SPACE — China’s Tiangong space station now has a third robotic arm. The new arm is to help the work of the taikonauts in the station. Previously, the orbiting station had a pair of robotic arms on the outside.
The two arms, each 5 meters long and 10 meters long, can crawl outside the Tiangong. Both of them have helped build the space station and taikonaut trips outside the station (spacewalk).
The new third arm is inside Mengtian’s experimental module. This arm is much smaller, but very dexterous in helping the taikonaut’s daily activities.
The third robot arm is 70-80 centimeters long and its operational accuracy can reach 0.1 millimeters. He is tasked with assisting with maintenance, installation and adjustment operations. It will also be needed for space experiments.
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A miniature robotic arm aboard China’s Tiangong space station helps astronauts in science experiments and other activities. Image: CCTV
“For example, after external payloads are brought into the cabin, including some biological payloads, when there is a need to sterilize them after an experiment, we can replace the final device installed on the robotic arm to do the job,” said researchers at the Center for Space Utilization Technology and Engineering , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhang Lu.
Zhang said that in the future taikonauts can install different tools for different tasks on the robot arm. If there is a tedious task such as turning a screw or taking a sample, they simply replace the tool on the robot arm with a small clamping jaw or electric scissors.
Also read: China will open the Tiangong space station for commercial use, Good By America
China completed construction of the three-module Tiangong space station at the end of 2022. The latest mission’s Taikonaut arrived aboard the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft at the end of October.
China wants to maintain the Tiangong area of operations permanently for at least a decade. They also plan to expand their orbital outpost in the coming years. Source: Space.com/CCTV
2023-11-08 20:44:00
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