熱頭條丨CBN Friday Special丨Unpacking Tianzhou-6, China’s new space “deliveryman”

With an earth-shaking roar at 9:22 pm on Wednesday, China’s Tianzhou-6 cargo ship blasted off on a resupply mission to the country’s Tiangong space station, the first since the station was completed in November.

The uncrewed ship – carrying 7.4 tons of fuel, food and other supplies – was launched on top of a Long March-7 rocket from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China’s Hainan island, according to the China Manned Space Agency(CMSA). 

After several minutes, Tianzhou-6 separated from the carrier rocket and entered its designated orbit. The solar panels of the cargo craft then unfolded.

(資料圖片)

The cargo ship’s voyage to the orbiting space station took about 6? hours, before it carried out a fast, automated rendezvous and docked with the aft port of the Tianhe core module of China's space station at 5:16 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday, and entered integrated flight phase with the space station.

Tianzhou-6 is carrying about 260 packages with a combined weight of nearly 5.8 metric tons, including living necessities enough for a three-member crew for 280 days. 

The cargo craft will supply for Tiangong's current crew, the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 mission, as well as the future Shenzhou-16 astronauts. The delivery will supply astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, and Zhang Lu for the final weeks of their six-month stay on board Tiangong, as well as a new three-person crew for the Shenzhou-16 mission who will arrive at the station later this month.

The Tianzhou-6 cargo ship contains a 22.5-cubic-meter cargo compartment with 50 lockers to place daily necessities for the taikonauts and equipment needed for in-orbit experiments. The crew of Shenzhou-15 is scheduled to enter the Tianzhou-6 on Friday morning to unpack their space package, and carry out planned tasks such as cargo transfer and other related operations.

What’s in the package?

First of all, the taikonauts are about to enjoy a hearty fruit feast in space, because the cargo ship is packed with 70kg of fruit - more than twice the amount of previous Tianzhou missions. 

According to media reports, the fresh fruit carried by Tianzhou-6 include Fuji apples from Shannxi province. Fruit that's convenient to eat, rich in nutrition with long storage life is always the preferred choice. In previous missions, apples, bananas and grapes were sent.

“In the future, we plan to send a large refrigerator up there so that astronauts can have fresh fruit as well as frozen food,” said Wang Ran, the chief designer of the cargo spacecraft system at the China Academy of Space Technology.

“If they want to eat fried steaks, the beef needs to be kept frozen all the way from Earth to orbit. Our capabilities will gradually improve to ensure a better environment for the astronauts,” Wang told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.

Besides food, the cargo ship also delivers other daily necessities such as clothes, drinking water, holiday and sanitation supplies, as well as experimental equipment for the taikonauts.

Upgraded payload capacity

Tianzhou-6 marks the first mission for a new and improved version of China's robotic freighter. With a designed life span of more than a year, a Tianzhou cargo craft has two parts —a smaller lower part as its propellant module and a larger upper part as the cargo module. 

Such vehicles are 10.6 meters long and 3.35 meters wide. It is the world's best space cargo transporter when it comes to carrying capacity, as more than half of its liftoff weight can be used for payloads, according to its designers.

With a maximum launch mass of 14 tons, the Tianzhou-6 spacecraft now has a payload ratio of 0.53, the best of its kind in the world. The payload ratio refers to the proportion of cargo weight to the total weight of the whole spacecraft. The higher the ratio, the stronger the cargo capacity of the spacecraft.

Bigger payloads also mean the frequency of future resupply missions can be reduced from two per year to three every two years. The launcher's developer, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), under the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), said that the cargo spacecraft system expands the fully sealed cargo spacecraft into two types: A standard type with eight storage boxes and an enhanced type with four storage boxes, which can be selected according to refueling requirements on the space station. 

The improved fully sealed cargo spacecraft increases the cargo loading capacity of the sealed cabin, providing astronauts with supplies that can sustain them for longer periods of time. This reduces the launch frequency of the cargo spacecraft from four launches in two years to three launches in two years, effectively improving the overall efficiency of the space station.

