How China Reinvented The Space Station!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
China's heavenly Palace. The Tianggong isthe most advanced space station ever deployed by
the human race, and that's abig deal, but it's not really something
that the people in the Western worldreally understand very well or even know that
much about. The Chinese have reinventedthe space station for the twenty first century,
and this is how they've done it. This is the space race.

(00:22):
The thing is, we've been puttingspace stations into orbit since the early nineteen
seventies, but the Tianggong is thefirst one to stand out as something that
looks more like science fiction than thestatus quo, which is essentially just a
submarine in space. Did you knowthat the first space station ever deployed was
a single module Soviet design from nineteenseventy one called the Salute, and then

(00:46):
two years later in nineteen seventy three, NASA topped that with their own station
named Skylab, which was built insidea hollowed out upper stage of the gigantic
Saturn five moon rocket. But itwas in nineteen eighty six that the world
saw the deployment of the first evermodular space station, which the Soviets named
mir It would take a decade toassemble the seven module mir station, and

(01:10):
even with the collapse of the SovietUnion coming right in the middle of the
project, the Russians would cement themselvesas the leaders in space station development.
So when we finally arrive at theInternational Space Station that we all know so
well today, we can see thatit shares a lot of resemblance with Russia's
Mirror. In fact, given thatthe Russians had decades of experience with multiple
space stations and NASA had virtually zeropractical knowledge, I don't think it's unfounded

(01:36):
to look at the ISS more likea mir version two point zero, because
it's pretty clear where this design approachcame from. If we look back from
Salue to Skylab to MIR to ISS, we're not exactly seeing a massive amount
of progress or evolution to the design. If anything, the Skylab really sticks
out as being the nicest space stationof the bunch, and that was literally

(01:59):
fifty years ago. The Soviet designaesthetic that carried over all the way to
ISS has a lot more in commonwith a submarine than the starship Enterprise.
It's cramped, it's cluttered. Thereare pipes and wires and god knows what
else sticking out from all angles.Now we flip forward to China's Tiangong,
and the difference is night and day. There are only about twenty years between

(02:23):
the ISS and Tiangong, but itlooks like a century worth of progress.
The Tiangong now consists of three modules, forming a T shaped space station fifty
five meters long and thirty nine meterswide that orbits around four hundred kilometers above
the Earth's surface. The Tianha isthe core command module, first launched in
April twenty twenty one. The WenzanExperiment module serves as a combination of crew

(02:46):
quarters, research lab, and airlock, which was added in July twenty twenty
two. The Menxian module is atwin to the Wentzan and functions purely as
a research and experiment space and jointhe station in November twenty twenty two.
As far as space stations go,this is an incredibly rapid pace of construction.

(03:07):
It took Russia and NASA two yearsjust to get the ISS to a
state where it was habitable, andit was a ten year international endeavor for
ISS to reach a state of completion. And while it might seem like this
station came out of nowhere. Thisis actually phase three of a plan that
China started all the way back inthe nineties that they called Project nine two

(03:28):
one. This is kind of likeChina's blueprint to conquer space. Phase one
of the plan was the development andlaunch of a crew capable rocket and spacecraft.
These would be the Long March tof and the Shenzhou, which both
launched for the first time in nineteenninety nine. The Long March series of
rockets take their name from Mao Zidong'shistory as a war hero and leader of

(03:50):
the People's Red Army. The nameShechenzhou means divine vessel. By two thousand
and three, this system had putthe first Chinese taikonat into low Earth orbit
on the Sheenzo five mission. Thisbegan phase two of the plan, which
was essentially a practice phase. ByShechenzo seven, the Chinese had performed their
first spacewalk using their own extra vehicularsuits. Following that, the country began

(04:15):
to deploy test modules that were likeminiature space stations. Chinese crews would make
their first extended stays in space andpractice docking maneuvers between the test modules and
the Shenzho. This time also markedthe development of China's Tianjo spacecraft or Heavenly
Ship, which is a cargo transportvehicle with a carrying capacity of sixty five

(04:35):
hundred kilograms. This spacecraft was designedto fly on the new Long March seven
rocket, a modern replacement for thetwo F that was first launched in twenty
sixteen. Phase three of the planis where we are at right now,
the development and assembly of a newspace station, the Tiangong or Heavenly Palace.

