China News Service, Jiuquan, Gansu, May 24th. Title: New highlights of the God 23 mission: Hong Kong people flying into space, "growing rice" in space, and spacecraft porthole upgrades
China News Service reporter Ma Shuaisha
On the evening of May 24, the Shenzhou 23 manned spacecraft was successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The first astronaut from Hong Kong flew into space, a sequel to "Planting Rice" in space was released, and the Shenzhou spacecraft was replaced with new portholes... From the crew composition, space experiments, to the spacecraft itself, this mission has many highlights.
The crew lineup achieves many “firsts”
The Shenzhou 23 crew is China's first crew composed of the third and fourth batches of astronauts, including astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Li Jiaying. One of the astronauts will conduct a one-year on-orbit stay test, and the Chinese's continuous stay in orbit is expected to be set again.
The crew commander is Zhu Yangzhu. This is the first time that the third batch of Chinese astronauts has served as the commander. Zhu Yangzhu flew the Shenzhou 16 manned mission and was China's first aerospace engineer to realize the dream of space and carry out extravehicular activities.
Both Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying flew into space for the first time. Payload expert Li Jiaying is China's first astronaut from Hong Kong and the first of China's fourth astronauts to carry out a flight mission. Zhang Zhiyuan is a space pilot.
On the evening of May 24, the Shenzhou 23 manned spacecraft was successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Photo by Wang Jiangbo
Rice will be "re-seeded" in space
China has made remarkable achievements in its exploration of space rice. While the Shenzhou 14 crew was in orbit, China completed the world's first full life cycle cultivation experiment of rice from seed to seed. In this mission, rice seeds once again embarked on a journey into space.
Cang Huaixing, a researcher at the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the future, humans will live and work in the space environment for longer and longer periods. How to achieve "efficient, high-quality, and high-yield" in-situ production of crops in space is a key scientific issue that needs to be solved urgently.
Affected by the microgravity of space, plants will suffer from "space syndrome" after entering space. For rice, it may be manifested as delayed flowering and grain filling, increased spikelet sterility, and reduced grain size, grain weight, and grain number. How to solve the "space syndrome" of plants and how to inhibit the germplasm degradation of plants in long-term space culture have become the focus of research in related fields.
During this mission, the scientific research team will achieve two consecutive generations of rice cultivation in orbit for the first time, that is, "from space seed to seed to seed", aiming to analyze the effect of long-term space microgravity on the genetic stability of rice.
Shenzhou spacecraft porthole protection upgrade
Starting from the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft, the Shenzhou spacecraft entered mass production mode. The Shenzhou 23 spacecraft is the first manned launch of the new batch. Compared with previous batches of spacecraft, the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft has many optimizations.
One of the important improvements is in the ship's portholes. Previously, the portholes of the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft were hit by space debris in space and cracked. Diao Weihe of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said that in order to further improve the spacecraft's protection against space debris impacts, the scientific research team carried out structural optimization and upgrades to the portholes of the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft.
The team increased the anti-ablation glass of the new porthole from the original one layer to two layers, and added another layer of cabin protection, so that the porthole has a total of triple anti-ablation functions, adding insurance to astronauts' safety and peace of mind in their work and life in orbit. (over)
