At 5:30 on May 9, the Shenzhou 31 spacecraft carrying three astronauts successfully set sail at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base. In the Shenzhou 3 spacecraft, the 510 Institute of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the 510 Institute) undertook the development of a total of 5 sets of products in five important subsystems, including structure and mechanism, thermal control, measurement and control, instrument and lighting, and environmental control and health insurance. These devices are closely related to the normal operation of the spacecraft in orbit and the life safety of astronauts.

Hatch quick leak detector ensures safety out of the cabin

In the space station mission, astronauts have to enter the space station from the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft, during which multiple capsule penetration activities need to open and close the hatch. The gas that maintains the survival of astronauts in the cabin must not leak, and whether the hatch is well sealed is decisive, so accurate and rapid detection of the sealing of the hatch is crucial.

The function of the hatch leak detector is to detect whether the Shenzhou spacecraft cabin door reaches a sealed state, it feels the change of pressure and temperature through the internal core sensing system, judges whether the hatch is closed in a very short time, and provides astronauts with instructions that "the hatch is closed, you can take off the spacesuit".

"The early Shenzhou spacecraft was pressurized in the whole cabin, and the sealing of the hatch was judged by detecting the change in the cabin pressure, although this method is accurate and reliable, but the disadvantage is that it takes a long time." Dong Yipeng, a senior engineer of 510 Institute, introduced that the hatch rapid leak detector developed by 510 was improved in this context, realizing the rapid and accurate leak detection of the hatch and docking surface of the Shenzhou spacecraft, filling the gap in this field in China. At present, the hatch rapid leak detector has become a "necessity" for manned spacecraft, providing a solid security guarantee for astronauts' activities in the cabin.

Inside and outside the cabin lighting up the Shenzhou road

The Shenzhou 16 manned spacecraft will rendezvous and dock with the space station, and astronauts will enter the space station to live and work. Since the space station's orbital flight periodically passes through the Earth's shadow region and experiences a long period of darkness, the lighting problem is very important during rendezvous and docking.

Yang Jun, senior engineer of the 510 Institute, introduced that the 510 Institute undertook the task of developing lighting equipment and rendezvous and docking lighting equipment in the cabin of the manned spacecraft, which not only provides lighting for the work and life of the astronaut cabin, but also provides camera auxiliary lighting for the rendezvous and docking between the manned spacecraft and the space station in the shadow area.

In order to meet the requirements of complex and harsh space environment, the lighting equipment in the cabin of Shenzhou 16 spacecraft (close-range flood lighting) and rendezvous and docking lighting equipment (long-distance transmission illumination) use advanced solid-state lighting sources. The advantages of this light source are shock resistance, vibration resistance, low power consumption, and high stability, but limited by the performance of luminescent materials, solid-state lighting is sensitive to high temperature and low temperature environments.

"To this end, the 510 research and development team carried out a large number of technical research for a long time, and finally solved the problem of temperature sensitivity." Yang Jun said that in the problem of space environment adaptability, in order to reduce the impact of ultraviolet irradiation, total dose irradiation, atomic oxygen and other special space environments on product life and reliability, the research team has successively broken through technical problems such as space secondary optical system design, in-orbit resistance special space environment design, sensitive device mechanical resistance environment design and other technical problems.

When the manned spacecraft enters the shadow area of the earth, the astronauts can still correctly interpret the instrument data and manually switch the instructions in the cabin, adding a guarantee for the success of rendezvous and docking.

Instrument panel shock absorbers ensure the stability and reliability of instrumentation equipment

As a load-bearing component of spacecraft instrument equipment, the overall frame configuration of the instrument panel is like a "home", which not only provides an independent "private space" for the "brothers and sisters" of instrument display equipment and main manual control equipment, but also provides them with accurate and reliable installation interfaces.

"This 'home' achieves a reliable connection to the bulkhead of the spacecraft through four metal-rubber shock absorbers, which are like four 'loyal soft armor guards', structurally having both the inherent characteristics of metal and the elasticity of rubber." Zeng Zhengling, senior engineer of 4 institutes, introduced.

When encountering huge vibration, shock and other situations during the launch, flight and return of the spacecraft, the dashboard shock absorber can provide the necessary mechanical working environment for the instruments and equipment on the spacecraft, such as ensuring the survival of the equipment during launch and return, and improving the mechanical working environment of the equipment on the dashboard during the flight.

The control stick is an extender for the astronaut's arm

During the launch and return of the spacecraft, the astronaut's body was firmly bound to the seat, and the body could not lean forward to complete the operation of the equipment on the dashboard, and the control stick was born to solve this problem.

The control stick handle is designed according to the normal grip state of the astronaut's palm, and the outer contour curved perfectly fits the astronaut's palm, which greatly meets the comfort requirements of astronauts during operation. The rod body is designed to be infinitely telescopic, and astronauts can arbitrarily adjust the length of the lever within a certain range according to site conditions. At the same time, the rod body is made of high-strength carbon fiber material, which has high specific strength, comfortable hand feeling, glossy appearance, and great aesthetics.

(Science and Technology Daily reporter Jie Manbin)