China News Service, Shanghai, May 10th (Zheng Yingying and Ma Shuaisha) As the first spacecraft in the construction phase of China's space station, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft successfully set off from China's Wenchang Space Launch Site in the early morning of the 10th, and ran out of the construction of China's space station. The first bat in the relay race.

  The "Little Courier" Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft will deliver the astronauts' on-orbit materials, space station backup equipment, space science payloads and other goods to the Chinese space station.

  At the same time, "Tianzhou-4" is also full of propellant. After the successful docking, it will transform into a "gas station" to provide fuel for the on-orbit operation of the space station.

During the docking period, "Tianzhou-4" will also carry out a number of on-orbit tests as planned.

  The "Tianzhou No. 4" with a lot of tasks has a lot of skills.

Install "Space Internet"

  After "Tianzhou-4" rushes into the sky, it will "hand in hand" with the combination of Tianhe core module and "Tianzhou-3".

Of course, the "Tianzhou-4" came from afar from the earth and arrived well prepared.

  For example, it is equipped with "space Internet", which can be used by astronauts to "surf the Internet".

  "Ethernet communication" is the current mainstream communication method for space-earth communication and inter-vehicle communication in China's space station, which greatly facilitates the on-orbit working environment of astronauts.

"Ethernet communication technology" was first verified on the Tianzhou series of cargo spaceships.

  The high-speed communication processor developed by the Electronics Institute of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is an important part of the "Ethernet communication" of the cargo spacecraft. It is known as the "communication artifact". and many other technologies in one.

  With this "artifact", the life of astronauts in the "space home" is no longer boring.

With it, the distance between heaven and earth is "closer".

Astronauts can make video calls with people on Earth, or they can "surf the Internet" themselves to listen to music, watch videos, and more.

Shooting "Space Blockbusters"

  The cargo spacecraft is the first Chinese space vehicle to use commercial high-definition network cameras and extra-vehicle high-definition cameras.

  The beautiful moments of the "space blockbuster", the live broadcast of the Tiangong classroom, the astronauts leaving the cabin, etc. are all inseparable from the real-time shooting of high-definition cameras inside and outside the cabin.

  The Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft used two extravehicular high-definition cameras: a solar wing camera and a rendezvous and docking camera.

Among them, the solar wing camera is mainly used to observe the deployment and on-orbit operation of the solar wing sail.

The rendezvous and docking camera is installed on the rendezvous and docking surface of the cargo spacecraft, which can monitor the rendezvous and docking process of the spacecraft and the space station in real time, and fully and carefully display the process of the space station from far to near until the docking mechanism is locked.

Continued on "Space Power"

  "Tianzhou-4" and its twin brothers "Tianzhou-3" and "Tianzhou-2" have similar "genes".

This is no exception in the "intelligent grid-connected power supply function".

  Huang Zheng, deputy chief designer of the power sub-system of the 811 Institute of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that during the in-orbit operation of "Tianzhou-2" and "Tianzhou-3", the cargo spacecraft and the core module of the space station were successfully carried out. Two-way grid-connected power supply test, "During the operation of the combination, the 'Tianzhou No. 2' and 'Tianzhou No. 3' cargo spacecraft passed the core module of the space station for many times to supply power to the Shenzhou spacecraft, which solved the problem that the Shenzhou spacecraft's solar panels were blocked by a large area. The power supply capacity is affected, which fully verifies the intelligent power consumption mode of the Chinese space station."

  According to reports, while the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft supplies power to itself, its power subsystem will play an important role in the operation of the entire space station system.

On the one hand, it can realize two-way grid-connected power supply with the core cabin of the space station, and provide nearly 1 kilowatt of electricity for the core cabin at critical moments.

On the other hand, it can also supply power to the Shenzhou spacecraft through the core module of the space station in the future.

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