Feitian (spacesuit)

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The hallmark of the suit with a calligraphy by Hu Jintao . Below the eponymous Apsaras.

The Feitian outboard space suit ( Chinese  "飛天"艙外航天服  /  "飞天"舱外航天服 , Pinyin "Feitian" Cāngwài Hángtiānfú ) is a Chinese space suit , originally for the spacewalk in the Shenzhou-7 mission was developed of 2008. The name - literally "sky flier" - is derived from the Chinese name for the Buddhist Apsara nymphs who entertain the gods as dancers in the heavenly palace (" Tiangong ") of Indras . The Feitian space suit was developed from July 2004 at the Research Institute for Space Medicine and Technology in Beijing on the basis of the Russian Orlan space suit .

history

In the original draft of the manned space program of the People's Republic of China in 1992, the second phase was the mastery of the technology for spacecraft operations . At the beginning of 1993 a workshop for space suit production (航天 服 加工 车间) was set up at what was then the Research Institute for Space Medicine and Technology (since 2005 “Chinese Astronaut Training Center”). Zang Wanxin (张万欣, * 1970), who had been involved in the development of cabin suits at the institute since 1993, immediately after graduating from Nanjing University of Aerospace , studied Russian for a year at the Shanghai Foreign Language University from May 2000 and then went to Russia to study the outboard suit technology there for a year. When, on July 28, 2004, after the successful completion of the manned Shenzhou 5 mission in October 2003, the instruction came to begin with the concrete development work on an outboard suit, for which the engineers were given three years, it was she who who wrote the work plan.

The problem was that it takes seven to ten years to develop a complex space device like an outboard suit. It was completely impossible to shorten this to the given timeframe. That is why there was no question of those responsible at the Research Institute for Space Medicine and Technology under the direction of Major General Chen Shanguang that the tried and tested Orlan spacesuit would be recreated . Zhang Wanxin traveled to Russia again with a colleague to wear the suit himself and to practice with it at the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center near Moscow.

The manned space program of the People's Republic of China is divided into so-called " systems " (系统), with the Research Institute for Space Medicine and Technology being responsible for the space travel system. The space travel system was in turn divided into ten subsystems (分系统), to which the outboard suit was added as the eleventh subsystem, the direction of which was transferred to Li Tanqiu (李 潭 秋, * 1959); Liu Xiangyang (刘向阳, * 1967) acted as his deputy. There were four other subsystems within the outboard suit subsystem:

Feitian spacesuit
  • The suit itself, with the cooled inner suit, the metal fuselage shell, etc.
  • Monitoring the spaceman’s medical data
  • Control of temperature, humidity etc. as well as protection against cosmic rays and micrometeorites
  • Data processing and transmission

In the spring of 2005, the first drafts for the suit were ready and the orders for the production of the components were awarded to a good 30 suppliers. For example, in March 2005, the Xi'an Research Institute for Microelectronics (西安 微电子 技术 研究所), also known as "Institute 771" (771 所), received the Society for Modern Space Electronics (a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation ) the order for the electrical control unit on the chest of the suit. The Raumfahrtelektronik GmbH in Zhengzhou (郑州 航天 电子 技术 有限公司), a subsidiary of the Society for Modern Space Electronics, received the order for the wiring of the suit in May 2005.

One of the most difficult components of the suit to manufacture was the aluminum alloy fuselage shell, an order that went to Hauptstädtische Raumflugkörper GmbH, a subsidiary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology , very late in February 2006 . The sheet metal was only 1.5 mm thick, but the shell had to withstand a pressure of 120 kPa (100 kPa = 1 bar ) in order to prevent it from being transported to the cosmodrome and especially during the launch of the rocket with its strong acceleration and vibration getting damaged. In addition, the entire weight of the suit was suspended from this shell. Even the precise welding of the thin aluminum sheet into this irregular shape was extremely difficult; it took the workers at Factory 211 two years to master the technology.

It soon became apparent that the original schedule could not be kept. Therefore, the developers around Li Tanqiu could not stick to the usual rule of first making a prototype, testing it and then going on to manufacture the actual product. Instead, both processes were allowed to run in parallel: the prototype did not even exist, orders for the actual suit were already being placed; On September 30, 2006, testing of the first prototype components for heat resistance, impact resistance, etc. had just begun, and the production of the real suit was already underway. Of course, it could not be avoided that the tests on the prototype found errors that required a change in production, in some cases components that had already been manufactured could no longer be used. This represented a considerable waste of taxpayers' money (the manned space program of the People's Republic of China has been financed from the Fund for National Large-Scale Scientific and Technical Projects since spring 2006 ).

