Astronauts arrange new ‘home’ in space
Astronauts on board the core module of China’s space station have started to prepare their orbiting residence for operations over the next three months.
As soon as the three crew members — Major General Nie Haisheng, Major General Liu Boming and Senior Colonel Tang Hongbo — floated into the core module, named Tianhe, or Harmony of Heavens, on Thursday afternoon, they started to configure the electrolytic oxygen generators, install water tanks and arrange their sleeping quarters, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
After finishing these tasks, they enjoyed their first sleep on board the module, the biggest spacecraft China has built and the first and central section of the permanent space station, called Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace.
After they woke up on Friday morning, Nie and his crew members started to unpack the Wi-Fi signal equipment and install and set the devices, the agency said in a news release.
Sun Jun, chief controller of the Tiangong program at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, said that the Wi-Fi equipment inside the core module is connected through relay satellites with the ground control’s communication network.
“It enables our astronauts to talk with their family members or colleagues or even make video calls,” he said.
They also entered the Tianzhou 2 cargo spaceship on Friday to begin moving their living materials and mission payloads to the core module.
Tianzhou 2, the country’s second cargo spaceship, carried 6.8 tons of supplies for Tianhe when it docked with it on May 29, including 2 tons of propellants, more than 160 packages of living and experimental materials as well as two extravehicular suits, each weighing around 100 kilograms, for astronauts to perform activities outside the core module.