Donghua Textiles in Songjiang District helped China to take the “Jinqiao” for nine days.

At 5:28 am on May 21, China used the Long March 4 C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to successfully launch the 鹊4 mission to launch the “鹊桥” relay star. The satellite was threaded on the ground and A bridge of communication is established between the back of the moon. The reporter recently learned from Donghua University that the umbrella-shaped parabolic antenna that bears important tasks on the satellite uses the satellite antenna network developed by Professor Chen Nanliang from the Textile College of Donghua University.

The "Baoqiao" relay star is erected for the Lunar 4 mission for the lunar exploration that will be implemented at the end of this year. It is the world's first communication satellite that runs at the L2 point of Lagrange, and will become the first earth in human history. Dedicated relay communication satellite outside the orbit. The relay satellite has a mass of 425 kg and a life expectancy of more than 5 years. The main body is a rectangular parallelepiped configuration. The large-diameter umbrella parabolic antenna mounted on the top is like an umbrella. When it is launched, it will be retracted. When it enters space, it will open in time. It not only created the history of China's satellites using independent research and development of metal mesh antennas, but also played a milestone role in the localization process of key products of flexible antennas, laying a solid foundation for the smooth application of domestic metal mesh in orbit.

It is understood that the metal mesh is the key component of the satellite antenna to reflect electromagnetic waves and the basic material of the spaceborne mesh antenna, but for a long time, China's spaceborne antenna metal mesh mainly relies on imports . Since 2008, Professor Chen Nanliang and the relevant research institutes have joined hands to continuously break through technical barriers and realize the localization of this product.

In the past, most of the satellite-borne antennas used traditional metal materials such as aluminum alloys, which are heavy and hard, which is not conducive to the free retraction of satellite antennas in space. During the trial and error, the team found that the gold-plated molybdenum wire made the satellite antenna both lightweight and stable. The material has high strength, low coefficient of thermal expansion, is not easy to break, and has high reflectivity. It is an excellent "material selection" for manufacturing space-expandable mesh antenna reflectors. However, it is not simple to make it into a metal mesh. It must be tough, tolerate the external force of launching and flying. It must be soft and can be edited, and it can be easily stored in space. The textile warp knitting technique that Professor Chen Nanliang is good at is sent on. Used.

Textiles are usually latitude and longitude cross-sections, while warp knitting is like knitting a sweater to bend the yarn into a loop to form a fabric. The mesh fabrics produced can be of different sizes and shapes, and do not require any special finishing. The shape of the fabric can be made stable and firm by its own structure, which is good for satellites that survive in the harsh environment of space. However, it is.

After a long period of unremitting research, Prof. Chen Nanliang's team realized a technological breakthrough in the twisting of extremely fine gold-plated molybdenum wire with only a quarter of the hair, and designed and manufactured a special doubling, warping and warp knitting equipment. And a full set of production processes. According to the team, this series of technology and process breakthroughs not only smoothly realized the satellite antenna metal mesh "rigid and soft", but also made the weight of this "big umbrella" less than 90%, which is more convenient to carry. With the large size, the high-power communication of Beidou navigation satellites and mobile communication satellites has benefited from this.