China has a space station — it’s called Tiangong, the first module was launched in 2021, and it’s all going quite swimmingly, thank you very much. That’s essentially what we know about the orbital complex here in the West, as China tends to be fairly secretive when it comes to their activities in space.
But thanks to a recently released video by the state-funded CCTV Video News Agency, we now have an unprecedented look inside of humanity’s newest orbital laboratory. Shenzhou-18 crew members [Ye Guangfu], [Li Cong], and [Li Guangsu] provide viewers with a full-blown tour of the station, and there’s even baked-in English subtitles so you won’t miss a beat.
The few looks the public has gotten inside of Tiangong in the past have been low-resolution and generally of the “shaky cam” variety. In comparison, this flashy presentation was clearly made to impress an international audience. But let’s be fair, if you managed to build your own crewed station in low Earth orbit, wouldn’t you want to show it off a bit?
So what did we learn about Tiangong from this tour? Well, admittedly not more than we could have guessed. The layout of the three-module station isn’t entirely unlike the International Space Station or even its Soviet predecessor, Mir.
One module contains a common area where the crew meets and eats their meals, as well as the sleeping berths for crew members. (The small portholes in each berth are a nice touch.) Then there are the multi-purpose laboratory modules with their rows of rack mounted experiments, an exercise area, and finally an airlock that can be used to either bring cargo onboard or expose experiments to space.
Even though it’s much smaller than the ISS, one can’t help but notice that the inside of the Tiangong appears a bit less cramped. The modules of the Chinese station have a slightly sleeker internal look, and overall, everything seems less cluttered, or at least, better organized. Some online commenters have equated it to the comparison between the SpaceX Dragon and Russia’s Soyuz capsule, which given the relative ages of the two stations, isn’t wholly inaccurate.
China’s space program has been making great strides over the last several years, but from an outsider’s perspective, it’s been difficult to follow. It’s been doubly frustrating for us here at Hackaday. We’d love to provide the same sort of in-depth coverage we do for American and European missions, but often it’s a challenge to find the technical data that requires. Here’s hoping this video means China is looking to be more transparent about their off-world activities going forward.
Just think of the amzing things that humanity could acheive if we could just get past this ideological, power driven competion between different parts of the world. True, competion does help push inovation, but as a species we need to get better at working together otherwise the Great Filter is very much in our future.
But who gets to be in charge ?
In every program, someone is going to be the program manager. Like in any job. It’s not an adversarial role, it’s a role of someone who is trying to pull the pieces together and enable the work that needs to be done to achieve a larger goal.
The question implies the expectation of territorial conflict but I believe that’s not necessary. For centuries, science really tried its very best to leave out any politics and religion. Space exploration was also part of that mindset for a long time, too. Unfortunately, that has changed recently and we should put every effort into combining our all enthusiasm and ingenuity again instead, to enable deep space exploration rather than only working hard to stay ahead.
Well, China wanted to cooperate and contribute to ISS, but the US were against it.
Or more precisely, that US Congress. They created their biggest competitor out of fear, essentially.
https://time.com/3901419/space-station-no-chinese/
Please put a direkt DL link here.
Getting the DL link alone from chinese website requires creating an user account, I’m not ineterested in.
If they would do like NASA their webistes it should be accessible to anyone with no hurdles.
I was looking at them always doing a two hand wave, with hands always going in opposite directions. And then it clicked a one handed wave would be unbalanced in low gravity (every action has an equal and opposite reaction). So mental note to self, if I ever make it into low gravity during my lifetime, always wave with two hands.
Zero g requires jazz hands. Cool. :D
‘orbital complex’. I’m getting MIR vibes now. ^^
What I wonder, though, is whether or not CSS is getting ham radio equipment eventually.
MIR and its capitalistic successor had it on-board.
Btw, why says the article ‘Tiangong’ ? I thought that’s the name of the series of defunct space labs.
The Chinese space station is named CSS, with the core module being ‘Tianhe’.
SPAM in a CAN doing things that aren’t even remotely worth the cost of putting and keeping them there, just like the ISS. SO 1960s… A propaganda return only. Book – The End of Astronauts: Why Robots are the Future of Exploration (2022)
Maybe, but it inspires people world wide and not all people live for money ?
By contrast, the US historically do nothing until it comes to a competition.
American astronauts would never have had set a foot on moon, if it wasn’t for the Soviet Union.
“The End of Astronauts: Why Robots are the Future of Exploration (2022)”
Is there a sequel, The End of Humanity: Why Robots are the Future of Planet Earth ? ;)
Here at HaD one commenter a while ago made this point re: The argument “waste of money” or “money could be used for something else..”
The money stayed on earth. It employed many high tech workers, fed families, created technology. If you look at the goal not of creating propaganda but of creating and maintaining a high tech industry as the goal itself, space exploration, I’d argue, is definitely “worth the cost.”
That makes sense, I think. One of the reasons for the NASA/Roskosmos partnership with the ISS was to
prevent former USSR rocket scientists and engineers leaving to other countries,
were they might have ended up hiring for development of missiles.
Or so I heard. Speaking under correction here.
Also, a lot of components of MIR-2 had been designed and/or built already before ISS was being planned. They got re-used later on.
Oy, that noise level is intolerable. I’d be heading out an airlock within a day…
So, how much gear up there was sourced from AliExpress…?
I’d rather like to know how much gear from up there is on AliExpress ^^