Today, October 31, Chinese specialists on a Long March 5B launch vehicle sent 23 tons of cargo into space, which includes the Mengtian experimental module. The importance of this event lies in the fact that this module is the last in the basic design of the Chinese space station “Tiangong” (Tiangong), which is a conditional analogue of the International Space Station, only under the full control of China. Now the scientists of the Celestial Empire have at their disposal a full-fledged space outpost laboratory for conducting advanced research of a very different plan.
In order to complete the assembly of this space station, the specialists had to work hard – the experimental module, 18 meters long and weighing 23 tons, had to be sent into space on a rocket with an increased payload, which would later be docked with the main module of the Tiangong spacecraft in just a few hours after the launch of the rocket (at the current moment, docking has probably already taken place). And after this module is added to the main module, a special system based on a robotic arm will make the necessary changes to the space station to give it the final T-shape.
After the completion of this process, it will be possible to officially declare that the Chinese space station has been finally assembled and is ready to begin its tasks – they plan to operate the current station for at least ten years, but, of course, in reality, the period of use of such projects always turns out to be much longer. And, most surprisingly, it took specialists from China less than two years (the launch of the first and main Tianhe module took place in April last year) to assemble a full-fledged Tiangong space station in Earth orbit, and even on the basis of three modules at once.
But, of course, the Mengtian experimental module is one of the most important components of the new station, as it is equipped with the largest number of various research equipment that allows experiments to be carried out in microgravity. For example, Chinese scientists plan to use special lasers to cool atoms down to 10 picokelvins to get close to the temperature of absolute zero, which will be the lowest temperature ever reached by mankind. And this is only part of what Chinese scientists plan to do in space.
Source: Trash Box
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