After nearly 80 days orbiting Earth, the Shenzhou-21 crew is still pushing the envelope on space exploration 🚀. Mission commander Zhang Lu, along with astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, have been living and working aboard China's space station, and they report feeling great as they dive deeper into cutting-edge science.
Robotics meets space life: the team reunited with their "old friend," the intelligent robot Xiaohang 🤖. Over the past week, they ran tests on touch interactions and autonomous flight, gathering data to fine-tune the bot's moves in microgravity.
In their space lab, the astronauts turned to medical research 🧪. Using a Raman spectrometer, they analyzed metabolic components in urine samples to improve health monitoring tools for future missions. They also collected saliva to study how microbes behave in the space station's sealed environment—a key step for long-term crewed missions.
The quest for life's origins continues as they sampled and stored materials for a project on genetic code chirality. By exploring how amino acids and nucleosides pair in space, scientists hope to uncover clues about the building blocks of life.
On the physics front, the crew carried out in situ electrochemical optical experiments on lithium-ion batteries 🔋, testing how they perform in weightlessness—a critical factor for powering tomorrow's spacecraft.
Routine yet vital tasks like replacing sample covers in the combustion science cabinet and swapping modules in the fluid physics experiment kept them busy, ensuring every experiment runs smoothly.
Safety first: a system-wide pressure emergency drill simulated a rapid depressurization scenario, sharpening the crew's response skills and ground-space coordination. They also stayed on top of health checks, from hearing tests to regular running sessions 🏃.
With each experiment and drill, Shenzhou-21 is laying the groundwork for longer and bolder voyages beyond our planet. Stay tuned as these space pioneers continue to make history!
Reference(s):
Shenzhou-21 crew continues with science experiments, life in orbit
cgtn.com