(04:56):
So why does China feel so stronglyabout creating their very own space station.
Well, for one, because it'sreally cool. Who wouldn't want their
own personal hangout in space? Butfor two also it probably has to do
with the Chinese being banned from theInternational Space Station, which is obviously counterintuitive
to the literal name of the station, But in twenty eleven, the United

(05:17):
States decided that China was prohibited fromvisiting the station. The Chinese ban was
specifically rolled out through a Department ofDefense Act passed in the US Congress,
which stipulated that NASA may not usetheir funding to collaborate in any way with
China. The reasons given focused aroundhuman rights issues and national security. But

(05:39):
more than anything, the US wasafraid that China would steal their ideas or
spy on them, or something tothat effect, which is a reasonable concern
given that both the US and Chinahave been heavily involved in a ton of
shady spy stuff for the better partof a century, and that's created a
lot of paranoia. Anyway, theChinese decided, to hell with them,

(06:00):
We'll build our own, and herewe are. The first thing that you'll
notice about the interior of the Tiangongis that it looks spacious and wide open,
especially compared to the ISS. Tiangonghas a very minimalist modern design.
What's interesting is that the outer diameterof the Tiangong modules are nearly the exact
same as the diameter of the ISSmodules, about four point two meters or

(06:25):
fourteen feet across, so the differenceis in the volume of internal space available.
There are a few reasons for that. For one, the ISS modules
are typically much shorter, with moreconnection points in between that create bottlenecks in
the structure. For example, theDestiny lab on the ISS, which is
the primary operating facility for US astronauts, is eight point four meters or twenty

(06:47):
eight feet long, while the Weenzanand men Tian modules are both eighteen meters
or fifty nine feet in length.And for two, the technology on Tiangong
is just much more modern and theiror smaller and able to fit into a
smaller space. For example, manyof the systems on Tangong will connect wirelessly
instead of having to run a labyrinthof cables around like what we see on

(07:11):
the ISS. Also, much ofthe technology on the Tiangong is hidden behind
these plane white panels when not inuse. I don't know if that's more
functional or just aesthetic, or ifthey straight up don't want anyone else to
be able to see what they're workingon, but it does make the station
look very clean and modern. Thefirst module of Tangong successfully reached orbit in

(07:32):
April of twenty twenty one. Thiscore structure is called the tan Ho,
which means harmony of the heavens.The Tanha is a twenty ton structure with
a maximum diameter of four point twometers and contains everything necessary for a functional
space station that can support a crewof three. It has solar panels,
propulsion systems, life support, arobotic arm and a sophisticated docking node and

(07:57):
airlock. There are three main sectsto the core module. Starting at the
smaller end, there is a sphericalmulti docking node. This has four ports,
with one obviously being permanently attached tothe tanha. The port opposite to
the core module is the main dockingport for the station. This is where
the Schenjo crew vehicle can dock.The two side ports on the multi docking

(08:18):
node are berthing ports for the twinresearch labs to the core module. The
bottom port on the node is asecond crew docking port. This is for
use during crew handovers when two groupsof three taikonots are occupying the station simultaneously,
and the top port is actually nota docking port at all, it's
a hatchway. This is for thecrew to exit the station and perform spacewalks.

(08:41):
Moving up to the narrow cylindrical sectionof tanha, this is the crew
quarters. There are individual bunks forthree crew members and all of the necessary
facilities like the space toilet, andthen at the wider end of the core
module is a working area with threeexperimental rack This is also where the propulsion
section for the station is located.This maintains orbital control, and lastly,

(09:05):
there is another docking port at theend of the module that is specifically for
the Tianjo cargo craft. This isalso a future docking port for the Chinese
Space Telescope. The Tanha is alsothe module that supports the station's main robotic
arm, which is ten meters inlength. It's a little shorter than the
Canada ARM two that is currently inoperation at the ISS, which is seventeen

(09:28):
meters long, but the Chinese armdoes have a similar capability and the possibility
for expansion. More on that ina bit. The next title is the
Wenzan Module. On July twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, China launched their
Wenzan Research Laboratory module for the Tiangong. The name Wenzan translates as Heavenly Quest.

(09:48):
This is another twenty ton structure thatwas deployed on the Long March five
B rocket. This is China's firstheavy lift space launcher and is responsible for
getting the three modules of the Tangointo their four hundred kilometer high orbit.
The Long March five B configuration isa really interesting rocket design. It uses
a hydrogen fuel burning core stage andis strapped with four liquid fueled side boosters

(10:13):
that burn RP one kerosene. Thiscombination makes the Long March five B the
third most powerful rocket currently in servicearound the world, behind the Falcon Heavy
at number one and the Delta fourHeavy. The process that this particular rocket
uses to put these twenty ton payloadsinto their orbital path is pretty unique and
very controversial. So once the rocketclears Earth's atmosphere, which happens at about

(10:37):
one hundred kilometers in altitude, thosefour side boosters will drop off, but
the core booster engine will continue toburn. A typical rocket will have a
full stage separation at this point,where the entire lower section of the rocket
will detach and fall back down toEarth, where it usually splashes into the
ocean and again. On a typicalrocket, a second stage engine will then

