Chinese space station astronauts complete series of scientific tests

The astronauts on board the Spacial station China have carried out a series of experiments and scientific tests, including testing their muscle strength in a microgravity environment, China’s Manned Mission Space Agency (AEMT) reported this Monday.

Astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu conducted manual performance assessments, including both single-arm and two-arm push-pull force tests, as well as two-arm rotational force tests.

These tests, which collect data from various categories of hand strength at different stages of space flight, aim to compare and analyze the difference in the operating strength of astronauts in space and on Earth in order to better understand the changes in strength in microgravity environments.

Additionally, crew members performed tests related to muscle adaptability using stationary bicycles, treadmills, and resistance exercise devices.

With these tools, they also completed tests on the stiffness of the Achilles tendon, the kinematics of the lower extremities, plantar pressure, among other exercises that aim to establish a predictive model for the protective effectiveness of exercise against muscle atrophy in the absence of gravity.

During their stay in orbit, the trio, which arrived at the space station in April aboard the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, will carry out more than 90 experiments and tests in fields such as space materials science, space life science and space technology.

Recently, Ye and Li Guangsu carried out an extravehicular mission that became the longest journey in the history of the Asian country’s space program.

It was the first extravehicular mission carried out by the current crew of the Chinese Tiangong Space Station, whose name means ‘in Mandarin’.Heavenly Palace’.

The Shenzhou-18 is the ninth spacecraft to visit the space station, which will operate for about ten years and will become the only space station in the world in 2024 without the International Space Station, an initiative led by the United States and to which China is banned from access due to military ties to its space program and is withdrawing this year as planned.

China has invested heavily in its space program and has achieved successes such as landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the Moon – the first time this has been achieved – and reaching Mars for the first time, becoming the third country – after the United States United States and the former Soviet Union – in ‘amartize’.

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