stopped exploring the universe.
From Shishen's star-gazing, Wanhu Feitian to Gagarin's entry into space, Armstrong's landing on the moon, to the 21st century's "Zhurong" fire exploration, "Xihe" daily, and the manned "Dragon" spacecraft docking with the International Space Station, the stars are illuminated East-West space journey.
Why do human beings tirelessly explore the universe?
"The upper and lower squares are called Yu, and the past is called the universe."
The two characters "Yu" and "Zhou" originally refer to the eaves and pillars of houses, and were later extended to infinite time and space.
Exploring the universe is also the way for human beings to overlook their own survival and development from a higher dimension.
At first, human beings questioned the universe from curiosity and romantic reverie, but with the rise of modern science, exploration has become more and more self-conscious.
From human evolution, the origin of the earth to the Big Bang theory, space hides opportunities to test countless scientific hypotheses and theories, as well as clues for human survival and development.
The advancement of aerospace theory and practice will help deepen human's scientific understanding of the origin of the Earth and even the evolutionary history of the solar system.
As far as the progress of human society is concerned, space provides a rare and special environment for research experiments in various fields.
Previously, the International Space Station has carried out a number of scientific research activities such as astronaut heart and blood vessel changes research, Candida albicans research, and protein crystal growth research, with fruitful results.
The zero gravity, vacuum and other characteristics of space provide new ideas for human disease prevention and food security, such as space breeding, space cancer research, etc.; second, it provides a research platform for expanding human living space. Orbits are still deep in space, and the Earth's atmosphere lacks a corresponding experimental environment for human physiology.
Aerospace science and technology is also a reflection of the comprehensive national strength and national scientific and technological level.
The implementation of engineering plans such as manned spaceflight and lunar exploration has not only cultivated high-quality modern scientific research teams, but has also driven technological innovation iterations in aerospace and even the national economy and people's livelihood-related fields. In addition, live events such as "Tiangong Classroom" have also contributed to the formation of aerospace science popularization. The social climate of education.
Data map: On December 9, 2021, the first space lecture on the Chinese space station was officially launched.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yu Jing
Ancient astronomy is often attributed to astrology, fortune-telling and other fields. In the final analysis, human beings have built a set of logical and self-consistent interpretation principles under the condition of limited cognition.
The competition in the Western Enlightenment made astronomy infiltrate the color of scientific rationality, and the scientific cognition of the universe spread to the East and even the whole world.
The Beijing Ancient Observatory was built in AD 1442, and some astronomical instruments were designed and supervised by Nan Huairen, a Belgian missionary in the Qing Dynasty.
It is still in the Jianguomen to witness the changing stars, and it has become an ancient witness of the exchanges between China and the West in the field of astronomy.
As the importance of aerospace engineering has become more and more prominent in the world, the driving force of human beings to explore the universe has developed from ignorant curiosity to targeted scientific research demands.
In the 1980s, China included manned spaceflight in the Outline of the High-Tech Research and Development Program ("863" Program).
In 1992, the "three-step" development strategy of China's manned space project was formulated.
Today, "Chang'e" flying to the moon has come true, and "Heavenly Palace" is no longer far away. China's modern aerospace industry and ancient myths and legends form a romantic intertext that spans thousands of years.
Our cognitive boundaries of the universe have broken through the romantic fantasy of "the stars can be picked by hand", and with the support of the state's power, they are expanding day by day, bursting with unprecedented power.
This year, the Chinese space station will complete the on-orbit construction, and the Wentian and Mengtian experimental modules will be docked with the Tianhe core module.
By then, a large number of scientific experimental devices can provide scientific research hardware facilities for many disciplines such as basic physics, astronomy, life science, and materials science.
As part of the United Nations' "Global Shared Space" initiative, China's open space station provides a new platform for mankind to use space peacefully.
With the official operation of the Chinese space station, more international cooperation and exchanges will begin.
Standing on the top of Mount Tai, you can "see the small mountains at a glance".
Observing the earth in space may be able to break through regional barriers and historical clouds and reach the intersection of human civilizations.
Humans originated in a corner of the universe and lived together on three-tenths of the earth's land.
Where did we come from and where are we going?
Flying to "Cloud Nine", even if it is romanticism, is also the light of the future of mankind through the eyes of science.
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