Second lecture from space set to continue inspiring Chinese students

The three Shenzhou-13 crew members aboard China's space station, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, will give a special lecture at 3:40 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Dec. 9, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced. The lecture will be broadcast by China Media Group.

(Photo from screenshot of a video released by Chinanews.com)

Making sure the communication links between the space station and the ground stay unobstructed during the connection so that the video does not freeze and the pictures are clear will be the biggest challenge. To deal with this challenge, the relay satellite, the space station and the ground control station will have to work together effectively.

Though the core module Tianhe-1 of the space station is larger than the experimental space lab Tiangong-1, from which China’s first-ever video lecture was delivered from space eight years ago, most of the space inside Tianhe-1 is taken up by scientific research supplies, articles of daily use for the crew members, and equipment that ensures the continued operation of the space station. As a result, the weights and sizes of the teaching facilities to be used during the lecture must be specially designed so that they don’t take up too much space.

Before being sent into space, experiments had been carried out to test the capacity of the teaching facilities under hypergravity and vibration conditions. In addition, because the lecture will be given in a zero-gravity environment, the crew members must be able to use the teaching facilities properly, including holding the camera as steadily as possible in this environment.

The teaching content focuses on aspects such as how a physical or chemical phenomenon becomes different in the space station and on the ground.

Compared with eight years ago, China’s aerospace industry has been gaining even greater attention from the world. It is believed that the upcoming lecture, which will be broadcast worldwide, will be watched by more people from around the world.

Eight years ago, the country's first space lecture was delivered to over 60 million middle school and primary school students across China via live video streaming. Today, some of those students have graduated from university, and some have even become aeronautical engineers. From this perspective, the upcoming lecture is a continuation of the last one.

Compared with the first lecture, this one will include a wider range of space-related knowledge, be powered by more mature technologies and boost interaction between the space station and the ground.