Linxiqiang, spokesman of China's manned space engineering and deputy director of China's manned space engineering office, said at the Shenzhou 14 manned mission press conference on June 4 that the manipulator is one of the "Star" components of the space station. The subsequent launch of the sky inquiry experimental module is equipped with a small manipulator, which can be grabbed by a large manipulator to form a combined manipulator. The coverage of extravehicular operations will be wider.
Linxiqiang introduced that, compared with the large manipulator that has been put into orbit with the Tianhe core module, the small manipulator is more sophisticated. The weight and length of the small manipulator are about half of that of the large arm, and the load capacity is about 1/8 of that of the large arm. The corresponding target adapter is also more lightweight, and the movement and control of the small arm are flexible.
Linxiqiang also pointed out that the small mechanical arm is more accurate, the end positioning accuracy of the small arm is higher, the position accuracy is five times better than that of the big arm, and the attitude accuracy is twice better than that of the big arm, which can complete the fine operation with higher accuracy requirements. The small mechanical arm can work in cascade with the large mechanical arm, that is, the small mechanical arm can be grasped by the large mechanical arm to form a combined mechanical arm. The coverage of extravehicular operations is wider. Through large-scale transfer, it can meet the needs of going to different locations for fine operations.
Linxiqiang, for example, said that the equipment that needs to be installed outside the cabin in the future can be ascended to the cargo airlock of dreamsky cabin through the cargo spacecraft, and the installation on the load platform outside the cabin can be completed through the grasp and transfer of the combined arm. The small mechanical arm can also realize independent extravehicular crawling, and complete tasks such as astronaut extravehicular activity support and extravehicular status inspection.
"It can be said that the space station is equipped with two large and small mechanical arms, which have their own emphasis on division of labor and cooperate with each other, realizing the practical function of 1+1 ＞ 2 and meeting the needs of the space station tasks." Linxiqiang said.
