What does the International Space Station do?

Space station is a spacecraft that can carry people for long-term space flight, also known as space station or orbital station. /KOOC-0/96/KOOC-0/April/KOOC-0/2, the former Soviet astronaut Gagarin safely returned to the ground on the "Dongfang-1" satellite spacecraft, which opened the prelude to manned space flight and the spacecraft technology developed rapidly. The former Soviet Union successively launched the Eastern series spacecraft, Ascension and Soyuz. The United States also launched the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. According to statistics, from1July 1969 to1February 1972, six groups of * * * 12 astronauts landed on the moon by Apollo spacecraft, costing 25 billion dollars. Because of the small size of the spacecraft, it is inconvenient for people to move on the spacecraft, and they can't stay in space for a long time, so they can't carry too many scientific instruments and equipment for scientific research activities, and it takes a lot of money, manpower and material resources to launch again and again. This forces people to consider building a larger spacecraft with more freedom of movement, so as to load more daily necessities and instruments and equipment and put them into orbit for a long time, just like a laboratory moving into space. People call it the space station, which is the inevitable result of the development of spacecraft.

Space stations generally weigh dozens of tons and have hundreds of cubic meters of living space. It is basically composed of several cylinders with different diameters connected in series, which are divided into docking cabin, airlock cabin, track cabin, living cabin, service cabin and solar cell wing. The docking module generally has several docking ports, which can dock several manned spacecraft or other spacecraft at the same time, and is the docking station of the space station. The airlock cabin is the passage for astronauts to enter and leave the space station on the waterway. Orbital module is a place for astronauts to carry out scientific research and work, equipped with all kinds of necessary instruments and equipment. Living quarters are places for astronauts to eat, rest and entertain. The service cabin is mainly used to support the power and energy system. Solar cell wings are usually installed outside the main body of the space station to provide power for various instruments and equipment on the space station. On the space station, you can explore celestial bodies and study astronomy; Observing the earth and surveying resources; New material processing and new drug trial production; Provide places for people to live in space for a long time, carry out space activities and develop space resources. At present, four space stations have been launched: the Sky Laboratory in the United States, the Space Laboratory of the European Space Agency and the Salute and Mir Space Station of the former Soviet Union.

1973 On May 4th, the United States launched the Skylab space station with Saturn V rocket. The space station weighs 82 tons, with a total length of 36 meters, a diameter of 6.7 meters and a working volume of 350 cubic meters. A total of 3 groups (3 people in each group) ***9 astronauts worked in the laboratory for 28 days, 59 days and 84 days respectively. They conducted a series of experiments in space medicine, human physiology and materials physics. Took many photos of the sun and the ground. "Sky Lab" has been running for more than 6 years, with a voyage of over 65.438+0.4 billion kilometers. In July of 654.38+0.979, it fell into the dense atmosphere and was burned.

1973, the space agency composed of France, Britain, the former Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Austria 14 European countries began to plan space laboratories. 10 years later, Space Laboratory No.1, which cost $1700 million, was carried by the American Space Shuttle Columbia and successfully made its maiden voyage from1983165438+1October 28th to 65438+February 8th. The designed service life of this "space laboratory" is 10 years, and it can be reused 100 times. The atmosphere in the capsule is the same as the ground (1 atmospheric pressure, 70% relative humidity), and astronauts can live and work in it without wearing spacesuits. Among the four crew members who took part in this flight, there were 1 physicist from the former Federal Republic of Germany-U May Balde. During the flight of 10 day, scientists * * * carried out more than 70 experiments in cosmology, biology, astronomy, solar physics, plasma physics, atmospheric physics, earth observation and space processing, and obtained abundant data.

In the field of space station, the former Soviet Union has always maintained a leading position. Since April 197 1 2008 19, seven salute space stations have been launched, and Mir currently working in space belongs to the third generation space station. The first generation of "salute" in the former Soviet Union was relatively simple in scale, with only 100 cubic meter of living space and only one docking module, and astronauts shuttled back and forth by Soyuz spacecraft. Salute 6,1The second generation space station launched in September, 1977 added an axial docking port. Salute No.7 was launched in April, 1984, and the docking adapter was redesigned. It docked with Soyuz manned spacecraft and Progress supply spacecraft 52 times, with the shortest stay time of 75 days and the longest stay time of 237 days. During the service of "Salute 6" and "Salute 7", there were people in orbit for 45% of the time. 1986 In February, the former Soviet Union launched a brand-new space station "Mir". Its total length is about 13m, which is the same as the salute. Its weight is about 2 1t, its maximum diameter is 4.2m, it has six docking ports that can be used at the same time, and its solar panel is 80m2 (0.8 times of 65438+salute). The working and living conditions of the station have been greatly improved. 1On April 23rd, 987, four spacecrafts, Mir Space Station, Quantum Astrophysics Experimental Module, Soyuz TM-2 and Progress 29, docked in space for the first time. This feat in space history has made a useful attempt to establish a permanent space station. Soyuz TM- 15 also docked with Mir and Salute 7 respectively, which realized the connection of the two space stations for the first time. Musa Manarov set a record of working continuously on the space station 1 year, staying in space for 5 15 days.

In the late 1990s, Jay O 'Neill, a physics professor at Princeton University in the United States, conceived to build a large space station "Island One" with mountains, lakes and parks in space, but without pollution and diseases, and realized the immigration to space, producing drugs, crystals and precision mechanical parts in the station, gradually developing space agriculture and mining from the moon. Looking forward to the space technology in the 1990s, the space station will definitely become a base for developing space.