Despite all circumvention of regulations - the developers regularly worked 14 hours a day, with correspondingly decreasing concentration, the shake test of the oxygen bottles took place under adventurous conditions deep in the mountains 180 km outside of Beijing - it took half a year longer than planned until the end In 2007 / early 2008 the final suit was put together piece by piece. At the end of April 2008, the tightness of all connections was checked in a vacuum chamber. For the first manned test at a pressure difference of 40 kPa, chief engineer Li Tanqiu stepped into the suit himself. The problem here was not only the tightness, but also the mobility of the joints. The Orlan spacesuit used ribbed connections, a type of bellows that required a great deal of force from the spaceman to squeeze them together. Thereupon Li Zhi (李志, * 1963), the head of the workshop, which had meanwhile been upgraded to the “Center for Space Suit Production” (航天 服 加工 中心), replaced the rubber ribs with a combination of fabric and metal wire reinforcement, which significantly increased mobility. During a fitting at the astronaut training center, the spaceman Zhai Zhigang , for whom the suit was tailor-made, was able to bend his forearm by 90 degrees without any problems.

properties

The gloves worn by Zhai Zhigang on September 27, 2008

The outer layer of the suit consists of a newly developed synthetic fiber fabric that protects the space traveler from radiation, fire and micrometeorites. It also protects the wearer from both the heat generated on the sunlit side of the suit and the icy cold on the side facing away from the sun. It can withstand sudden temperature changes of more than 100 ° Kelvin. Together with the oxygen bottles stowed in a rucksack, which enable outboard missions of up to four hours, the suit weighs 120 kg, an inert mass that has to be moved even in weightlessness. The control unit for the oxygen supply, the liquid cooling of the inner suit and the automatic humidity control are located on the left hip of the suit.

The switch for the helmet lamps and the electronics for the telemetry are located in the electrical control unit on the left side of the chest. The gloves have gripping surfaces made of nubbed rubber. In addition, the suit has two safety lines with a load capacity of 1 t each, which the spaceman can attach to handles on the outside of the spaceship, plus a cable for communication with the interior of the cabin, which also serves as a reserve safety line. The suit also has a radio antenna woven into the suit fabric, developed by the National Defense University for Science and Technology . A Feitian suit costs 30 million yuan (about 30 million euros in terms of purchasing power).

variants

On September 26, 2008, the day before Zhai Zhigang's space mission , Maj. Gen. Chen Shanguang , then head of the Chinese Astronaut Training Center and the commander and technical director of the spacecraft system , emphasized in an interview that it was developing despite the chaotic and non-compliant conditions and manufacturing would not pose any problems with the safety of the Feitian suit. Nevertheless, without time pressure, a "Type 2" (二 型) suit was developed for outdoor work on the planned modular space station under the direction of Zhang Wanxin, meanwhile head of the equipment development department (装备 研发 部) at the center a spaceman can spend not only the nominal 4 hours in the original version - in fact, Zhai Zhigang's spacecraft mission lasted only 14 minutes - but 8 hours in space. In addition, the design of the joints has been changed so that the spaceman can move his arms at a greater angle. At the same time, the braking torque in the joints has been reduced so that the spaceman has to use less force when working.

In addition to the original suit used in the Shenzhou-7 mission, a number of other suits were made as a reserve and for the purpose of space training, but different from, for example, the Russian Orlan-M , which is certified for 15 missions or 4 years (builds afterwards pressure suit rubber), longevity was not a particularly important consideration in the development of the Feitian outboard suit. Apart from the gloves, which Zhai Zhigang took back to Earth on September 28, 2008, the suit was left behind in the orbital module after its one-time use and later burned up with it in the atmosphere. For the type 2 of the Feitian suit, a service life of 15 years is now aimed for, i.e. five years longer than the ten-year operating time for which the modular space station is designed.

Since 2018, the astronaut training center has been working on the preliminary planning for a lighter, dust-protected space suit that is to be used for manned moon landings. While the mobility of the legs is of secondary importance during outdoor work on a space station, special attention is paid to the joints in the lower limbs so that the space travelers, unlike the Apollo astronauts, can walk properly. It is thought the moon suit (登月服) with one of servomotors driven exoskeleton to provide, which will not only support the weight, but also support the spaceman walking. This of course increases the power consumption of the suit. Therefore, during longer missions on the lunar surface, the astronauts should operate from a vehicle that has a charger for the suit's accumulators. Since a space traveler has to communicate with the vehicle as well as with the lander or the base and the 380,000 km distant earth during field operations on the moon, the development of the suit's radio system is extremely complicated. With the space station version of the Feitian suit, the space traveler has to readjust the cooling by hand. For the lunar suit, however, the developers working with Zhang Wanxin are working on a system that measures the astronaut's brain waves: if he perceives the temperature as too warm, this information is passed on to the cooling system, which then automatically lowers the temperature.

