This star is going to the moon

Chapter 243 New Functions of the "Space Dock" (Third Update, Please Vote)

"Chief Engineer Lu, welcome to guide our work!"

"Chief Engineer Yang, you are a senior, it's not appropriate to say that."

"Haha, what does it matter? Come on, come and take a look at your 'space dock'..."

The two chief engineers, Lu Yun, were in their twenties and Yang, the chief engineer, were in his fifties, but they got along quite well, chatting as they walked.

The Mengtian experimental module, produced by the Eighth Academy, has been transported to the Binhai launch site, and the corresponding Long March 5 rocket has also arrived. They will be launched into space in early March, at which time the basic "T" shape of the Tiangong space station will be completed.

When the Eighth Academy saw off the Mengtian experimental module, they were quite emotional, after all, it took three years of design, five years of prototype development, and two years of final product development, which was no easy feat.

However, at this time, the Eighth Academy still had several "incomplete" Mengtian experimental modules. They included 1:1 models, prototypes for testing, and engineering verification products that were close to finished products.

This is also why the national team is slow.

They were on a steady enough course, but it took a really long time and cost significantly more money than commercial spaceflight.

But it is precisely because of their foundational work and research and development of new technologies that commercial spaceflight has developed so rapidly.

At the same time, the "space dock" that Lu Yun wanted could be built quickly.

Just like the Starship rocket in his previous life or the Super Falcon rocket in this life, which was constantly redesigned, from a "short and fat" 12-meter diameter to a "tall and thin" 9-meter diameter, he revised it several times a year before finally getting it to its final form.

Before it is officially developed and successfully developed, everything can be changed.

The same applies to Lu Yun's "space dock" plan.

He initially intended to refer to the Tianhe core module, but after seeing the Tianhe core module at the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, he felt it was not right, so he went to the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology to look at the Mengtian experimental module.

At that time, the original cabin was still at the Eighth Academy and had not yet been transported away, and Lu Yun took a liking to it at first sight.

Lu Yun's design for the "Wooden Kite" 1.2-meter square docking port was inspired by the Mengtian Experimental Module.

The Dream Sky Experiment Module is a module dedicated to conducting experiments and serves as a specialized workshop for the three modules of the Tiangong Space Station.

Its cabin contains 13 scientific experimental cabinets, and there are also 37 load exposure stations outside the cabin, allowing for more loads to undergo external load exposure tests.

Including the 22 external payload points on the Wentian experimental module, the two experimental modules can hold nearly 60 external payloads in total. If astronauts had to go outside the spacecraft to place and retrieve them each time, it would place a heavy burden on them.

Therefore, a special mechanism was set up in the cargo airlock section of the Mengtian experimental module's payload compartment to enable the autonomous entry and exit of cargo.

Once the inner and outer doors of the cargo airlock are opened, cargo can be moved in and out of the airlock using a load transfer mechanism and a robotic arm.

(Image from the internet: the outer and inner cargo compartment doors of the Mengtian experimental module)

The outer hatch of the Mengtian experimental cabin has a diameter of 2 meters, and the inner hatch has a diameter of 1.2 meters.

Inside the Mengtian experimental module, astronauts wearing intravehicular activity suits can skillfully load payloads onto a sliding platform, then exit, close the hatch, and let it operate autonomously.

After safety is confirmed, the 2-meter outer hatch and 1.2-meter inner hatch of the Mengtian experimental cabin will open in sequence, and then the sliding platform will slide upwards to approach the hatch.

At this point, on the robotic arm control panel in the Tianhe core module, astronauts, wearing only work suits, can operate the external robotic arm to take over the work, grabbing payloads and placing them at designated locations, without even needing to wear bulky extravehicular activity (EVA) suits. This entire series of operations can be completed inside the module, eliminating the need for astronauts to go outside in bulky EVA suits.

However, the 1.2-meter diameter square cargo door of the Mengtian experimental module is a bit... cramped, because most of the docking ports of the Tiangong space station are universal docking ports, which are circular doors with a diameter of 0.8 meters.

The airlock for personnel exiting the Wentian experimental module is a circular door with a diameter of 1 meter, which makes it easier to exit the module compared to the 0.8-meter diameter circular door on the node module.

Lu Yun's "space dock" will undergo some changes.

It will use a preliminary engineering test chamber from the Dream Sky Experimental Module as the main chamber, but without the conical resource chamber and the huge solar cell array on top.

In addition, its "dock" is a node module similar to the core module of the Sky, but larger!
(Image from the internet, from top to bottom: Space Dock, DreamSky Experiment Module, Tianhe Core Module)

The main body of the "Space Dock" has the same diameter as the Mengtian Experimental Module, which is 4.2 meters, but its length is not as long as the Mengtian Experimental Module's nearly 18 meters. The "Space Dock" is only 15 meters long.

Its node module is twice as large as the node module of the Tianhe core module, and its diameter, including the docking structure, can reach 4.2 meters.

Its most distinctive feature is that it has four square doors with a diameter of 1.2 meters: the main door in front of the node module, the door connecting the node module and the hull, the bulkhead door similar to the cargo compartment of the Mengtian experimental module, and the doors for the cargo compartment in the green zone and the working compartment in the white zone.

The remaining interfaces, such as the four directional docking ports and the tail docking port of the large node module, are conventional circular docking ports with a diameter of 0.8 meters.

The tail docking port is for docking with the tail docking port of the spacecraft and the core module.

The four circular openings of the node module are docking ports for the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, and the new generation manned spacecraft.

The 1.2-meter diameter square docking port directly in front of the node module is for docking the "Willow" space shuttle.

The reason for this is to transport larger equipment from the "Wooden Kite" to the "Space Dock". Large equipment with a diameter of 1.1 meters can also be assembled in the white area work module of the "Space Dock" and then transported to the outside for release through the internal 1.2-meter hatch.

For example, some parts can be transported in and then assembled into a square satellite with a diameter of 1.1 meters, which can then be released into orbit.

Although the Mengtian Experimental Module also has this function and a 1.2-meter diameter cabin door, it can only release small cubic stars with a diameter of a few tenths of a meter due to the limitation of the diameter of other cabin doors.

Lu Yun looked at the "space dock" that was being assembled and liked it very much, especially the through-type 1.2-meter diameter square hatch.

Although its large node module has not yet been delivered and is currently under construction at the Zhangjiagang Smart Base, Lu Yun can already imagine what it will look like once it is installed.

Chief Designer Yang also remarked with emotion: "The Tiangong space station was designed too early, ten years ago, when our technology was not yet up to par."

"Although we have the advantage of being a latecomer compared to the International Space Station, the advantage is limited, so we continued to use the 0.8-meter diameter circular docking port."

"Now that I've seen your 'Wooden Kite' and 'Space Dock,' I realize how huge your late-mover advantage is. The docking port of the Tiangong space station is actually holding you back a bit."

Lu Yun said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Technological development always takes time. Just like those earliest modules launched on the International Space Station, they have seriously hampered the station's operation."

"If anything happens to the space station, it will definitely be the space stations that have problems first."

Upon hearing this, Chief Engineer Yang looked at Lu Yun.

"You mean the International Space Station is about to collapse?"

(End of this chapter)