With its expanded capacity, the Tianzhou-6 is considered a significant improvement over the older model, able to deliver its payload more efficiently, at a lower cost. 

Li Zhihui, deputy project manager of Tianzhou-6, said that compared with its predecessors, Tianzhou-6 has a remarkable improvement — it has more space in the airtight payload containers because engineers have redesigned its interiors and moved some devices from the cargo cabin to the propulsion section. After the modifications, the cargo ship is capable of holding an extra 500 kg of mission supplies.

The Tianzhou-6 cargo craft is the first of a new batch of China's cargo ships – from Tianzhou-6 to Tianzhou-11 – to boost their loading capacity from the previous 6.9 tons to 7.4 tons, after the volume of the airtight cabin (cargo cabin) has been increased by 20 percent.

Jia Dongyong, chief mechanical designer for the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft system at CAST, said the Tianzhou-6 cargo ship is the most capable space cargo ship currently in service.

Tianzhou-6's launch is of great significance for the technical verification of the new batch of improved cargo spacecraft and the mass production of subsequent spacecraft, Jia added. 

Aside from daily supplies, another important mission for Tianzhou-6 is to replenish propellants for the space station. Tianzhou-6 is carrying about 1.75 tons of propellant, 700kg of which will be transferred to Tiangong.

Since it has entered the application and development stage, China's space station no longer requires large amounts of propellant for altitude adjustment. Therefore, the Tianzhou-6 cargo ship has reduced the number of its propellant tanks from eight to four compared with its predecessors, leaving room for more payload.

China completed construction of the three-module Tiangong in late 2022. Tianzhou-6 is the first mission of the operational phase of Tiangong. The country aims to keep the station permanently occupied for at least a decade, with crews of the three astronauts spending six months aboard at a time.

The Tianzhou-5 cargo ship, which undocked from Tiangong last Friday to make way for the arrival of Tianzhou-6, is in flight in a separate orbit. It will redock with Tiangong after Shenzhou-15 leaves.

Its return will not only provide extra storage and operation room for the space station, but will also expand Tiangong into its largest configuration with three major modules, two cargo ships and one crewed ship.

This added capacity allows China to now launch resupply missions to Tiangong every eight months on average, as opposed to every six months with previous Tianzhou vessels.

Tianzhou-6 will be part of a series of space station operations over the next couple of months. Near the end of May, the Shenzhou-16 crew – which has not yet been announced – will join the Shenzhou-15 astronauts. The six will then spend several days together before the Shenzhou-15 crew returns to Earth in early June, followed by the Shenzhou 17, which is expected to lift off toward the end of the year.

For future missions, China has plans to launch the Xuntian telescope, expand the current space station, train international astronauts, and develop a new-generation reusable transportation system between the Earth and the low-Earth orbit.

Working better and better with Long March-7 rocket

The Tianzhou-6 cargo craft is the first spacecraft to visit the Shenzhou-15 crew in orbit and the ninth spaceship to visit the Chinese space station. It is worth mentioning that the freighter was launched atop a Long March-7 carrier rocket, the country's new-generation medium liquid-propellant carrier rocket with high reliability and safety.

With a total length of 53.1 meters and a diameter of 3.35 meters, the rocket is bundled with four boosters and has a takeoff weight of nearly 600 tons and a payload capacity of about 14 tons to low-Earth orbit.

Like many other programs in the spaceflight world, the Chinese space program builds up on heritage knowledge and hardware from the defense sector. Examples of this are the veteran rockets in the family, namely the Long March 2, 3, and 4 — these still have active variants — which derive from the Dong Feng 5 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

After decades in service, these hypergolics-propelled launch vehicles are finally, though slowly, heading for retirement. The Long March-7 rocket, which is the biggest serving carrier, is on a path to take over most of the launch activity carried out by the older Long Marches. In the future it should perform both cargo and crew launches supporting China’s manned program, as well as commercial flights. 

The Tianzhou-6 mission is the 7th launch for the Long March-7 rocket. In addition to undertaking cargo launch missions to the space station, the Long March-7 rocket will also launch low- and medium-orbit satellites in the future. 

