Revealing the secret: the astronauts call between the world and the earth, and their credit is behind them!

According to Xinhua News Agency, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping came to the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center on the morning of the 23rd. Together with the Shenzhou 12 astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo who were on mission in the core module of Tianhe. call. In this world call, video and audio are transmitted in real time between the core module of the space station hundreds of kilometers above the ground and the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. The whole process has clear images, clear voices, and smooth transmission! Behind all of this, my country’s relay satellite system is indispensable. What is a relay satellite system? “Keywords: real-time, high-speed, full coverage” The pointer went back to 2003, when Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei successfully entered space for the first time. In the meantime, he conducted “world-to-earth calls” with the ground control station several times, but each time he had a strict time window. To put it simply, a relay satellite is a space data “transit station” that can provide space-based measurement and control and data relay services for mid- and low-orbit spacecraft. This is equivalent to raising the ground measurement and control station to an orbital altitude of tens of thousands of kilometers. According to the different data application departments of various spacecraft and aircraft, the various data generated by them are forwarded in real time. This improves the timeliness of data return. It also enhances the ability of emergency coordination and linkage. At that time, the effective communication time of observation stations in our country was quite limited. The birth of the “Skylink” series of relay satellites solved this problem well. One “Skylink” satellite can observe half of the orbits of mid- and low-orbit spacecraft, 2 “Skylink” satellites can cover most of the orbits, and 3 “Skylink” satellites can be networked to achieve global coverage. With them, the embarrassment of the “black barrier” of measurement and control communication outside the field of view that we are facing will be gone forever! Greatly improve the safety and reliability of manned space missions. What can the relay satellite system do? “Wi-Fi in space, astronauts watching “News Broadcast”, and space teaching… all rely on it!” On September 27, 2008, the astronaut Zhai Zhigang’s phrase “I’m out of the cabin, I feel good!” From outside the cabin of the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft in the distant space, it was transmitted back to the ground, and it was broadcasted all over the world through live news, detonating an unprecedented number of people in the country. The enthusiasm for dreaming in space, the live audio and video broadcast of the world during this mission is the “first show” of the “Tianlian” series of relay satellite systems in manned space missions. Since then, while witnessing the development of my country’s manned space industry, the relay satellite system has been constantly optimizing itself and providing better and better services for missions. Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft mission Zhai Zhigang out of the cabin live broadcast During the Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft mission, astronaut Jing Haipeng reported to the people of the country through the world’s audio and video calls In 2013, during the manned space missions of Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1, astronaut Wang Yaping gave a 51-minute space lesson to primary and middle school students across the country. These 51 minutes are the companionship of the “Skylink” satellite to the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft over 30,000 kilometers, and it is also the “Sky Road” team. Based on this task for several years of special research-compared with the previous world call, The live broadcast in space takes longer and the spacecraft flies over more arcs. How to ensure that the relay tracking is true and seamless? How to ensure that the inter-satellite switching is true and real-time? How to ensure that the mission plan is true and efficient? Every technical breakthrough is a real and difficult point. It not only involves the design of the top-level task model and process deduction, but also the optimization and improvement of the underlying software and hardware equipment and the optimization of the protocol specifications. The “Tianlu” team issued the task from the task demonstration. From a moment on, a journey of countless fierce battles and countless trials began. From Beijing to Xi’an, from Xi’an to Kashgar, from Kashgar to Whale Bay, there are mountains, rivers and trees measured by the “Tianlu” team in both the south and the north. Finally, when the live broadcast of the Shenzhou 10 sky teaching was successfully implemented, the ancients chanted “The End of the World” “If you are neighbor”, it becomes a reality with the support of the Tianlu team and the relay satellite system. In the Shenzhou 12 mission this year, my country’s self-developed second-generation relay satellite “Tianlian-2” 01 satellite made its debut for manned space missions. The second-generation relay satellite system has a wider range of panoramic beams. , Higher transmission speed, stronger multi-target support and other characteristics, the two-generation system relay networking has become one of the important measurement and control methods for the autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking of the spacecraft and the core cabin. Install wireless WIFI in space, use mobile APP, use wireless headset to call… All this is supported by the “Skylink” relay satellite system. According to the China Space Station’s orbit construction plan, a number of manned spacecraft, experimental cabins and other spacecraft will be launched in the future. The “Skylink” series of satellites will better provide high-speed, wide-area, and stable space-based measurement and control for these spacecraft. And data relay services, set up the “information road” between space and the ground. Who is operating the relay satellite? “A lovely group of people.” Nowadays, astronauts in the “Heavenly Harmony” on Nine Heavens can conduct real-time, two-way world-to-earth calls with the ground anytime and anywhere, which means that the information transmission between the world and the earth in my country has entered a situation of normalization, high efficiency, high speed, and global coverage. The behind-the-scenes heroes who set up this “information sky road” and empowered the world call are the unknown Beijing Space Information Transmission Center “Sky Road” team! From the project demonstration of the first-generation “Tianlian” relay satellite system in 2003, to the network operation of the first and second-generation relay satellites, for 18 years, they have weaved an “information road” with the “Tianlian” satellite as the core. , Has been helping my country’s manned spaceflight industry continue to advance, and has been helping my country’s space-based measurement and control communication system to continuously improve. In order to activate the “Tianlian” system’s abilities, and to empower the “Information Tianlu” to connect the world with the earth, they have always adhered to the belief that “the success does not have to be with me, and the success must have me”. Steadily move forward on the journey to the sea of ​​stars! Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Zhang Hang Correspondent Zhang Nan Zhou Yonggang Wang Ran Guo Haoran Zhang Mengmei Zou Fang Chen Fei Li Yuanlong Editor Zeng Jiajia Process Editor Wu Yue