On July 4, the astronaut crew of Shenzhou 12 worked closely together to successfully complete all scheduled tasks during the extravehicular activity. The first extravehicular activity of astronauts on the Chinese space station was a complete success.
During this extravehicular activity, astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo wore a new generation of “Flying” extravehicular spacesuits independently developed by China.
The first photo taken by the astronaut after leaving the cabin and raising the panoramic camera
1 Flexible wearable antenna enables dialogue between heaven and earth
“Wow, it’s so beautiful outside!”
This is what Liu Boming sighed after leaving the cabin The words were transmitted to the earth without missing a word, the sound was smooth and natural, and the images from the built-in camera were clear and smooth. This was inseparable from the contribution of the two types of antennas developed by the new antenna technology team of the School of Electronic Science, National University of Defense Technology.
Since 2014, the new antenna technology team of the National University of Defense Technology has undertaken the task of developing telemetry communication antennas and image transmission antennas for the new generation of “Flying” extravehicular space suits.
Some members of the research team tested the antenna in the microwave anechoic chamber
“God The “Seven” mission used the antenna developed by this team. The telemetry communication antenna is the continuation of the “Shenzhou VII” antenna. It is a new type of flexible wearable fabric antenna that is responsible for the transmission of voice and telemetry data between astronauts out of the cabin and the space station.
Extravehicular spacesuit antenna under test
The team has overcome the problem of high conductivity and high strength conductive fabric materials, The performance and reliability of the antenna have been greatly improved. It has the characteristics of full fabric, full coverage, high gain, multi-function, etc., and has communication coverage. The performance reaches over 98%.
The image transmission antenna is a new piece of equipment in the extravehicular spacesuit of the space station. It is responsible for transmitting image data collected by the helmet equipment to the space station.
Image transmission antenna (located on the left and right sides of the helmet)
Facing In the complex outer space environment, the team boldly innovated and proposed a new distributed multi-antenna solution, overcoming key technical problems such as multi-layer multi-mode broadband antennas and miniaturized antennas, and effectively solved the contradiction between antenna gain and communication coverage. Communication coverage reaches 100%.
After more than 7 years of key technology research, the team has developed a total of more than 20 sets of prototype, preliminary and final products. All products have passed aerospace-grade environmental tests and electrical properties. After testing and inspection, there was no quality accident. The team was praised by the China Astronaut Center as a regular army with excellent quality.
2 The new generation of space suits has three key improvements
Currently The extravehicular suit for the space station under development in our country is an orbit-based extravehicular suit, which means that the extravehicular suit will not return to the ground after being transported into orbit. It will be maintained in good condition through on-orbit maintenance and repair during its life cycle. Its fitness adopts a one-to-many approach, that is, a set of extravehicular suits can meet the fitness requirements of all astronauts after size adjustment, which can greatly reduce the weight and space occupation of the ascent load.
Compared with the Shenzhou 7 mission, which was the first extravehicular space mission for Chinese astronauts, the astronauts in the space station mission have to conduct long-term extravehicular operations, which requires the performance of the extravehicular suit. The demands raised are higher.
In response to the needs of extravehicular activities for space station missions, the extravehicular suit used in this mission has made important improvements in three aspects based on the development of the “Shenzhou VII” extravehicular suit. : The first is to change the structural layout design, the second is to improve the service life of the clothing, and the third is to improve the ability of human clothing. In short, compared with the first generation, the space station extravehicular suit currently under development has the characteristics of longer service life, higher safety and reliability, better maneuverability and greater test and maintainability.
The industrial design task for the new generation of extravehicular spacesuits unveiled this time is undertaken by an intelligent equipment research team led by Luo Jianping, assistant professor at the School of Design and Art of Hunan University.
The design team presided over the appearance design of the extravehicular suit, the design of the human-suit interaction system, etc., and participated in the entire space suit development and testing process!
Luo Jianping shows off the team’s latest concept space suit
The new generation of “Flying” extravehicular space suit has only one model, regardless of It is suitable for men and women, regardless of size, and can be adjusted to fit the body shape of each astronaut. After improvement, it can be worn by people with a height of 1.6 meters to 1.8 meters, and can also be adjusted according to the body shape of the astronauts.
In the development process of space suits, industrial design was introduced.The large design makes the latest space suit more usable, more comfortable, more technological and culturally identifiable.
The design of the exterior shape and decorative elements incorporates the elements of flying apsaras, auspicious clouds and phoenixes. The two main colors are Chinese red and space blue, which are very recognizable at a glance. At the same time, the decorative patterns designed according to the body proportions of Chinese people also make the clothing visually achieve an overall slimming effect, making it look more integrated and energetic! Compared with the space suits of the United States and Russia, they are also significantly different and more recognizable.
3 Although extravehicular clothing is important, in-cabin clothing is also indispensable
According to different use scenarios, space suits can be divided into two categories: indoor space suits and extravehicular space suits. While extravehicular clothing is important, in-cabin clothing is also indispensable.
As the name suggests, the cabin spacesuit is worn inside the cabin during the launch, return, rendezvous and docking sections, and orbit changes of the spacecraft. As a backup for the pressure protection of the spacecraft, under normal circumstances, the spacecraft ventilation system and the cabin pressure suit ventilation system jointly ensure the thermal comfort requirements of the astronauts for ventilation and heat dissipation; when a pressure emergency occurs in the cockpit, that is, when the spacecraft leaks, the spacecraft The oxygen supply system supplies oxygen to realize pressure protection function and ensure the safety of astronauts; it also has anti-immersion function when the spacecraft splashes onto the water.
In terms of design, my country’s in-cabin spacesuits choose a fully soft structure based on their functional requirements, and are designed according to the astronauts’ human body dimensions to ensure fit. Astronauts can choose their own model according to their needs and use the resources on board to achieve oxygen supply, ventilation and communication through umbilical cord mode. </p
