The three astronauts about to take management of China’s Tiangong space station have an action-packed six months forward of them.
Astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu reached the newly completed space station on Nov. 29 following the launch of their Shenzhou 15 spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket. Their arrival meant China had six astronauts in orbit for the primary time.
The crew are being proven the ropes aboard Tiangong by the crew of Shenzhou 14 and finishing up preparations for the brand new mission, together with changing air filters and water filters. However the Shenzhou 14 trio are quickly set to return house, leaving commander Fei and colleagues to get their very own work underway.
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Tiangong has been expanded from one module to a few modules up to now few months. This implies the Shenzhou 15 crew may have extra space, but additionally extra duties, obligations and upkeep work to hold out.
“The operation and upkeep of three modules is sort of an enormous workload,” Huang Weifen, China’s chief astronaut coach, advised CCTV (opens in new tab).
Tiangong now has 24 science cupboards positioned within the new Wentian and Mengtian modules, and the crew are tasked with conducting greater than 100 science experiments utilizing the brand new gear over the approaching half yr.
The Shenzhou 15 astronauts are additionally scheduled to embark on three or 4 extravehicular actions, or spacewalks, which can deliver new challenges, Huang mentioned.
“They need to conduct extravehicular duties on the time when the space station has its largest-ever configuration. For instance, the astronauts engaged on the bulkhead have to maneuver an extended distance from one finish of the space station to the opposite,” Huang mentioned.Â
She added that the astronauts might want to perform extravehicular operations in parallel at two factors, that means a better workload for the astronauts exterior the space station and the remaining crew member helping from inside Tiangong. “They are going to face better challenges,” mentioned Huang.
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