梦天
The Shenzhou-23 crew will support several dozen experiments across the Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian modules of the Tiangong Space Station.
New flexible solar cells that are 80 micrometers thick will undergo testing in Earth orbit outside the Mengtian module through its cargo airlock.
The 80-micrometer-thick flexible solar cells will be tested in Earth’s orbit using the Mengtian module’s cargo airlock.
Wu Fei and Zhang Lu installed space debris protection devices on the Mengtian module during the Shenzhou-21 crew’s third spacewalk.
The Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian modules were inspected for damage and anomalies during the Shenzhou-21 crew’s third spacewalk.
Zhang Lu and Wu Fei completed inspections of the Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian modules during the spacewalk.
The spacewalkers installed space debris protection devices onto station modules and performed inspections of the Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian modules.
When the spacewalk occurs, routine inspections of the Tianhe, Wentian, Mengtian, and Shenzhou-22 spacecraft will be conducted.
The Tiangong outpost, completed in late 2022, comprises the Tianhe core module and the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules, with a total mass of about 100 metric tons.
One of the planned activities during the Shenzhou-21 mission is to conduct spacewalks to install hardware and inspect the Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian modules.
The Long March 5B has not flown since launching the third Tiangong module, Mengtian, in late 2022.
The most recent Long March 5B first stage reentered over the south-central Pacific Ocean on 2022-11-04 after launching the Mengtian experiment module and prompted airspace closures in Europe.
China launched the Mengtian module on 2022-10-31 and Mengtian successfully docked with the Tiangong space station 13 hours later.
Mengtian used its own propulsion to match orbit and rendezvous with the Tiangong space station, which is in a roughly 380 by 387-kilometer orbit.
Mengtian reached low Earth orbit and connected with a forward port on Tiangong’s docking hub just under 13 hours after launch at 4:27 p.m. Eastern on 2022-10-31.
Mengtian is designed to host science experiments in areas including fluid physics, combustion, materials science, and space technologies.
Mengtian is designed to host science experiments with research areas including fluid physics, combustion, materials science, and space technologies.
Mengtian will expand Tiangong to a living and working space of around 110 cubic meters.
Mengtian was shipped from Tianjin and arrived at Wenchang on 2022-08-09.
The arrival of Mengtian will complete the planned T-shaped Tiangong space station.