The space environment is so harsh, why can the national flag remain bright?

Every time astronauts go out of the cabin to perform a mission, we can see the bright five-star red flag and the logo of China's space program on the outer layer of the space station. Why can the national flag on the surface of the Chinese space station maintain its bright colors in the extremely harsh space environment?

Space station logo coating: Chinese colors shine in space

Spraying the national flag on the space station sounds simple, but it is by no means easy to achieve. The space station flies in low-Earth orbit for a long time, and the extreme vacuum ultraviolet radiation environment in space will cause traditional identification coatings to fade, crack, and fall off. In order to ensure the integrity of the flag pattern outside the space station, the research and development team has designed a new identification coating material system through thousands of analyses and tests, which not only allows the national flag to maintain its original color throughout the life cycle of the space station, but also uses this technology to produce manned space engineering logos and astronauts' extravehicular path logos.

Ding Wei, the chief craftsman of the space station extravehicular flag coating project of the 529th Plant of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that there must be a clear direction for astronauts to go out, come back, and take. Whether it is the extravehicular transfer path, the national flag, the manned space project, etc., we must ensure that it is intact and does not fade to ensure the smooth progress of the space station mission.

The process of coating the logo is complex

During the interview, the reporter learned that in order to obtain a five-star red flag like the one in the space station, the first step is to adjust the color, and to accurately find the standard red color of the national flag and the yellow color of the five-pointed star.

Ding Wei introduced that if the red color is too dark, we will add a little green pigment into it. By continuously increasing the pigment content, we can eventually adjust the standard color of the national flag.

After the first step of color matching, the next step is to combine the pigment and paint and spray them on the surface of the spacecraft with a spray gun. In the spray painting workshop of the 529th Factory of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the reporter saw a special spray gun for the national flag outside the space station cabin.

Meng Teng, a paint coating technician at the 529 Factory of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that the national flags on the three cabins of the space station were all sprayed with this gun. The spraying process is quite complicated, involving more than 100 steps from start to finish.

It is understood that the national flag used on the surface of the space station needs to be sprayed more than a dozen times, and the construction period is about 20 days. In addition, the national flag must withstand the test of a large temperature difference of 250 degrees, oxidation corrosion and space radiation.

The high temperature test is mainly used to observe the high temperature and oxidation resistance of the national flag coating and the traditional coating. The experimenters will observe the conditions of the two coatings at any time. In the comparative experiment, the ordinary coating lasted less than 15 minutes.

Ding Wei said that ordinary paints have structural changes and faded from red to dark black. However, our material has no obvious changes after high-temperature baking, and the bonding strength is maintained very well.

After enduring the tests of high temperature, space radiation and other unique environments of the universe, this space flag can be officially put into service and shine brightly in space. Not only can it be used in the Chinese space station, this coating independently developed by my country can also be used in many tasks such as my country's deep space exploration, allowing the Chinese flag to fly in deeper space.

Source: CCTV News Cover image from China's manned space program "Tiangong TV"