The Shenzhou-13

Over the years, the urge to discover more about the mysterious void that’s space has gotten ever so important. And now, China has just developed another spacecraft, the Shenzhou-13.

Some might recall that earlier in 2021, Shenzhou-12 got launched to the Tianhe core module of China’s developing space station, the Tiangong. And since this new mission has a similar name to the last one, it should be no surprise that the 13 is also heading towards the station. It has already successfully docked in space. So how did such a heavy rocket carrying astronauts and fuel and everything get into space? It’s like asking, how could a steel ship carrying hundreds of people and cargo float on the ocean?

These are all seemingly impossible stuff, but looking into them, they are less complicated than you think. Rockets, in general, break down into a few parts. At the top of most rockets, you will find a cone shape usually attaching to the command module with astronauts inside. There will also be a pointy thing sticking out of the cone, the Launch Escape Tower, to direct the module away if any accidents were to happen on the launch pad. If the mission is automated, carrying cargo, that would be the cargo bay.

Below this, there are the fuel tanks to make the long journey. But when talking about fuel, it doesn’t mean diesel oil or those commonly be found in trucks or cars. Rocket fuel usually means two different kinds of chemicals reacting together. One is liquid hydrogen, the other, liquid oxygen. Why is it in liquid form, anyway? Because it’s much easier to store in tanks. So how do you turn liquids into an explosive fire to push the rocket off the ground? Well, the magic happens just before it comes out of the engine. You see, the hydrogen and oxygen are stored separately, but when it’s time for lift-off, they get channeled together. Now, all there’s needed is a spark. And kaboom, the rocket gets lifted off the ground and into the clouds.

However, as the fuel gets used up, the empty tanks turn into dead weight. That is why we need stage separation, which is discarding the used stages back down to Earth. The Falcon 9 rocket, developed by SpaceX, can reuse those stages by controlling reentry through the atmosphere, not letting it burn up.

Then the mission is carried out, and in the case of Shenzhou-13, that is to dock with the Tiangong Space Station. There the three astronauts will conduct all sorts of experiments and measures. Oh, and by the way, when returning from orbit, you would feel very heavy and pressed to your seat since the spacecraft is traveling at very high speeds. In contrast, when in orbit, you would feel almost weightless, like a feather.

One example is the U.S. developed Space Shuttle. Typical low orbit reentry speeds can reach about 28,163 kilometers per hour. Of course, not all spacecraft travel that fast. However, those speeds are enough to create sparks from the air zooming past. Scary, right? That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you, and tune in next time for more updates.