At 7:18 on May 15, the Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed in the pre-selected landing area in the southern Utopia Plain of Mars. my country’s first Mars exploration mission successfully landed on Mars. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a congratulatory message. On behalf of the Party Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission, he extended warm congratulations and sincere greetings to all comrades at the headquarters of the first Mars exploration mission and those participating in the mission. Xi Jinping pointed out in his congratulatory message that the landing of the Tianwen-1 probe on Mars has taken an important step in my country’s interstellar exploration journey. It has achieved the leap from the Earth-Moon system to the interplanetary system and left Chinese imprints on Mars for the first time. This is It is another landmark development in the development of my country’s aerospace industry.
The “Mars Landing Rover High Temperature Resistant Elastic Sealing Device” developed by a team led by Xu Weilin, a professor at Wuhan Textile University, provides guarantee for attitude adjustment during the “Devil’s 9 Minutes” landing process. It helped the Tianwen-1 probe successfully land on Mars and once again contributed “spinning power” to China’s aerospace industry after successfully developing the Chang’e-5 lunar surface display of the national flag.
Help the landing rover cope with the “devil 9 minutes”
“The Mars landing rover can withstand high temperatures The “elastic sealing device” was developed by Wuhan Textile University on behalf of the Fifth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Since the team received the urgent task in early 2019, team members Liu Keshuai and Guo Weiqi, led by Xu Weilin, spent 14 months urgently tackling key problems to complete the project.
The attitude control working engine is working intermittently
The soft landing of the probe on the surface of Mars is the most risky and technically difficult one. link. During the “devil 9 minutes” when the Mars Landing Rover landed, when the probe threw away its outsole and back cover to reveal the landing platform and rover, the high-thrust engine began to work, and the probe observed the ground to find the safest specific landing. At this time, the 12 attitude control engines on the patrol vehicle cooperate with the main engine to play the role of deceleration and attitude adjustment. The “Mars Probe High Temperature Resistant Elastic Sealing Device” is installed at the connection between the tail pipe of the attitude control engine nozzle and the guide cone. This device uses a composite weaving of special inorganic fiber materials and metal materials to successfully seal the 1500°C heat generated by the attitude control engine nozzle. High temperature isolation and sealing, and the elastic connection between the nozzle tail pipe and the guide cone of the attitude control engine. High-temperature resistant elastic heat sealing technology blocks the impact of high-temperature heat conduction of the engine flame on the operation of peripheral equipment, ensuring that the engine flame does not leak, achieving precise controllability of the reverse thrust generated during the attitude control engine flame injection, and providing a smooth landing for the probe on Mars. Important Guarantee.
Overcoming the two major problems of “heat insulation” and “rebound”
12 attitude control engines During the landing process, according to the intelligent program settings and attitude adjustment needs, the cumulative duration of intermittent independent work is about 2-3 minutes. The material of the “Mars Probe High Temperature Resistant Elastic Sealing Device” must be able to withstand the 1500°C high temperature flame of the engine at this time. wash away. At the same time, during the intermittent operation of the attitude control engine, the device needs to remain sealed when the pop-up and compression cycles continuously alternate in a high-temperature environment.
The attitude control working engine is working intermittently
During the development, the team encountered technical difficulties in the selection of materials. At that time, there was no material on the market that could withstand short-term flame erosion at temperatures as high as 1,500°C and guarantee 100% resilience after one year of long-term compression. After reviewing a large amount of literature, trying various solutions and experiments, it was found that organic materials cannot meet this function, and only inorganic materials can be used. However, inorganic materials cannot guarantee 100% resilience under high temperature conditions. The team innovatively proposed a design plan to separate the heat insulation and elastic functions, using special inorganic fiber materials and metal materials to compositely weave to ensure the stability of the device. At the same time, wave springs were used to effectively solve the problem of 100% stable rebound, and finally achieved specifies the technical specifications required for the device.
Leading “modern textiles” with aerospace spirit
Team leader Xu Weilin said: “We cherish every rare opportunity very much , as long as it is a task we take over, we will go all out!” The molding of special-shaped three-dimensional textile products is a global technical problem. The team also encountered bottlenecks in the material weaving process, because it is difficult to mix inorganic fiber materials and metal materials, and There is no mature equipment on the market that can achieve this, so the team “tailor-made”, made their own molds, and combined with hand-weaving, overcame the problem of forming special-shaped three-dimensional special fabrics.
Liu Keshuai went retrograde to the launch site
During the severe epidemic period in 2020, team member Liu Keshuai returned to Han Dynasty retrograde and passed the school Special approval to return to the laboratory for experiments. On April 10, Wuhan had just lifted its lockdown. Facing the empty airport, Liu Keshuai was intertwined with a sense of mission and fear. He boarded the airport alone with his device.The empty plane headed to the Hainan launch site. After arriving, it underwent isolation and multiple nucleic acid tests, and finally completed the pre-launch assembly as scheduled. According to team member Guo Weiqi, during the project test, the team members went to a research base to conduct a space simulation test. The base was located deep in the mountains. It was hot summer and mosquito bites were unbearable. The team members concentrated on completing the test. It was not until the end of the test that they discovered that they were bitten. full body bag. Relying on this project, a number of graduate students such as He Jiahao, Fu Zhuan, Fan Hang, Yang Wangwang, and Jiang Huimin were also trained, providing them with good academic training for further research on “modern textiles.”
Team members conduct simulated space ignition tests
After this cooperation, the Fifth Aerospace Academy highly recognizes the team members and their technical contributions , the general person in charge of the project said that Wuhan Textile University has strong combat effectiveness, strong innovation ability, and strong problem-solving ability.
In recent years, represented by the high-temperature elastic sealing device of the Tianwen-1 landing patrol device and the display of the national flag on the Chang’e-5 lunar surface, Wuhan Textile University has taken major national strategic tasks as its Based on the advantages of special disciplines such as textiles and materials, we strive to give full play to the innovation-driven capabilities of high-end platforms such as the National Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology jointly built by the province and the ministry, break through a series of “stuck” key technologies, and lead the way from biomedical The scientific research and application of “modern textiles, super textiles, and large textiles” in the fields of national defense, aerospace, energy conservation, environmental protection, and smart wear are constantly expanding. Next, the school will focus more on intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, creative manufacturing, and efficient manufacturing, and better combine the development of science and technology as the primary productive force, the cultivation of talents as the primary resource, and the enhancement of the primary driving force for innovation, so as to pave the way for reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. Building to serve better. </p
