China Launched Their Latest Lab Module! This Time The Space Station Will Be Built Quickly, and Viral Video: China successfully launched the Mengtian Module on the Chang Zheng 5B Rocket on Monday. It was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, southern China. After about eight minutes of flight, the module reportedly separated from the rocket and entered its intended orbit.
In this context, Mengtian Lab Module is the third and last part of China’s space station. After that, China will complete the final preparations to build its first T-shaped and permanent space station. Note that China launched Wentian in July this year. Where scientific experiments will be conducted.
The Chang Zheng 5B rocket is also called the Long March-5B carrier rocket. It is a powerful rocket that has launched all three modules of the Chinese space station so far. Besides, each of them weighed more than 22 tons. Note that this rocket has four 3.35-meter-diameter liquid propellant boosters and can carry 1,078 tons at take-off. In addition, it is also capable of sending a payload of 25 tonnes into Earth’s orbit.
According to the Shanghai Academy of Spacecraft Technology (SAST), this 17.88 m long and 4.2 m diameter mega space lab weighed 23.3 tonnes at launch. It is considered to be the heaviest payload ever launched by China. Meanwhile, the Mengtian module is designed as a workstation for astronauts. It has a total of 13 payload cabinets. In addition to microgravity studies, specialized tests such as fluid physics can also be performed.
In addition, Mengtian carries the world’s first set of cold atomic clocks, including a hydrogen clock. which includes a rubidium clock and an optical clock. In this context, Zhang Wei, director of the Utilization Development Center of Technology and Engineering Center, said that this cold atomic clock will create the most accurate time and frequency system in space.
Note that Mengtian is equipped with huge flexible solar panels. Which can be extended to about 138 square meters. In this case, when China’s T-shaped space station is completed, the solar panels installed on the Wentian and Mengtian modules can together generate about a thousand-kilowatt hours of electricity per day. This means, there will be no power issues in the space station.
Blastoff!!! Long March 5B with the 23t #Mengtian Laboratory Module lifted off from Wenchang! T0 at 07:37:23 UTC pic.twitter.com/HRozNkfm19
— China ‘N Asia Spaceflight (@CNSpaceflight) October 31, 2022
Once this space station is built, the Tiangong Station will conduct 23 experiments here. Meanwhile, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has already approved more than a thousand experiments. That will be done on the space station in the coming years. Note that Tiangong is one of the two space stations currently orbiting the Earth. On the other hand, the other is the International Space Station. Note that China is also planning to launch the Chinese Survey Space Telescope (CSST) in December 2023. The telescope will have a mass of 15,500 kg and will have a two-meter primary mirror. Also, it is said to make observations 300-350 times better than the Hubble telescope.