(11:00):
fire up to propel what's left ofthe rocket and the payload into the orbital
insertion. The Long March five Bdoesn't do that. After the foreside boosters
drop off, the rocket stays wholeand the core booster engines propel the module
all the way to its orbital insertionpoint before finally separating. That means the
majority of the rocket structure is nowin orbit, so it won't just fall

(11:24):
straight back down into the ocean.But it's not in a stable orbit either,
so it won't stay up there fortoo long. It's going to circle
the Earth for a few days asit slowly loses altitude and gets pulled back
into the atmosphere. Now, theseare just too big to vaporize like a
regular satellite. It doesn't stay whole, but chunks are going to make it
all the way down to the surfaceof the Earth. And that's why this

(11:48):
particular long March five B booster stagebroke up over the Indian Ocean and rain
down scrap metal over the islands ofIndonesia. Anyway, the Wenzian module serves
dual purpose on the space station.It has an additional three crew sleeping quarters
that bring the total capacity of thestation up to six people at once,
and it also provides space for avariety of scientific experiments. It also houses

(12:13):
two giant solar panels that give themodule a fifty five meter wingspan from tip
to tip. These are state ofthe art solar cells that are super thin
and flexible to maximize the amount ofsurface area that could be deployed. There
are also extremely efficient and generate aroundseven kilowatts of electricity for the station.

(12:33):
There are four experimental rack spaces onthe WENCN containing research projects on life sciences,
biotechnology, and variable gravity effects.Then, moving towards the smaller end
of the module, there is aspace for external experiments. This is basically
a section where they can attach nodesto the outside hull of the ship to
collect data and crew can access theexternal attachment points through the airlock and hatch

(12:56):
on the WENCN. This will becomethe primary airlock of the station for spacewalks,
and the crew can also access theseattachment points using a secondary robotic arm
that comes with the NZN. Thisone is just five meters in length.
But the cool thing about this armis that it can actually crawl around the
station and operate from different locations.So there are multiple attachment points for the

(13:20):
arm around the station, and tocrawl, the arm just grabs onto the
next attachment point and then lets goof the previous attachment point. It can
just keep repeating this maneuver all aroundthe station like a kind of weird robotic
caterpillar thing. What's more, thissecondary arm can actually link up with the
main arm to form one fifteen meterlong robotic arm that would essentially match the

(13:43):
size and capability of the Canada armiiO on the ISS. The third and
final big piece of the puzzle iscalled the Mentian or Heavenly Dream. This
is another research laboratory module that arrivedat Tiangong in October twenty twenty two.
The Manxian is going to be verysimilar to the NCIAN, with the biggest
difference being that Megxian doesn't have anycrew sleeping quarters, so it offers more

(14:07):
space for experimental racks. Also,the Manxian is equipped with its own airlock
that will function as a secondary cargoport. The Menxian also has its own
giant solar panel array, identical tothe NCN, So the addition of the
third module has fully energized the stationand brought it up to full functionality.

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And then there's the Chinese Space Telescope. All we know is that it is
currently in development and will likely havesimilar capabilities to the Hubble Telescope. This
is designed to operate independently from theTiangong. It will orbit close by,
but it's not an attached section ofthe station. The telescope will have the
capability to dock with the Tiangong sothat it can be easily serviced and upgraded

(14:52):
over time, which is something thatcan't easily be done with the Hubble and
is virtually impossible to do with JamesWebb, So that is a big advantage.
Beyond that, we already have wordthat China is considering another expansion to
the Tiangong. At a recent meetingof the International Astronautical Congress, Chinese officials
revealed plans to expand the Tiangong stationfrom three modules to six. China plans

(15:18):
to launch a new multifunctional expansion modulesometime in the coming years. They believe
that additional full sized modules will beginto join that station in around four years
time. As it stands, therewill be a limited number of international research
projects arriving at Tiangong in collaboration withthe United States Office for Outer Space Affairs

(15:39):
and the European Space Agency, sothat's a great start. But with the
relatively small size right now of theTiangong, we're not likely to see international
crew members up there for a visit, though an expansion in the future could
change that. We definitely won't beseeing any Americans involved with the Tiangong.
The same Wolf Amendment that prevents theChinese from ever visiting the ia SAS works

(16:00):
both ways and would prohibit American astronautsfrom having anything to do with the Chinese
station. So hopefully that's helped everyoneto get a better picture of how the
Tiangong operates and what's going on upthere. This information is very hard to
come by, and that's really unfortunate. Hopefully there's going to be a day
where global political tensions cool off andwe can all work together and stuff.

(16:22):
Of course, given the current situationand based on whatever is happening right now
around Taiwan, that clearly won't bethe case anytime soon, So this will
have to do for now.