Chinese cargo spacecraft successfully docks with core space station module

A Chinese cargo spacecraft carrying equipment and supplies successfully docked with the core module of the country's future space station on Sunday, state media said. A Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft -- loaded with essentials such as food, equipment and fuel -- blasted off late Saturday from the Wenchang launch site on the tropical southern island of Hainan, the Xinhua news agency reported. The docking with the space station's Tianhe core module was completed at 5:01 am Beijing time (2101 GMT Saturday), the agency said, citing the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

A Long March-7 carrying a Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft is moved to the launch area at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern China's Hainan Province on May 16, 2021. China postponed a supply mission to its new space station Thursday, May 20, 2021 for unspecified technical reasons. Image credit: Guo Wenbin/Xinhua via AP

China will need to carry out around 10 missions in total to complete assembly of the space station -- named Tiangong, meaning "heavenly palace" -- in orbit.

The station is expected to become fully operational in 2022. Once completed, it is expected to remain in low Earth orbit for up to 15 years.

With the possible retirement of the International Space Station after 2028, Tiangong could become the only human outpost in Earth's orbit.

Now that the cargo craft has docked, China plans to begin preparations to send three astronauts up to unpack the goods, which include meals such as shredded pork with garlic sauce and Kung Pao chicken, the agency said.

"We will transport support materials, necessary spare parts and equipment first, and then our crew," Xinhua quoted CMSA director Hao Chun as saying.

Space aspirations

Beijing has pumped billions into its space programme in a bid to make up ground on pioneers Russia and the United States, with ambitious projects in Earth orbit and the landing of uncrewed craft on the Moon and Mars.


But it was heavily reprimanded by the United States and many experts for a potentially dangerous breach of space etiquette for letting a massive rocket segment free-fall to Earth earlier this month after launching the Tianhe core module.

Although Chinese authorities have said they are open to foreign collaboration on their space station, the scope of that cooperation is as yet unclear.

But the European Space Agency has already sent astronauts to China to train for work inside Tiangong when it is ready.

Earlier this month, China landed its Zhurong rover on Mars, becoming only the third nation to successfully land a craft on the red planet.

The rover has begun roaming to study Martian geology -- it is to spend around three months taking photos and harvesting data from a vast northern lava plain.

The United States and Russia are the only other countries to have reached Mars, and only the former has operated a rover on the surface.

The launch of the Tianzhou-2 was to have taken place just days after the Mars rover landing, but was postponed for technical reasons.



from Firstpost Tech Latest News https://ift.tt/3p8UTyF

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 origins: Should we pay more attention to the lab leak theory and formally investigate it?

Image
A year and a half into the pandemic, we still do not know exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, came from. The prevailing view so far has been that the virus “spilled over” from bats into humans. But there are increasing calls to investigate the possibility that it emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, where Covid first appeared at the end of 2019. So what do we know for sure, and what do we need still to find out? We know the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is close to that of bat coronaviruses . Several decades ago its “ancestor” was circulating in bat populations in southern Asia. But there are still many unanswered questions: we don’t know how the virus arrived in Wuhan, how its sequence evolved to allow human infection, and under what conditions it infected the first people who crossed its path. And for each of these stages, we don’t know whether there was a human contribution (direct or indirect). Zoonotic transmission pathways, in other words the pas
Read more

Menstrual cups are cheaper, more sustainable than pads and tampons for women

Image
Every year in America, women spend at least US$2.8 billion on sanitary pads and tampons that can take hundreds of years to decompose . Is there a more economical and environmentally friendly way? To find out, we asked Susan Powers , a professor of sustainable environmental systems at Clarkson University about her work comparing the environmental impact of tampons, sanitary pads and menstrual cups. What is a menstrual cup? A menstrual cup is a type of reusable feminine hygiene product. It’s a small, flexible bell-shaped cup made of rubber or silicone that a woman inserts into her vagina to catch and collect menstrual fluid. It can be used for up to 12 hours, after which it is removed to dispose of the fluid and cleaned. The cup is rinsed with hot water and soap between each insertion and sterilized in boiling water at least once per period. A cup can last up to 10 years . Although menstrual cups have been around for decades, they historically have been less popular than pads or ta
Read more

Human bodies respond to infections differently depending on the time of day

Image
When microorganisms – such as bacteria or viruses – infect us, our immune system jumps into action. It’s highly trained to sense and eliminate infections and clear up any damage caused by them. It’s typically assumed our immune systems work the exact same way regardless of whether an infection occurs during the day or at night. But research spanning over half a century now shows our bodies actually respond differently at day and night. The reason for this is our body clock, and the fact that each cell in the body, including our immune cells, can tell what time of day it is. Our body clock has evolved over millions of years to help us survive. Every cell in the body has a collection of proteins that indicate the time depending on their levels. Knowing whether it’s day or night means our body can adjust its functions and behaviours (such as when we want to eat) to the correct time. Our body clock does this by generating 24 hour rhythms (also termed circadian rhythms ) in how cells f
Read more