With another round of extravehicular activity on the Chinese Tiangong space station scheduled soon, its mechanical arms installed are in focus, and space experts expect them to play a vital role in the process.
Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's orbiting space station on Friday completed their mission's third series of extravehicular activities, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
Weighing 0.74 tons, the two mechanical arms in China's space station can bear 25 tons. Such capacity allows them to support various tasks for astronauts, from spacewalk and maintenance to payload transport, according to Yang Yuguang, president of the International Astronautical Federation’s Space Transportation Committee.
"The robotic arm can play a very important role in our extravehicular activities. Whether it is the 10-meter-long big arm, the 5-meter-long small arm, or their combined mechanical arm in the space station, they all can help astronauts to move quickly from one location to another that is far away. Also, in this process, astronauts can carry heavy equipment which is difficult to move for them to handle and install. This will greatly improve efficiency and save astronauts' physical strength," said Yang.
Apart from colossal strength, these mechanical arms are also quite agile like human arms. They have shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, which are easy to maneuver.
Mechanical arms vital for extravehicular activity: space expert