Meanwhile, Tianzhou-6 brings updated scientific research equipments to the space station. There are also 98 packages of science payloads, with a combined weight of 714 kg. These contain new equipment, spare parts and experiment-related materials. 

The payloads will be used in 29 scientific experiments and technological tests in disciplines such as life sciences, biology and fluid physics in microgravity, as well as combustion and material sciences.

整船物資有效裝載容積擴(kuò)大20%，“帶貨”實(shí)力再升級(jí)；長征七號(hào)運(yùn)載火箭與天舟貨運(yùn)飛船六度攜手，測(cè)發(fā)時(shí)間進(jìn)一步縮短、流程可靠性進(jìn)一步提升；將聚焦空間生命科學(xué)與生物技術(shù)等領(lǐng)域，開展29項(xiàng)科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)和應(yīng)用試驗(yàn)……

5月10日21時(shí)22分，伴隨著震天動(dòng)地的轟鳴聲，一道耀眼的光柱劃破夜空，搭載天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船的長征七號(hào)遙七運(yùn)載火箭點(diǎn)火發(fā)射，穿云破霧，直入云霄，中國空間站建成后的第一艘“貨船”正式起航。

約10分鐘后，天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船與火箭成功分離并進(jìn)入預(yù)定軌道。

椰林間，濱海處，文昌航天發(fā)射場(chǎng)內(nèi)外歡呼聲此起彼伏，人們熱烈慶祝我國載人航天工程進(jìn)入空間站應(yīng)用與發(fā)展階段的首次飛行任務(wù)告捷。

之后，飛船太陽能帆板順利展開工作，發(fā)射取得圓滿成功。據(jù)中國載人航天工程辦公室11日消息，天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船入軌后順利完成狀態(tài)設(shè)置，于北京時(shí)間2023年5月11日5時(shí)16分，成功對(duì)接于空間站天和核心艙后向端口。根據(jù)計(jì)劃，神舟十五號(hào)航天員乘組將在12日上午8點(diǎn)多打開天舟六號(hào)艙門來“拆快遞”。

天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船是我國空間站應(yīng)用與發(fā)展階段的首發(fā)航天器，是改進(jìn)型貨運(yùn)飛船的首發(fā)船，也是天舟六號(hào)到天舟十一號(hào)組批生產(chǎn)的首發(fā)貨運(yùn)飛船，將為神舟十六號(hào)和神舟十七號(hào)兩個(gè)乘組先行送去“糧草”和“輜重”，承擔(dān)著打好中國載人航天工程空間站應(yīng)用與發(fā)展新階段開局之戰(zhàn)的重任。

天舟六號(hào)為中國人的太空之家“補(bǔ)貨”，新包裹里藏著哪些驚喜？此次的“天舟快遞”有何升級(jí)？發(fā)射任務(wù)有哪些看點(diǎn)？

“帶貨”能力強(qiáng)

天舟六號(hào)最大的特點(diǎn)是噸位更高，能裝下更多貨物。憑借貨物裝載能力首次突破7噸，天舟六號(hào)一躍成為世界上現(xiàn)役貨物運(yùn)輸能力最大、在軌支持能力最全面的貨運(yùn)飛船。

天舟六號(hào)里有什么？

飛船裝載了神舟十六號(hào)和神舟十七號(hào)6名航天員在軌駐留消耗品、推進(jìn)劑、應(yīng)用實(shí)（試）驗(yàn)裝置等物資。

我國天舟貨運(yùn)飛船采用貨物艙和推進(jìn)艙兩艙設(shè)計(jì)，貨物艙用于運(yùn)輸各類物資，推進(jìn)艙為飛行器提供動(dòng)力、能源與通信功能，并裝載空間站補(bǔ)加推進(jìn)劑。

歷次天舟貨運(yùn)飛船升空的裝載情況，是由空間站不同階段任務(wù)和科學(xué)需求決定的。本次任務(wù)，天舟六號(hào)也根據(jù)新階段新需求做出了靈活調(diào)整。

