China's Space Program News Thread

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escobar

Brigadier
The undocking command has been issued.

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---------- Post added at 03:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 AM ----------

SZ-9 has undocked.

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---------- Post added at 04:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:48 AM ----------

Manual Control

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escobar

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More than half way through their mission, the crew of Shenzhou-9 have accomplished another major flight objective, as the spacecraft successfully conducted the manual docking test with the unmanned space module Tiangong-1. The duo met up last week under automated control, prior Sunday’s manual test.

Manual Docking Test:


Before entering Shenzhou-9, the crew prepared the Tiangong-1 module for independent flight, in the unlikely case of a problem with the manual docking, requiring an emergency return to Earth. After that, the crew entered Shenzhou-9 and dressed in their pressurised suits.

The automated separation of the two vehicles kicked off the events, lasting a few hours in total.

First, Shenzhou-9 backed to a distance of 400 meters, prior to closing back in to 140 meters, at which point the two vehicles maintained their distance.

The ground then gave their approval for the manual approach, controlled by Liu Wang, from the 140 meter point, prior to a short hold point at 30 meters. Closing in at 0.4 meters per second, the successful completion of the manual docking took place at around 4:50 UTC.

The Shenzhou-9 – now in its final leg of the mission – is scheduled to return to Earth on June 29.

The docking – and indeed most of the mission – of Shenzhou-9 with the Tiangong-1, brought back memories of the 60′s and 70′s, when groups of space sleuths tried to predict the next space step on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

Even in 2012, the tight control of information by the Chinese space authorities meant analysts could only try to guess many of the mission details in advance, including the names of the crew, the time of launch and the program of activities on the Tiangong-1 module – a reminder of the Salyut missions.

On the day before the launch of Shenzhou-9, the schedule of events in orbit – and the objectives of the mission – were starting to leak out.

The first objective was classed as the need to validate the technology of automated rendezvous and docking, and for the first time to verify that manual rendezvous and docking could be successfully achieved.

Secondly, the taikonauts had to verify that all the systems were working properly and that the laboratory was capable of sustain human life. On entering the module, the crew had to take numerous measurements - including cabin pressure, oxygen capacity, air temperature and humidity, control of harmful gases and microbes control.

The third objective is to successfully return China’s first women taikonaut safely back to Earth.

Orbital Operations:

After the June 18 docking, the crew settled on a daily routine, adapting to live aboard Tiangong-1, where the environment inside was noted to be quite comfortable, with the temperature set around the 22 to 23 degrees Celsius mark, along with the humidity at 40 percent.

The taikonauts have been carrying out their routine medical examinations during the mission, including measuring blood pressure, body temperature and body weight – communicated to medical support specialists on the ground.

The crew’s daily work includes the carrying out of experiments and prevention work for the physiological effects of weightlessness. In order to prevent the negative effects on the body caused by the weightless environment, the crew have been exercising, using the bicycle ergometer on board the TG-1.

Other space experiments include microbiological tests and evaluation of the human biological rhythms, as well as physiological studies and experiments in the microgravity environment.

On June 19, the crew received their first e-mail from Earth. The e-mail containing photos, text and videos was sent through a special communication channel between the control center and the lab module.

Besides their nominal mission duties, the taikonauts have also been advised to have fun during the flight, using a video link to chat with the ground and their family members. The module designers also planted surprises inside the lab for the crew. According to the general director, these treasure-hunting games will also be recorded to analyze people’s ability in solving puzzles in gravity-free conditions.

On June 22, the taikonauts manually changed the attitude control for the joined spacecraft – a first for the Chinese – five days after the historical docking in orbit. The control system on Tiangong-1 was turned off by Liu Wang, prior to testing three different kinds of positioning, with Shenzhou-9 taking charge of the flight.

This was followed by the milestone manual docking on Sunday.
 

escobar

Brigadier
Learn more about how Wang Liu was selected as the operator of the manual docking.

* According to the standard defined by the designers of the docking mechanism, the angle of deflection when docking should not exceed 4° and the astronauts during their training should reach 2°. Wang Liu is the only one who set the threshold to be reached to 0.2°, or 10 times more accurate than the tolerance, during its over 1500 simulations.

* It is the only one to have added itself training topics, such as continuing the manual docking when monitors all fall down and no longer display any parameters ...

* It has helped engineers to modify the written procedures in the manual.

* He received the best overall score in the four tests on the manual docking.
 

escobar

Brigadier
A new article reveals some details on the development of the docking system:
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The article begins by pointing out that from the Shenzhou-8, China became one of the few countries to have fully and independently mastered all the technologies needed for space docking system.

It is an interview with the current deputy chief engineer of the space laboratory system, Chongfeng Zhang, who was initially involved in the project, 16 years ago.

When he was a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (A very old but also very famous university in China), Zhang remembers that when the project was launched 16 years ago, there were only two entities, CASC (Formerly the eighth Academy of Sciences) and his university, and seven persons, who worked on the subject. Attracted by the project, Zhang left his teaching position and joined the 805th Institute of CASC who led the project.

According to Zhang, the project team started with nothing ("We started from scratch" in his words) and with a self-financing very thin at first, this kind of technology was locked by large space powers and so not accessible, the only things they have came from open sources documents and the memories of several visits that Zhang had done in Russia.

Despite all the research team was very (too) optimistic, they thought they could complete development in 10 years but they were met immediately with countless issues ranging from mechanical's technical difficulties to the manufacturing's precision. The project plan has been modified several times due to these difficulties.

Once the prototypes designed and assembled, it was necessary to conduct simulations and tests. But Chinese engineers have encountered difficulties quickly to build different test platforms to simulate the docking and separation in 6 degrees of freedom, with temperature variation, in zero gravity and vacuum.

Platform to simulate the weightless environment is one of the platforms that have caused most concern; the two bases of the platform weight 8t each. Chinese engineers have chosen a particular stone insensitive to temperature and humidity so as not to distort the data collected, each stone base is carved from a gross of 200t. And unlike the Russian platform that uses suspension to simulate weightlessness, the Chinese'one one "flotation".

The docking testbed integrated with 6 degrees of freedom with temperature variation was the most difficult, Chinese engineers had first thought of buying directly from the Russians but they responded that the construction of such a platform will take three years, and seven more years to finalize the settings. Given the timing of the manned program, the Chinese have finally decided to develop one. Thus, a special task force composed of four universities and twenty research institutes has been formed to design and build this testbed.

Russian experts have visited this new testbed China 3 years ago and said it is the most advanced in the world.

But for the development team, the success of the the docking system is only a beginning, a project to develop a new type of satellite docking is already in the planning stage.

A team is installing the docking system:

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paintgun

Senior Member
watched the event live again, job well done by the Astronauts

looking forward to the re-entry coverage, and best of luck to them :)
 

escobar

Brigadier
Seems to me that the manual docking is even more accurate than the automatic one.

We learn in the Chinese press that the manual docking was carried out in 7 minutes, while the two automatic docking were all completed in 10 minutes, but in all cases whether the autopilot or Wang LIU they all perform docking with a time less than the theoretical length which is 15 minutes.

The director of Chinese astronauts center, Shanguang Chen, told reporters that during the manual docking, Wang Liu's heart rate is stable and is maintained at 90/min, his control's precision is always <1°, as for average he obtained during his 1500 + simulations.

All the invited experts by CCTV say it is a great step forward for China's manned program, now there are no more significant barriers that prevent China to assemble their own station space and be completely independent in this sector. Some even say that manned lunar program can be considered seriously because the base is now firmly established.
 
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