I am an astronaut. Many people say that I am a person who has gone to heaven, so I should not be afraid of anything, but when I came here today, facing so many people who escorted me to “go to heaven”, I was actually very nervous. However, I feel more excited and excited, because being able to come to Wenchang is indeed a realization of one of my dreams.
It has been 8 years since I joined the astronaut brigade, and we have been repeating a relatively monotonous life, endless training, and endless trials. But there is a saying in the astronaut corps: There is a kind of life, you don’t know the hardships if you haven’t experienced it; Know the joy in it.
For example, our most difficult training is the study of basic theoretical knowledge of manned spaceflight. This is the first difficulty we face after becoming astronauts. We have to complete more than 30 courses in more than a year. The most challenging training is the psychological adaptation training in a narrow environment, which is 72 hours of sleep deprivation training, that is, no sleep is allowed for three days and three nights, and a lot of work is arranged for you to complete. The happiest training is field survival training, which is also to prepare for us not falling into the designated area when we return. For example, when we fall in the desert, the jungle, or the plateau, how should we save ourselves and each other. And the most tiring training, I think it should be the simulated sink weightlessness training. We will wear extravehicular spacesuits in the water for simulated exit procedure training. At this time, we have to fight against the spacesuits for any action, so after a training session, we will sweat a lot. When we eat at noon, we even use chopsticks unstable.
After 6 years of struggle, I ushered in the happiest period of my life, that is, the 33 days I spent on Shenzhou 11. Our mission this time is the Spacelab mission, so we are involved in as many as 38 experiments. We want to control the spacecraft as a pilot, check our own body as a doctor, maintain and repair equipment as a repairman, feed small animals as a breeder, and grow vegetables as a vegetable farmer…My favorite experiment is “growing vegetables in space”, The continuous increase of flight mission time is of great significance to plant growth. Plants release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, which can save and generate resources. Because we now go to space to provide oxygen by carrying oxygen cylinders, and carbon dioxide is also absorbed by a material. Second, “growing vegetables in space” can provide fresh food. I really enjoy seeing the little seeds we plant sprout. Every day I go to see if it grows taller and turns greener, which makes us drool. But these plants cannot be eaten, because they are provided to scientists for research after returning to Earth. But now I can tell you that studies have shown that the lettuce we grow in space has reached the standard for direct consumption.
In addition, we have done a lot of experiments, and I also like the experiment of “sericulture in space”. The first thing we did after entering Tiangong-2 was to see if the silkworm baby was still alive. We opened the lid and found that the baby silkworm was moving. We were very happy at that time. During this process, we also found a silkworm baby spinning silk. At that time, Senior Brother Jing Haipeng was pulling a piece of silk, and took the silkworm baby floating in space, playing with it for a while. Netizens jokingly described this scene: Astronauts are amazing, we walk our dogs on the ground, but you can “walk silkworms” in space. Our research results also show that the strength and toughness of the silk spun by silkworm babies in space is better than those spun in the gravity environment on the ground. I often imagine that our silkworm babies are spinning silk in space, so we may not be far from the space “Silk Road”.
Every day before I go to bed, I look at the earth and my motherland through the porthole. You ask me if the earth is beautiful, it is really beautiful. During the day, the earth’s sea water is particularly blue, and the white clouds are particularly white. These two colors are particularly eye-catching when viewed from space, because the background of the earth is the dark space. After the sun comes out, half of the earth is daytime and half is night. I watched the dividing line move little by little from above, and the earth seemed to be a big dial. I also often look at the earth during the daytime. When the trajectory of the spaceship passes over the sky over the motherland, I can clearly see the mountains, rivers and even small towns in the west. In the middle, the scenery starts to blur, and in the east it is basically nothing. So when I come back, I often tell the people around me that the earth is home and the motherland is mother, and each of us really needs to love her, protect her, and cherish her.
The mission is over, and someone asked me: “How did you feel after completing the Shenzhou 11 mission?” I think I can sum up my feelings in two sentences. The first sentence is that I am proud of my motherland. It is the motherland that lifts me up to the sky, allows me to spread my wings, and allows me to realize my dreams, but my return to the motherland is really limited. The second sentence is that the interests of the motherland are above all else. When I was a pilot, I was a fighter pilot, and precision strikes on enemy targets were skills we had to master. In addition, there is another skill that we have to practice repeatedly every day and deeply imprinted in our minds, that is, what should we do if our plane breaks down during flight? First of all, the safety of the plane must be preserved, because it is national property. If the plane cannot be preserved, we will fly it to no-man’s land. On the day we joined the astronaut brigade, we made an oath in front of the five-star red flag: We are not afraid of sacrifice, and we are willing to fight for the cause of manned spaceflight for life. Of course, some people asked us, knowing that the profession of astronauts is so dangerous, aren’t you afraid? In fact, we are just like everyone else, we are ordinary people, and we are also afraid. But we believe that the strength and honor of the motherland are worth our lives to exchange. In fact, we have walked very hard on the road of aerospace, and there will be difficulties, setbacks, and even dangers ahead, but the astronauts will not hesitate and move forward bravely, because we know that the hardest life is the most beautiful, and the muddiest road can leave the deepest footprints.
Although I have successfully completed the mission of Shenzhou 11, this is only the beginning. The starry sky is vast and the exploration is endless. The first two steps of our three-step development strategy for manned spaceflight projects have been successfully implemented, and the next step is to build our country’s space station. By that time, we can stay on it for 3 months or even longer, which requires us to learn and master more knowledge and skills. Now all the astronauts have devoted themselves to daily training and started to prepare for the space station mission, and I have returned to the state before the Shenzhou 11 mission, ready to meet the selection of the motherland at any time to perform more difficult tasks. In order to realize the flying dream of our Chinese nation in the new era, we are constantly setting sail toward the space station, toward the moon, toward the universe, toward higher, farther, and deeper places.