一方面，到了空間站應(yīng)用與發(fā)展階段，空間站姿態(tài)變化調(diào)整相對(duì)變少，推進(jìn)劑消耗也會(huì)減少。另一方面，隨著天舟六號(hào)升級(jí)改進(jìn)，推進(jìn)艙騰出了一部分空間來放置原貨物艙設(shè)備，貨物艙就有了更大的容積裝貨，方便攜帶更多物資。

中國航天科技集團(tuán)五院貨運(yùn)飛船系統(tǒng)主管設(shè)計(jì)師董圣然介紹，通過改進(jìn)，天舟六號(hào)密封艙貨物裝載空間提升了24%，裝載能力由5.5噸增加至6.7噸；天舟六號(hào)整船物資裝載能力由6.9噸提高至7.4噸，上行載貨比由0.51提高至0.53。

“帶貨”能力的大幅提升，使得貨運(yùn)飛船每發(fā)射一次，能為航天員提供更久更充足的物資保障支持。為提高貨物運(yùn)輸能力，本次任務(wù)天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船進(jìn)行了優(yōu)化改進(jìn)，將貨運(yùn)飛船發(fā)射需求由1年2次優(yōu)化為2年3次，有效降低了運(yùn)輸成本。

本次任務(wù)還有一個(gè)顯著亮點(diǎn)，就是天舟六號(hào)及后續(xù)型號(hào)中，國產(chǎn)型號(hào)規(guī)格比例和數(shù)量比例均有大幅提升，實(shí)現(xiàn)了關(guān)鍵元器件100%國產(chǎn)化。研制隊(duì)伍通過推進(jìn)系統(tǒng)配置優(yōu)化工作，在提高可靠性的同時(shí)降低了成本，滿足了上行遙控要求及下行圖像和載荷數(shù)據(jù)的需求。

空間“裝修”新

天舟六號(hào)如何改進(jìn)？主要對(duì)貨物艙和推進(jìn)艙做了優(yōu)化設(shè)計(jì)。

科研人員將天舟六號(hào)貨物艙的后錐段，由原來的非密封艙改為密封艙，新增的“貨架”大大拓展了貨物艙的存儲(chǔ)空間。同時(shí)，原來位于貨物艙后錐段的儀器設(shè)備，為了尋找新的“座位”，則全部下移至推進(jìn)艙內(nèi)。

騰挪空間，說起來容易，做起來難，處處考驗(yàn)著航天科研人員的技術(shù)功底和匠心巧思。

面對(duì)數(shù)十臺(tái)新增的儀器設(shè)備，推進(jìn)艙必須把這些“乘客”安排穩(wěn)當(dāng)。

“在推進(jìn)艙構(gòu)型尺寸不變的情況下，艙內(nèi)的配套設(shè)備增加了近50%，新增的大多屬于外形尺寸大、插件布局密、關(guān)聯(lián)設(shè)備多、線纜直徑大的設(shè)備，除了要滿足設(shè)備安裝后整體結(jié)構(gòu)力學(xué)平衡需求，還要預(yù)留足夠的操作空間，用于電纜插接以及電纜網(wǎng)敷設(shè)、固定綁扎，以及滿足高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的安全性、維修性要求。”中國航天科技集團(tuán)八院飛船型號(hào)副總師曹俊生介紹。

天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船的成功改進(jìn)，將全密封貨運(yùn)飛船拓展為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)型（8個(gè)貯箱）和改進(jìn)型（4個(gè)貯箱）兩種狀態(tài)。后續(xù)，將根據(jù)空間站補(bǔ)加推進(jìn)劑的上行需求，由不同型譜的天舟貨運(yùn)飛船執(zhí)行任務(wù)，為我國空間站長期穩(wěn)定運(yùn)營提供充足物資保障。

今年距離天舟貨運(yùn)飛船首飛已有6年。時(shí)間拉回至2017年4月20日，天舟一號(hào)在文昌航天發(fā)射場(chǎng)發(fā)射升空，驗(yàn)證了貨物運(yùn)輸和推進(jìn)劑在軌補(bǔ)加等多項(xiàng)關(guān)鍵技術(shù)，為我國載人航天工程“三步走”發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略中第三步空間站研制建設(shè)奠定了堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。

