On April 23, 2021, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) conducted the company’s first manned launch of 2021 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, destined for the International Space Station, where four astronauts will stay for six months to perform numerous scientific experiments.
This is SpaceX’s third manned launch and second official commercial manned launch. The launch was originally planned for April 22, Beijing time, but was postponed 24 hours to the 23rd due to weather conditions.
Used rocket and used spacecraft
The Falcon 9 rocket used for this launch is a used rocket, designated B1061.2, with a decimal point of 2 representing the second use. The Endeavour Dragon spacecraft on this mission is also a used spacecraft, having completed SpaceX’s first manned flight on May 31, 2020. Used rocket launch used spacecraft is also the biggest attraction of this launch, which is also the first reuse of human spacecraft in the history of human spaceflight, after the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
Where are the four astronauts from?
Katherine Megan McArthur, born in 1971, is an American oceanographer, engineer and NASA astronaut who flew a mission on the space shuttle Atlantis in 2009 to complete the last human repair of the Hubble telescope.
Interestingly enough, she is married to fellow astronaut Robert L. Behnken, one of the astronauts on SpaceX’s first manned launch in 2020, aboard the same Endeavour ship. I’m afraid it’s a unique story in the history of spaceflight that a husband and wife, both astronauts, have gone into space on the same spacecraft.
Robert Shane Kimbrough, born in 1967, is a retired U.S. Army officer and NASA astronaut. Kimbrough has participated in two space flights, the first aboard the Space Shuttle and the second a six-month mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Thomas Gautier Pesquet (born 1978) is a French aerospace engineer, pilot and European Space Agency astronaut. Pesquet was selected as an astronaut candidate by the European Space Agency in May 2009 and successfully completed his basic training in November 2010, launching his astronaut career.
Hoshide Akihiko, born in 1968, is a Japanese engineer and JAXA astronaut who became the third Japanese astronaut to walk in space on Aug. 30, 2012. Akihiko Hoshide has already participated in two space missions; on May 31, 2008, he flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, where he helped install the Japanese Experiment Module. in July 2012, Akihiko Hoshide flew into space aboard a Russian spacecraft and performed three spacewalk missions during that time, lasting 21 hours and 23 minutes.
What are the four astronauts doing on the space station?
The four astronauts will stay on the International Space Station for six months and are scheduled to conduct hundreds of experiments. These include.
1, the culture of biological tissue chips in microgravity environment in space. Tissue microarray is an important branch of biochip technology, which is a regular array of many different individual tissue specimens arranged on the same carrier for in situ histological studies of the same indicator. Medical doctors are very much looking forward to the results of this experiment.
- Take a picture of the earth. As the saying goes, the desire to see a thousand miles up, the astronauts are located in 400 km of Earth orbit and are able to view the Earth on a large scale. Over the past 20 years, astronauts on the space station have taken more than 3.5 million photos of Earth, making an important contribution to documenting changes in the shape of the planet. If they are lucky, the astronauts will be able to watch hurricanes (typhoons) from their inception to their growth until their demise, a true “God’s-eye view”.
- Delivery of new solar panels for the International Space Station. At present, the International Space Station by eight solar sails to provide electricity, but with the space station power demand continues to climb, has been unable to meet demand, the need to add an additional six solar sails. It is reported that this launch will bring two sail panels to the space station first, folded in the Dragon spacecraft’s non-pressurized storage module. Each new sail panel is 18 meters long and 6 meters wide, and is capable of generating 20 kilowatts of electrical power. Each sail panel will require two spacewalks to install.
- There is also a study called CHINE (Description of Human Immunodeficiency in Microgravity Environments), which looks at the response of the human immune system to microgravity environments.
Overall, these efforts and experiments can help humans better understand our planet, better understand how the human body adapts to the microgravity environment, and better help humans overcome various diseases. Space activities, which seem to be far from our lives on the surface, are in fact closely related to people’s productive lives and life and health.
Features of SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft
The manned Dragon spacecraft belongs to the second generation Dragon2 spacecraft developed by SpaceX, which has the ability of reusability. The second-generation Dragon spacecraft can be divided into two kinds of manned Dragon spacecraft and cargo Dragon spacecraft, whose predecessor is the first-generation cargo Dragon spacecraft (Dragon1). The new spacecraft can automatically complete docking with the space station, unlike the first-generation spacecraft, which requires the help of a mechanical arm on the station. Of course, the manned Dragon spacecraft also retains the option of manual docking.
The Manned Dragon spacecraft used this time, with a diameter of 4 meters and a height of 8.1 meters, can carry up to 7 astronauts, which is the same as the number of astronauts carried by the space shuttle, but so far only a maximum of 4 astronauts. The first launch carried two astronauts, the first commercial launch carried four astronauts, and this launch also carried four astronauts.
The topmost part of the manned Dragon spacecraft is a head cone cover that can be opened to protect the spacecraft and docking mechanism during launch and return. When the spacecraft docks with the space station, the head cone cover opens to reveal the docking mechanism, and when the spacecraft detaches from the station, the cover closes and prepares to return to the ground.
In addition, there are solar cells affixed to the outside of the service module, just like wearing a skirt with solar panels, which is a departure from the traditional look of solar-powered deployment wings. There are also wing-like structures on the outside of the service module, which can provide aerodynamic stability for the spacecraft during escape.
What if something goes wrong during the launch?
Currently, SpaceX’s main rocket is Falcon 9 (Block5), and this launch is the 57th launch of this type of rocket, with a 100% success rate so far. But after all, it is a manned launch, we also have to consider the small probability events, what if something goes wrong during the launch?
Manned Dragon spacecraft integrated with eight thrust powerful “Super Skylon” rocket, rocket two groups, installed in the side walls of the spacecraft, as an escape, the thrust of each engine up to 71 kN, converted into the intuitive sense of the expression is equivalent to 7.1 tons of thrust. In addition, there are also 16 relatively small thrust “Skylab” engine nozzles for attitude control and orbital maneuvers.
Those who are familiar with manned spaceflight may notice that both the Apollo moon rocket and the Chinese Long March 2F manned launch vehicle have an escape tower at the top of the rocket.
The purpose of the escape tower is to activate the escape tower rocket in case of an accident at the beginning of the rocket launch, to bring the spacecraft away to a safe altitude and then landing. If all goes well with the launch, when the rocket flies to a certain altitude, the escape tower will separate and then be discarded. The manned version of the Dragon spacecraft is equivalent to integrating the escape tower into the hull, what are the benefits of doing so?
If we want to compare the difference between the escape tower and this new escape method, we may need an article to introduce it systematically, but here we will only talk about the key point: this method can make the ship have the ability of “full escape”! In other words, if something goes wrong at any stage of the spacecraft’s flight, it will have the ability to escape, while the escape tower can only guarantee the escape of the initial stage of the rocket launch. This is also a new way of escape for future manned spacecraft.
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