It was only after the first spacewalk by the Shenzhou-17 astronauts on the Chinese space station revealed that there was a huge danger in the site of the impact. This site is considered the "most central" area of China's space station. According to the information released by the China Space Center, this maintenance is a "non-designed" maintenance, but after the maintenance, China's overall strength in space maintenance has been improved.
The specific situation is as follows, and it is analyzed one by one. After the impact on China's space station, Shenzhou-17 underwent extravehicular repairs. This is not surprising, because when Shenzhou-17 carried out the manned spacecraft mission, it was publicly stated that the Chinese space station was hit by space junk during its long-term operation, which is also unavoidable.
According to data released by the European Space Agency in 2020, the number of large debris in space has exceeded 34,000, and the number of dangerous debris has reached about 900,000, and there may even be a large number of "unknown" space junk. Therefore, any collision of space junk with a spacecraft has the potential to trigger catastrophic consequences.
In the history of astronautics, there have been cases of abandoned spacecraft colliding. In 2009, the U.S. communications satellite "Iridium-33" and the Russian satellite "Cosmos 2251", which was scrapped many years ago, collided violently over Siberia, which was the first time that "two satellites collided" in mankind. At that time, Russian satellites were scrapped, which was also considered space junk.
In the course of the collision, up to 2,000 large pieces of space junk were generated, as well as an even larger number of smaller, untraceable pieces of space junk. Therefore, a space collision would be catastrophic for humanity. This is mainly due to the fact that space junk travels extremely fast, reaching more than 7 kilometers per second, so even tiny pieces of debris can pose a serious threat to operating equipment.
The impact on the Chinese space station, the damage to the solar wings, is practically inevitable, and many space particles are not even detectable and are only detected when they are close, almost impossible to avoid. Therefore, it is not unusual to think that the damage to China's space station is completely abnormal. The avoidance of space junk is indeed quite a challenging task.
Even if the space station and ground equipment are equipped with early warning systems, they can only avoid large space junk. Although China's space station has been hit by space junk many times, the damage to the solar wing is not as serious as people think, and it has not affected the stable operation of China's space station.
This also shows that China has achieved the improvement of the anti-collision mechanism in some materials, and the upgraded anti-collision capability may be more powerful in the future. Prior to this, China only announced that the solar wing of the Chinese space station had been hit, but did not specify the specific location. It wasn't until the Shenzhou-17 astronauts completed their first extravehicular maintenance mission that the exact location of the impact was really revealed.
The site of this repair is located "between the core module and the solar wing", which is arguably the most central part of China's space station. The core module is the center of the construction of China's space station, the largest and most complex system, and is the "central brain" of the entire space station, and the core module and the solar wing are also the core part connecting the two spacecraft.
As a result, space junk seems to "prefer" this area, although this is also a "coincidence", since the impact of space junk is not "targeted" and can be hit anywhere. Just as the robotic arm of the International Space Station and the manned spacecraft have been hit. The area that will be restored in our country this time is the most important part, and it was not announced until later that it was not announced.
The impact on this part has put forward higher requirements for China's astronauts, and the challenge is also more difficult. Due to the impact of this part, higher requirements have been put forward for China's astronauts, and the challenge is also more difficult. The maintenance site is located "between the core module and the solar wing", which can be said to be the most important part of China's space station.
The Chinese Shenzhou-17 astronauts carried out a rather difficult mission, where they carried out repair work in the shadow zone of the solar wing. This task requires great care and precision, because the solar wing is like a soft and fragile piece of "little fresh meat", and the space is limited, and the slightest mistake can be damaged again. With such strict constraints, the restoration had to be done in one go, and there must be no room for error.
For the successful completion of this mission, we would like to express our sincerest respect to the astronauts. The upgrade of China's space station will face more challenges, especially with the addition of space. As more and more astronauts and projects from other countries join the future development strategy of China's space station, China's space station will welcome more international astronauts and experimental projects.
In the case of the rapid development of the space station, the possibility of damage to the space station will also increase. As a result, the ability to repair inside and outside the cabin needs to be comprehensively improved to ensure that any damage can be repaired 100 percent. This will also help extend the service life of the Chinese space station.
The successful completion of the first extravehicular experimental maintenance mission carried out by Shenzhou-17 marks that the extravehicular activity capability and level of the space station have reached a new height, laying a solid foundation for ensuring the safe and reliable operation of the space station in the future. In the future, China also needs to enhance its capabilities in cabin maintenance, which is an inevitable trend.