History of the Development of Human Space Station - The Soviet Union①

"The earth is the cradle of mankind, but mankind cannot be bound to the cradle forever."

This is what Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of Soviet aerospace, said The words lead to the exploration of the unknown realm of space by human beings with simple longing and infinite exploration.

As early as 1903, Constantine proposed the idea of ??a low-Earth orbit station and a space station plan in the world's first theoretical work on jet motion "Study of Space with Jet Tools", and clearly proposed liquid fuel Rockets are an ideal tool for spaceflight.

In 1961, Soviet astronaut Gagarin became the first human being to enter space, ushering in the era of manned spaceflight. Exploration into space has become an inevitable trend in human development, but how to stay in space for a long time? And supporting human beings to work and live for a long time has become a problem, so the concept of the space station came into being, and it has become an important base for mankind to move into space.

In review, the space station has experienced a long development process, among which the former Soviet Union Competing with the United States has made great contributions to human space exploration. Now let’s focus on the development history of the Soviet space station.

1. Manned spacecraft technology

First of all, it needs to be pointed out that the space station is a space station that can operate in low-Earth orbit for a long time and support human beings’ long-term work and life. The space station does not have a propulsion or landing system and needs to rely on other spacecraft to complete the transportation of personnel and materials between the ground and the space station. Compared with other space flight spacecraft such as artificial satellites, manned spacecrafts, and space shuttles, the space station has a large volume, With the advantages of large number of people, long life and high degree of comprehensive utilization, it is an important base for human beings to enter space.

Because the space station does not have the function of returning to the ground, the construction of the space station is inseparable from rockets and spacecrafts. Aerospace Astronauts must rendezvous and dock with the space station through a manned spacecraft or space shuttle in order to live and work on the station. Therefore, the Soviet Union only launched its own manned space flight plan after mastering ballistic missile technology.

On April 12, 1961, the former Soviet Union successfully launched mankind's first two-cabin "Vostok 1" (Vostok 1) (it circled the earth in an orbit about more than 300 kilometers above the earth and lasted 1 hour. 48 minutes), achieved the first step into space for mankind, and Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

On March 18, 1965, the former Soviet Union successfully launched the second-generation two-cabin manned spacecraft "Voskhod 2", Alexey Leonov extravehicular The activity lasted about 12 minutes, and the first human space walk was achieved.

On January 16, 1969, the Soviet Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 manned spacecraft successfully conducted the first manned space rendezvous. Docking test. The rendezvous and docking adopts a combination of automatic and manual methods. The astronauts use the distance and relative speed measured by the rendezvous radar to manually control the spacecraft through the optical sight, and the spacecraft measures its attitude through the attitude sensor and gyroscope for automatic control.

It can be seen from here that reliable launch vehicles, manned spaceflight and space rendezvous and docking are the prerequisite and key to the development of space station technology!

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2. The first-generation space station

Here we have to talk about the US Apollo program first. In 1969, Apollo 11 successfully sent astronauts to the moon, and Armstrong took "a giant step for mankind."

On the Soviet side, the N-1 launch vehicle used to send astronauts to the moon failed four times, shattering the Soviet Union's dream of landing on the moon. The Soviet Union knew that it could no longer catch up with the United States by landing on the moon, so it shifted its focus to another field - "space station". In order to master the technology of a larger-scale and longer-running space station, the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s In the 1990s, the Salyut space station project was launched, and the "Salyut Project" was born.

It should be pointed out that unlike the United States' leapfrog development method, the former Soviet Union launched 7 Salyut series space stations using a step-by-step technical route. The subsequent "Salyut 6" and "Salyut 7" space stations were A second-generation practical space station constructed using building blocks, it is also the Soviet Union’s longest low-orbit manned space program.

The "Salyut-1" space station was launched on April 19, 1971 , crashed on October 11, 1971, spent 175 days in orbit, orbited the earth 2,929 times, and flew about 119 million kilometers. It consists of an orbital module, a service module and a docking module, including the main control system, orientation and motion control system, The engine attitude and maneuvering control system, long-distance communication system, power supply system, life support system, etc. are also equipped with various testing, photography and scientific experiment equipment, and can accommodate 6 astronauts. During the period in orbit, "Salyut 1" "The space station successfully docked with the "Soyuz 11" spacecraft. The three astronauts entered the space station to work and live for 24 days, completing a series of medical and scientific experiments such as plant planting. The success of the "Salyut 1" space station marked the beginning of manned spaceflight. From a small-scale, short-flight manned spacecraft to a larger-scale, longer-running space application exploration and test phase, it also provides valuable experience for subsequent space station construction.

“Salute 2" (the first Al-maz military space station), launched on April 3, 1973, crashed on May 28, 1973, spent 54 days in orbit, orbited the earth 866 times, and flew approximately 3.5 million kilometers, with no astronauts entering the station.

"Salyut-3" (the second diamond military space station) was launched on June 25, 1974 and crashed on January 24, 1975. It orbited for 213 days, successfully docked with the Soyuz 14 manned spacecraft once, and an astronaut worked on the station for 15 days.

"Salyut 4", launched on December 26, 1974, 1977 It crashed on February 2, 2011. It has been in orbit for 770 days, orbited the earth 12,444 times, and flown about 314 million kilometers. It has successfully docked with the "Soyuz 17" and "Soyuz 18" manned spacecraft twice and with the unmanned spacecraft once. , 2 batches of 4 astronauts entered the station and worked for a total of 92 days.

"Salyut 5" (the third diamond military space station), launched on June 22, 1976, August 28, 1977 Crash, 412 days in orbit, 6,666 times around the Earth, a flight distance of about 270 million kilometers, two successful dockings with the "Soyuz 23" and "Soyuz 24" manned spacecraft, and two batches of four astronauts entering the station. 67 days.

In summary, the "Salyut 1" to "Salyut 5" space stations are the first-generation experimental space stations. The space stations are all experimental first-generation space stations, equipped with only one The docking interface can only dock with one Soyuz series spacecraft at a time. Instruments, equipment and major items need to be loaded into the space station before launch. The limited oxygen, fuel, food and other supplies carried cannot be replenished in time. Not only It restricts the residence time of astronauts on the space station, and also limits the orbital operating life of the space station. Therefore, they have not yet carried out relevant research work on the impact of long-term space stay on the human body and reliable life support systems.

Of course, the first Although the first-generation space station has a short time in orbit, it has made great progress compared with other spacecrafts, and the construction and operation of these experimental space stations from "Salyut 1" to "Salyut 5" helped the former Soviet Union build permanent space stations. It has accumulated a lot of valuable experience, including the birth of plant cultivation, experimental space microgravity materials science, solar activity observation, space earth resource survey, etc.