After the Mengtian experimental module docks with the Chinese space station and implements the transposition, the Chinese space station will form a “T” configuration. The Chinese space station will also use three different solar wings at the same time.
Among them, carbon fiber materials were used in the first two generations of solar wings, and carbon fiber will also be indispensable on the third generation of solar wings in the future.
During the planning and design process of China’s space station, researchers have developed three generations of solar wings according to the characteristics and needs of different cabins, each generation has its own characteristics. The Shenzhou manned spacecraft uses the first-generation rigid solar wing, and the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft uses the second-generation semi-rigid solar wing. The first generation uses a rigid substrate, which uses a structure of carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb, and its volume is relatively large. In addition to the further increase in the original power demand, the cargo spacecraft uses the second-generation semi-rigid solar cell wing. It uses a carbon fiber frame and a glass fiber mesh, just like a tennis racket, which greatly reduces the weight of the entire solar wing.
Compared with the Shenzhou spacecraft and the cargo spacecraft, the two experimental cabins of the space station are very large. At the same time, the experimental cabin also needs to carry a large number of cabinets to complete a number of on-orbit experiments, which consumes a lot of electricity. To this end, the researchers specially developed the third-generation flexible solar wings to meet the power requirements of the experimental cabin. After the combination of Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian, the daily power generation of the space station can reach nearly 1,000 degrees, allowing the Chinese space station to truly realize “no worries about power consumption”.