Growing vegetables is also crazy. The internal life of Yuegong No. 1 is greatly exposed.

Volunteers of "Yuegong No. 1" work in the plant cabin.

Robinson drifted to a desert island, grew barley and rice, caught and domesticated wild goats and bred them, and survived. In this day and age, how can people survive in space without natural land, oxygen and water?

China's "Yuegong No.1" gives its own answer. It is the first and third artificial airtight experimental system of biological regeneration life support foundation in the world after the research and development of the United States and Russia. Different from the "human-plant" two-biological link in the United States and Russia, it is the first successful "human-plant-animal-microorganism" four-biological chain system in the world. A "microbiosphere" comparable to the earth has been established.

The Moon Palace 365 experiment, launched by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics on May 10, 2017, is a comprehensive experiment aimed at manned lunar bases and Mars exploration and other space programs. the main task is to study how a biological system can provide life support for crew groups with different metabolic levels. In this experiment, eight volunteers conducted 365-day experiments in batches in the Yuegong-1 experimental module.

On January 26, 2018, the second shift ceremony was held in the Yuegong 365 experiment of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Since the first shift on July 9 last year, four volunteers of the second group have stayed in the fully enclosed "Yuegong-1" experimental module for 200 days in a row, breaking the previous world record of 180 days in a row in the biological regenerative life support system set by Russian researchers. This shows that China has been in the forefront in the field of biological regeneration.

In order to welcome China's third Space Day, the Beijing Airlines "Yuegong 1" science popularization base was opened to the public from April 22 to 23, 2018, attracting wide attention at home and abroad. As the "Moon Palace 365" experiment (from May 10, 2017 to May 10, 2018) is under way, only successful visitors are allowed to enter the venue and receive about 600 visitors in order not to interfere with the normal operation of the experiment.

Liu Hong, the popular science base of Yuegong No.1, introduced the base to the audience.

Professor Liu Hong, chief designer and chief scientist of Yuegong-1, said in an interview with reporters that Yuegong-1 was open to the public to popularize the latest knowledge of space survival and space life support. I hope that the public can learn about our country's research and achievements in this area, and also hope to seek technical cooperation. Through cooperation, China's deep space exploration and life support technology can be done better. " She also said emotionally that how far, how fast, and how stable a country's science and technology can go is inextricably linked with tens of thousands of people who support, support, and love science. Their words of encouragement are not only the greatest affirmation of our work, but will also nourish children's love for the seed of science, allowing it to sprout, grow, blossom, and finally bear fruit. "

The children looked curiously into the cabin

By watching the promotional video of "Yuegong-1", listening to the explanation of the reference model, watching the volunteer activities in the cabin carrying out the "Yuegong 365" experiment, communicating with the commentators, and so on, viewers can understand the basic principle of Yuegong-1 as a comprehensive experimental device for the ground-based biological regeneration life support system of the space base, as well as the latest knowledge of space survival and space life support.

The volunteers waved out in the cabin.

"Yuegong No. 1" consists of a comprehensive cabin and two plant cabins, with a total area of 150 square meters and a total volume of 500 cubic meters. The integrated module includes four bedrooms, a food exchange workshop, a toilet, a waste disposal room and an animal breeding room. Each plant cabin is divided into two plant rooms, and the environmental conditions can be independently controlled according to the needs of different plant growth. Of course, the first problem to survive here is to eat. "80% of the food comes from recycling, and 20% is foreign food such as oil, salt, sugar and some meat." Talking about how volunteers have enough to eat, Liu Hong, chief designer and chief scientist of Yuegong-1, said.

The red and blue light source presented in the capsule is a specially set spectral band for photosynthesis, because plants have the greatest demand for red and blue light, in which crops can grow healthier and faster.

As for the planting selection of plant species, on the one hand, we should consider the nutritional needs, according to the nutrition matching, but also need high production efficiency and simple cultivation technology. Plant cabin Ⅰ mainly grows staple foods, including wheat, potatoes, carrots, onions and so on. Plant cabin Ⅱ grows vegetables, such as soybeans, oil soybeans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and so on.

