After the Chang’e-5 probe’s lander and ascender assembly successfully landed on the lunar surface, and before ignition and takeoff, a five-star red flag carried on the lander was successfully unfolded, marking the first time that the lunar flag display system was displayed on the lunar surface. success.
The national flags of “Chang’e-3”, “Chang’e-4” and the Yutu lunar rover are spray-painted The method is different. The national flag displayed by the Chang’e-5 detector this time is a real “fabric version” flag.
China Aerospace Science and Industry’s national flag display system design team conducted technical discussions
In the history of China’s aerospace industry, the first flag display without temperature The fabric flag was successfully displayed on the moon under controlled harsh environmental conditions. The lunar flag display system was jointly developed by China Aerospace Sanjiang Group, Wuhan Textile University and other units. The flag was completed by Professor Xu Weilin’s team from the State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology at Wuhan Textile University after eight years of continuous research. Huamao Group Participating in the development and production together, Huamao Group uses its more than 60 years of production experience and strict quality control technology to provide nearly “harsh” quality assurance to ensure the aerospace quality of the national flag.
The Chang’e-5 lunar flag display system is one of the components of the payload subsystem, and it is also the only key project of the payload subsystem. This is a true “fabric version” flag. However, due to the strong electromagnetic radiation in the cosmic environment and the temperature difference of plus or minus 150 degrees Celsius on the moon’s surface, ordinary flags cannot be used on the moon.
Ma Wei, project director of the national flag display system, said that the national flag display system is an extravehicular single-machine system. After the launch vehicle throws away its fairing, it enters the lunar orbit from the Earth-lunar transfer orbit, and then Until the probe lands on the moon, it has been exposed to extremely harsh environments. “We found through experiments that if the national flag used on the earth is placed on the moon, its colors will fade and cross-color in a short period of time. , or even decompose.”
In the early days of the national flag display system project, the scientific research team designed a variety of national flag display forms, including memory alloy display solutions, servo flag raising solutions, institutional display solutions, etc. There are ways to unfold the national flag in the form of a scroll, and there are also ways to unfold the flag in the form of a folding fan. However, after high and low temperature tests, it was found that only the flag unfolded in the form of a scroll is relatively flat and will not wrinkle.
How to ensure that the flag has enough strength and remains flat when it is unfolded? The development team found in the study that some fiber materials have high strength but poor dyeing performance, and the strength of fiber materials with good dyeing performance does not meet the requirements.
The development team conducted extensive research and demonstration while reviewing literature and materials, and worked with domestic superior units to carry out joint research on key technologies. Cheng Chang, the technical director of the national flag display system, said that the scientific research team spent more than a year on material selection, and finally selected 20 or 30 kinds of fiber materials, and then through the thermal matching, high and low temperature resistance, anti-static, and anti-static properties. Through physical tests including lunar dust, the scientific research team finally decided to use a new composite material that can not only meet the strength requirements, but also meet the dyeing performance requirements, thereby ensuring that the national flag can withstand the harsh environment of the lunar surface and does not fade or cross. Color, no deformation.
This flag is mainly made of domestic high-performance aramid fiber materials , using Wuhan Textile University’s “high-efficiency short-process embedded composite spinning technology” that won the first prize for National Science and Technology Progress, it overcame the technical problem of preparing high-quality yarns with high modulus differential fibers and prepared high-quality moon display national flag fabrics. ;Using small molecule control technology to achieve structural control and color construction of aramid fiber, and on this basis, excellent sun fastness under extreme ultraviolet conditions is achieved.
Preparation for displaying the national flag before the environmental test of the Fifth Aerospace Academy
The Chang’e-5 “fabric version” five-star red flag developed by Wuhan Textile University took a photo before flying into space
The flag also used Wuhan Textile University to win the The second prize of the National Science and Technology Invention Award for “Ultra-fine powdering of high-quality natural polymer materials and its high value-added recycling technology” prepared micro-nano silk powder and used its synergy with pigment particles to essentially solve the problem. Solve the problem of pigment sublimation and thermal migration fastness under extreme conditions. Through the above technical research, we have achieved the goal of building a high-color fastness color for the national flag that can withstand conditions such as extreme high vacuum, high and low temperature cycles, and strong metering ultraviolet radiation in the space environment.
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