入軌精度高

本次任務(wù)是2023年我國載人航天工程任務(wù)的首次發(fā)射。搭建天地運(yùn)輸走廊、擔(dān)綱托舉天舟重任的“貨運(yùn)專列”，依然是長征七號(hào)火箭。

長征七號(hào)運(yùn)載火箭是天舟貨運(yùn)飛船的“老搭檔”。它是為滿足我國載人空間站工程發(fā)射貨運(yùn)飛船需求，以及兼顧發(fā)射衛(wèi)星等其他任務(wù)需求而研制的新一代高可靠、高安全的中型運(yùn)載火箭，其入軌精度也是現(xiàn)役運(yùn)載火箭中最高的，偏差不超過4秒。

從首飛算起，長征七號(hào)火箭盡管連戰(zhàn)連捷，仍在堅(jiān)持技術(shù)創(chuàng)新和全方位改進(jìn)。中國航天科技集團(tuán)一院長征七號(hào)運(yùn)載火箭副總設(shè)計(jì)師馬忠輝介紹，本次任務(wù)中，研制隊(duì)伍對(duì)火箭發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)等產(chǎn)品進(jìn)行了可靠性提升改進(jìn)，進(jìn)一步消除了薄弱環(huán)節(jié)；在測(cè)發(fā)流程方面，優(yōu)化了地面測(cè)控軟件，進(jìn)行了單機(jī)、系統(tǒng)和全箭驗(yàn)證，測(cè)發(fā)流程可靠性得到進(jìn)一步提升。經(jīng)過流程的科學(xué)規(guī)劃和優(yōu)化，發(fā)射場(chǎng)測(cè)發(fā)時(shí)間從7年前的近40天縮短到了如今的25天。

后續(xù)，長征七號(hào)火箭還將以每年1到2次的發(fā)射頻率，為我國空間站正常運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)提供物資保障。在滿足空間站貨運(yùn)任務(wù)的同時(shí)，長征七號(hào)火箭未來還計(jì)劃發(fā)射中低軌衛(wèi)星，拓展衛(wèi)星發(fā)射市場(chǎng)。

截至目前，我國所有的天舟貨運(yùn)飛船都是從文昌航天發(fā)射場(chǎng)點(diǎn)火升空。2016年長征七號(hào)運(yùn)載火箭在文昌航天發(fā)射場(chǎng)首飛成功，標(biāo)志著我國自主設(shè)計(jì)建造的新一代航天發(fā)射場(chǎng)正式投入使用。

本次任務(wù)中，空間應(yīng)用系統(tǒng)也有相關(guān)部署。據(jù)空間應(yīng)用系統(tǒng)副總設(shè)計(jì)師、中國科學(xué)院空間應(yīng)用工程與技術(shù)中心研究員呂從民介紹，空間應(yīng)用系統(tǒng)通過天舟六號(hào)貨運(yùn)飛船上行實(shí)（試）驗(yàn)載荷、實(shí)驗(yàn)單元及樣品、共用支持類設(shè)備、實(shí)驗(yàn)耗材和備品備件等，共計(jì)98件產(chǎn)品，總重量約714公斤。天舟六號(hào)與空間站完成快速交會(huì)對(duì)接后，由航天員將上述產(chǎn)品轉(zhuǎn)運(yùn)至空間站艙內(nèi)，按飛行任務(wù)規(guī)劃陸續(xù)開展空間生命科學(xué)與生物技術(shù)、微重力流體物理與燃燒科學(xué)、空間材料科學(xué)、空間應(yīng)用新技術(shù)試驗(yàn)等4個(gè)領(lǐng)域共29項(xiàng)科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)和應(yīng)用試驗(yàn)。

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI 

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

Presented by SFC

編委:  于曉娜

策劃、編輯：李艷霞 

播音：李瑩亮

撰稿：李瑩亮

音頻制作：李瑩亮

設(shè)計(jì)：鄭文靜、廖苑妮

21世紀(jì)經(jīng)濟(jì)報(bào)道海外部 制作

南方財(cái)經(jīng)全媒體集團(tuán)  出品

標(biāo)簽：