Meat is naturally indispensable, but considering the particularity of the environment, the volunteers do not eat daily pork, beef and mutton. According to a large number of experiments, it has been proved that in a closed and narrow space, when experimenters get along with their animals day and night, they will emotionally rely on animals as their companions. if they eventually have to eat them in order to survive, it is a difficult and cruel choice, and some people may even have a nervous breakdown. Humans and insects are less likely to develop emotional dependence. So the Yuegong-1 scientific research team finally chose the yellow powder worm known as the "treasure house of protein feed". Tenebrio Molitor not only has high nutritional value and delicious taste, but also can degrade some wastes in the cabin so as to accelerate the material circulation.

Volunteers are picking out the yellow powder bugs in the box.

In addition to food, water and oxygen are naturally issues that must be considered in space. In the "Yuegong-1" module, water and oxygen can be recycled 100%, and the system is as closed as 98%.

Liu Hong told reporters that the waste water produced by people, including urine and sanitary wastewater, was purified and then used for the allocation of nutrient solution and the cultivation of plants. Plant evaporation and human breathing will produce water vapor, water vapor will be into the air, the use of condensate collection system collection, centralized purification, for human drinking, washing, laundry and so on. "this is very similar to the source of the water we usually drink. The water we usually drink comes from rivers and lakes, which are also air condensed water." Liu Hong explained.

In the system, plants are autotrophs, consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, while people and animals and microorganisms are heterotrophs, consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide. There is a set of air circulation system in the cabin, the oxygen-rich air produced by the plant cabin will hit the integrated cabin, and the carbon dioxide-rich air produced by the comprehensive cabin will be purified and hit to the plant cabin, thus the oxygen and carbon dioxide will be recycled.

As for the treatment of solid waste? There is a waste disposal room in the cabin, a place for the treatment of solid and liquid waste. "solid waste, including human faeces, plant straw and kitchen waste, will go into the waste treatment room and be treated with bioconversion agents." Liu Hong said.

How do the volunteers spend their day in Yuegong No.1? The 24 hours in the cabin are mainly divided into three parts: scientific research, daily work and life. The schedule is very full. I get up at 06:30 and go to bed at 11:00 in the evening. The division of labor and cooperation among the three meals a day, coupled with the fact that everyone has a responsible experimental project, and everyone has to measure and record health indicators such as body weight, body temperature, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation every day. However, after six o'clock in the evening, after finishing the work, the volunteers also chat, read literature, write papers, listen to the radio, practice calligraphy and push singles.

Cars, watching news and TV dramas on the Internet, etc., to understand what is happening in the outside world. They need to maintain the best physical condition in the cabin and present themselves as they really are.

Volunteers are collecting data.

The volunteer Gao Han summarized the life in the cabin as "survival above, living below": "Survival above" means that the capsule can survive; "living below" means that there is a camera in the cabin, which will capture the behavior of the people in the cabin. Everything is under monitoring, whether it is big or small things, even physical changes and mood fluctuations are part of the experiment. All the details are translated into data, so it can't simply be called life.

Liu Hong received the experimental samples from the volunteers in the cabin.

The Yuegong-1 scientific research team will understand the changes in the experimenter's mood, needs and other psychological state through telephone interviews and analysis logs. A scientific research team of 30 people outside the cabin will be on duty 24 hours a day to monitor and analyze the emotional changes of the experimenters in the cabin using behavioral expression analysis software.

And from this a large number of experimental data, all these seemingly trivial accumulation are for human beings to live comfortably outside the earth in the future.

As of now, the experiment originally planned to leave the cabin on May 10 will be "suddenly" extended by five days. Professor Liu Hong, the chief designer of Yuegong 1, explained that it was designed in advance to observe the corresponding psychological state and reaction of the volunteers. By May 15, if the experiment is successfully completed and the cabin door is opened, China will once again break the record of continuous residence in the biological regenerative life support system. Leave a great deal of ink in the field of biological regeneration in the world.

It is understood that in the future, the "Yuegong-1" team will actively strive for opportunities and resources for carrying lunar and Martian probes in China, and carry out small-scale biological regeneration life support system tests on the lunar and Martian surfaces. Through comparative analysis with parallel tests on the ground, the correction parameters of the simulation results of large-scale systems on the ground are obtained, which lays a foundation for human exploration of the moon and Mars in the future.

The biological regenerative life support technology used by Yuegong-1 is also needed on Earth, and there will be opportunities to display its talents in some extreme environments, such as deserts, plateaus, polar regions, and closed environments such as underground or underwater.