BEIJING: The third lecture of “Tiangong Class,” a series of educational sessions given by taikonauts at China’s space station, will be held at 3:45 p.m. BJT (0745 GMT) on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency announced on Tuesday.
The lecture will be delivered by the Shenzhou-14 taikonauts – Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe and livestreamed to international viewers by CGTN.
“This is the first space class given by the Shenzhou-14 crew. It’s also the first lecture held at the Wentian lab module and the first time in the space station’s ‘L’ configuration,” Yuan Xudong, a communication dispatcher of Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, told CGTN.
The crew will introduce the experiment cabinets installed at the Wentian lab module, which was launched in July as a key part of the space station.
The taikonauts will demonstrate several water-related phenomena in a microgravity environment inside the space station, such as the capillary phenomenon where the liquid flows in a narrow space without assistance, showing the change in surface tension.
In addition, the crew will display the sampling procedures on rice and thale cress seedlings, two typical plants used in basic research. The plants have been growing inside a special cabinet since July 28.
They will also interact with students on Earth and take their questions.
Yuan said the ground team has rehearsed all the procedures required for coordination between the ground control and the space station. “Preparations for the lecture are looking good.” “We have two methods for video and sound transmission for the class in space. There are also two backup channels. We also have a third router, all to ensure quality and reliability,” said Sun Yu, communication engineer at Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
