The spacewalk outpost of the wentian module lasted five hours.
Chinese astronauts on the Shenzhou-14 mission began their second extravehicular activity (EVA in astronautical jargon) on Saturday, September 17, 2022, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMS). Taikonaut Cai Xuzhe opened the airlock of the China's Tiangong Space Station's Wentian laboratory module at 1:35 pm Beijing time (05:35 UTC).
At 3:33 pm (07:33 UTC), Cai and his colleague Cheng Dong successfully exited the watertight cabin of the Wentian module, and at 5:47 pm (11:47 UTC), the Shenzhou-14 crew successfully completed the extravehicular activity, which lasted about five hours, CMS announced.
During the EVA, the crew performed operations, including installing an anchor (or 'foot-stop'), which is used to secure astronauts' feet to the large robotic arm, and an assist handle, which can help open the hatch door from the outside in case of an emergency. The taikonauts also installed an additional load circuit expansion pump set in the main equipment of the space station's thermal control system, and performed an extravehicular rescue trial for the first time. In the rehearsal, astronaut Cai Xuzhe simulated losing consciousness and Chen Dong simulated his rescue, guiding him to the module's watertight lock.
The functional performance of the airlock in the Wentian experimental cabin and the related support equipment for the exit activities were investigated.
Tasks were assisted by the small robotic arm in the Wentian module.
The third taikonaut, Liu Yang, was in the TianHe core module to provide support. (Cai Xuzhe stayed inside TianHe for support during the mission's first space outing, made on September 2 by Liu and Chen.)
The trio successfully completed the first extravehicular activity from the cabin of the Wentian lab module, which lasted about seven hours. The team, often called “the busiest team to date,” has been working on various missions since early September. They began preparing for increasingly complex activities almost immediately after their first outing into space. “Relatively frequent EVAs can help make spacewalking a regular activity,” said Pan Shunliang, deputy chief designer at the General Design Department at the China Academy of Space Technology, explaining the reasons for the tight schedule of EVAs. Regular EVAs are a necessary capability for space stations. To achieve this objective, “The two taikonauts outside the station and the one inside must coordinate. Other departments on the ground, including our space station system, astronaut system, Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center (BACC), and the measurement and communication system, also need to be coordinated,” said Pan. “Especially in the operating stage, it may be necessary to transfer the solar wings from the central module to both sides of the laboratory modules. This requires several regular spacewalks, and therefore spacewalks are conducted to prepare and test our spacewalk capability,” she explained.
As an emergency use device, the extravehicular power handle is installed next to the annular armrest of the hatch. It is mainly used for emergency opening, which is equivalent to a "key" outside the door, and is a line of defense to ensure the safety of astronauts outside the cabin.
According to Xiao Li, senior engineer of the General Technology Bureau of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, astronauts usually open the door from the cabin. However, when astronauts need to enter the station in different cabins, such as exiting from the Wentian experimental cabin airlock in emergency situations, Returning from the Tianhe core cabin node cabin, you can use this "key" to open the cabin door from outside the cabin.
The extravehicular rescue verification is to deal with the unexpected situations that astronauts may encounter when working outside the vehicle.
In the meantime, an astronaut needs to climb along the bulkhead to bring another astronaut who is simulated "incapacitated" back into the cabin.
Wang Chunhui, deputy chief designer of the astronaut system of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, said that in this process, the astronauts who took the initiative to rescue must not only prevent themselves from drifting away, but also prevent the "incapacitated" astronauts from drifting away. It was very hard to pull the companion and toss the safety rope back to the cabin.
These all need to be verified in a real extravehicular environment.
On September 6, taikonauts spoke with young Africans. They also harvested and tasted cabbage grown in space, and celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, the first crew to do so from space. As they marked 100 days in space this week, Yin Rui, deputy commander-in-chief of the CMS astronaut system, said there is more to expect from the second half of the Shenzhou-14 crew's stay in orbit.
It is understood that the Shenzhou 12 and Shenzhou 13 astronaut crews both performed two out-of-vehicle activities during their in-orbit, with more than one month interval between each time, and the Shenzhou 14 astronauts' crew took two out-of-vehicle activities only 16 times apart. Today, the tight out-of-vehicle arrangement has aroused concern from the outside world.
In this regard, experts pointed out that this is related to the mission planning of the Chinese Tiangong space station.
According to information released by the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the Mengtian experimental module will be launched in October.
Pan Shunliang, deputy chief engineer of the General Design Department of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said in an interview with the media that before the launch of the Mengtian experimental module, the space station assembly still needs to be transposed, and the space station will be in an "L" shape after the transposition. , in comparison, the current "one" shape configuration is more suitable for exiting the cabin.
On the other hand, two close out-of-vehicle missions can verify the coordination and cooperation capabilities of the various systems of the Chinese space station in high-frequency out-of-vehicle missions.
Pan Shunliang emphasized that normalized exiting is a must-have capability of the space station. It requires astronauts and ground flight controllers to master all preparations for exiting the spaceship, and perform many exercises to achieve tacit cooperation between station and earth, which involves collaboration inside and outside the cabin, and the space station system Coordination with the ground astronaut system, flight control system, measurement and control communication system, etc.
"Especially after the Chinese space station enters the operation stage, it may be necessary to transfer the solar wings of the Tianhe core module to both sides of the experimental module, which actually requires multiple exits on a regular basis." Pan Shunliang said that two exits in a short period of time are also Carry out advanced drill verification for future outboard activities.
Although the interval is short, the research team still optimized the design of this outing activity based on the experience of the previous outing.
For example, when the "Shenzhou 14" crew left the cabin for the first time, it was found that the larger space of the exit passage and the lengthening of the safety rope would affect the transfer of items inside and outside the cabin. During this mission, the research team made timely improvements.
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