Web links

Commons : Feitian Space Suit  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 舱外 航天 服 ， 把 “飞船” 穿 在 身上. In: spacechina.com. February 12, 2014, accessed November 10, 2019 (Chinese).
  2. ↑ 张万欣. In: ste.cnki.net. Retrieved November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  3. ↑ 徐晶慧: 中国 "航天 员 科研 训练 中心" 创新 发展 纪实. In: sci.ce.cn. March 11, 2010, Retrieved October 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  4. ↑ 陈登凯: 中国 航天 员 科研 训练 中心 李 潭 秋 副 总设计师 一行 来访 我 校. In: jidian.nwpu.edu.cn. May 23, 2013, accessed November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  5. ↑ 朱鹏英: 中国 最 特殊 的 服装设计师 解密 “飞天” 航天 服. In: chinanews.com. September 28, 2008, Retrieved November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  6. ↑ 徐晶慧: 中国 "航天 员 科研 训练 中心" 创新 发展 纪实. In: sci.ce.cn. March 11, 2010, Retrieved October 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  7. ↑ 中国 航天 时代 电子 公司. In: scitech.people.com.cn. August 5, 2008, Retrieved November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  8. ↑ 航天 电子. In: spacechina.com. Retrieved November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  9. ↑ 弯道 超车！ 火箭 院 首都 航天 机械 有限公司 高端 镁 合金 铸造 工艺 国内 领先. In: calt.spacechina.com. June 8, 2018, accessed November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  10. ↑ 知 乎 用户: 中国 航天 科技 集团公司 的 各个 研究院 的 主要 方向 都是 什么？ In: zhihu.com. September 10, 2013, accessed November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  11. ↑ 秦宪安: “飞天” 舱外 航天 服 幕后 总 师 亲自 试穿 验证 安全. In: sohu.com. September 28, 2008, Retrieved November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  12. ↑ 徐晶慧: 中国 "航天 员 科研 训练 中心" 创新 发展 纪实. In: sci.ce.cn. March 11, 2010, Retrieved October 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  13. ↑ Astronaut Outfitters Design Material for Spacewalk Suits. In: china.org.cn. June 1, 2007, accessed November 12, 2019 (Chinese).
  14. ↑ 孙彦 新 、 白 瑞雪: 中国 第 一套 舱外 航天 服 诞生 记. In: news.ifeng.com. September 26, 2008, accessed November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  15. ↑ 工程 型号 研制 和 国家 重大 专项 攻关. In: xy.nudt.edu.cn. January 21, 2015, accessed November 12, 2019 (Chinese).
  16. ↑ 舱外 航天 服 ， 把 “飞船” 穿 在 身上. In: spacechina.com. February 12, 2014, accessed November 12, 2019 (Chinese).
  17. ↑ 孙彦 新 、 白 瑞雪: 中国 第 一套 舱外 航天 服 诞生 记. In: news.ifeng.com. September 26, 2008, Retrieved November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  18. ↑ 我 校 3D 打印 中心 到 中国 航天 员 科研 训练 中心 调研 交流. In: jgy.bjut.edu.cn. June 19, 2017, Retrieved November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  19. ↑ 来 点 科学: 脑 控 温度 、 外 骨骼 ， 告诉 你 中国 载人 登月 服 的 小 秘密！ In: wemp.app. October 25, 2018, accessed November 11, 2019 (Chinese).
  20. ↑ Orlan. In: suzymchale.com. December 3, 2018, accessed November 14, 2019 .
  21. ↑ 孙彦 新 、 白 瑞雪: 中国 第 一套 舱外 航天 服 诞生 记. In: news.ifeng.com. September 26, 2008, Retrieved November 13, 2019 (Chinese).
  22. ↑ For comparison: the electrical systems of the Orlan-M spacesuit, which works without servomotors, have a power consumption of 54 W, so the cosmonaut can work autonomously for 7 hours.
  23. ↑ 来 点 科学: 脑 控 温度 、 外 骨骼 ， 告诉 你 中国 载人 登月 服 的 小 秘密！ In: wemp.app. October 25, 2018, accessed November 11, 2019 (Chinese).