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The “critical 48 hours” of the astronaut |
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Taking ten years of hard work to witness each step of the falling moon “Chang’e” |
The 380,000 kilometers on the way home, every step Chang’e 5 takes, everyone is infinitely worried. Of course, the astronauts who have to give Chang’e-5 key instructions aren’t just concerned. This is because since the Chang’e 5 moon landing, many key actions are the first of China’s aerospace industry and even of humans. Although these actions have been simulated on the ground four to five hundred times, there is only one possibility when it comes to the moon.
Under the orbital design, Chang’e 5 has only 48 hours to complete the lunar mission after it sets, and then it must lift off from the lunar surface. These crucial 48 hours will mean ten years of hard work by the entire project team.
With the support of the powerful Long March 5 rocket, Chang’e 5 launched directly into the Earth-Moon transfer orbit. Chang’e-5 will realize the third step of the Chinese dream of landing on the moon: the sampling return of the lunar surface, which is the most complex and difficult task in China’s aerospace industry so far.
At 11:11 p.m. on December 1, after slowing down, approaching, hovering, and slowly descending, the Chang’e-5 “lander and ascendant combination” began to slowly fall to the lunar surface under the support of the jet engine. reverse thrust, and successfully A soft landing at a predetermined location on the lunar surface became the third Chinese probe to successfully implement a soft landing on the lunar surface.
Contrary to our imagination, after Chang’e 5 sets the moon, it does not start sampling directly, but passes physical verification on the ground first. Each round of excavation on the moon will undergo a full physical verification on the ground before actual operation begins. In the next 48 hours, you will play a vital role here successfully if you can go from the moon to the lunar ground.
Ye Peijian, Lead Designer and Consultant for Chang’e Series and Mars Roveracademic：If you don’t do the verification on the ground, how do you know you can do it in the sky? So we let (sampling device) work on the ground to check how the Chang’e-5 landed in the lunar excavations. We set up all the lunar soils we could think of and find in this field, and then we let the Chang’e-5 one-to-one sampling device dig to see if we can dig and how much we can dig.
Jiang Shuiqing, Chief Designer of the Chang’e-5 Detector Observation Subsystem, Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group:The real task is coming, time is very tight and indeed very tight, but you are more likely to be excited.
Shi Wei, assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Chang’e-5 probe of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group:After all, this team has performed this experiment more than 400 times, which is almost 500 times, it is in this place, so the characteristics and performance of the product are very clear, and we are confident in our products.
Drilling is the first step in the lunar sampling of Chang’e-5. Although the physical verification on the ground is successful, there are still many uncertainties in the actual drilling work on the Moon. Success or failure will directly affect staff morale.
Right now, everyone’s hearts are a bit mixed. They don’t want to touch the stone, because the stone is too hard and will be detrimental to drilling, but they also hope that the stone sample can be taken to increase the richness of the sample.
Shi Wei, Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Chang’e-5 probe, Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group: Of course, the more the better, there are soils and rocks, preferably rocks with different characteristics, so that scientists in other fields can analyze whether they have greater scientific value.
Wang Guoxin, chief designer of the drilling subsystem of the Chang’e-5 probe, fifth group of the Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology:I don’t want to be nervous, but I don’t want to be nervous. There is still tension, because after all, this is the result of so many years, and today is our only chance to test in more than ten years. We have submitted more than fifty types of blueprints according to our operating status in orbit. Today, we only use one or two of them, and they are still relatively few practical.
At 4:53 am on December 2, Chang’e-5 successfully completed the sampling and packaging of the lunar drilling.
Ye Peijian, Lead Designer and Consultant for Chang’e Series and Mars Roveracademic：I have to wait a while, because the indicator I gave myself today is to drill after reading. Dig into something and we have it. Next there are also table peaks, I am going to look at the first scoop, because the first scoop that is removed from the table is very important, only after the first scoop can we know the situation of this lunar soil. With the data from the first shovel, I think I’ll take a break.
Ye Lao, who is 75 years old, has been paying attention to the changes of various parameters throughout the night; At the same time, the members of the expert group are also always ready to respond to the possible situation of the first sample scoop on the table.
Jiang Shuiqing, Chief Designer of the Chang’e-5 Detector Observation Subsystem, Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group:After unlocking, whether the robotic arm can move for the first time is actually a more critical point. After shoveling a shovel, our confidence remains relatively strong and we believe that this task can still be performed quite well today.
The whole process of taking meters and sampling lasted 14 hours. The next step is the most critical point in the meter making process. It is necessary to securely place the primary packaging container for meter taking in the sealed packaging device, which is related to whether we can keep all of the above. The results of the work also determine whether a series of actions such as the subsequent lunar ascent can be carried out as originally planned, requiring extremely precise calculations to ensure the accuracy of the instructions. Yao Meng, who is in charge of fine tuning, and his partners will complete this critical step.
Yao Meng, the chief designer of the sampling and packaging system for the Chang’e-5 detector, The Group of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology:When grasping this container, its positioning accuracy must reach two millimeters, because our robotic arm is a robotic arm that is almost 4 meters long. When fully deployed on the moon, one sixth of its gravity is must be accounted for. Because it will have a certain impact on the positioning accuracy, it is still very difficult to control.
Shi Wei, assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Chang’e-5 probe of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group:It’s not that these dozens of hours of hard work, it’s all of everyone’s hard work for so many years. Our set-up station, Comrade Yao Meng, had spoken to me earlier. Of course, it was also a joke. He said you can be sure I’m dead at the post today, and I’ll put it in this airtight container.
Yao Meng, lead designer of the sampling and packaging subsystem for the Chang’e-5 detector, group of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology: The heart is very tense, the heart is very tense, this is the last link, put it and go. If I couldn’t put it, I would become a sinner in history, so I said there was a lot of pressure at the time.
Yao Meng has been with Chang’e 5 since he joined the company, and it has been eight years.
Yao Meng, the chief designer of the sampling and packaging system for the Chang’e-5 detector, The Group of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology:Especially emotional, since he was twenty years old, he has now become the uncle in the eyes of children. But I’m still very excited, because this is the first time our country has returned samples of the moon, such an important mission. I feel that as a young man I am very proud, very proud and very lucky to be able to participate in such an important task.
Ye Peijian, Lead Designer and Consultant for Chang’e Series and Mars Roveracademic：For a full ten years, a month is no more than a month. The project started in January 2011. According to our plan, we will return in December, which is exactly ten years, it is not easy, the first pass is over.
On December 3, Chang’e 5 used a mechanical sampler to sample and pack the lunar surface around the lander. This is the first time that China has successfully conducted unmanned automated sampling on the lunar surface.
At 11:10 p.m. on December 3, the Chang’e-5 ascendant, which remained on the lunar surface for two days, carried packed samples and lifted off from the northern part of the lunar storm ocean, which is the largest in the world. in front of the moon, and made the first liftoff of an extraterrestrial celestial body in China. After three stages of vertical ascent, attitude adjustment, and orbit injection, it enters the corresponding orbit around the moon.
At 5:42 a.m. on December 6, the Chang’e-5 ascendant and the orbiter’s return assembly completed the precise docking. This is the first time humans have performed an unmanned docking in lunar orbit in the hundreds thousands of miles from Earth.
At 6:12 a.m., the lunar sample container was safely transferred to the regressor.
At 12:35 p.m., the Chang’e-5 orbiter and return assembly successfully detached from the ascendant and entered the Moon standby phase. We will await the successful return of Chang’e-5.
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