International Space Station

Yesterday, the International Space Station (ISS) completed the installation of the last solar battery, designed as giant wings, after 10 years of construction based on this space.

ISS International Space Station.Photo: NASA.

Control specialists controlled the fourth battery pair and also the last pair of ISS stations opened yesterday, to begin collecting solar power generating electricity. This pair of batteries has a total length of 73 meters which is opened very gently and there is no problem.

The ISS station commander Mike Fincke commented on the event: "It was amazing. The station astronauts cheered for victory after the battery pack was fully opened." With the opening of solar panels, the ISS is like a bright star and easier to observe from the earth.

This huge battery rig was taken by US space shuttle Discovery on March 16, and the ship's astronauts took over the installation with the help of robotic arms on ISS. It is also the last major equipment manufactured by the US for ISS and currently has a total weight of over 300 tons.

ISS has 4 battery rigs, each with two wings containing a total of 32,800 battery cells that convert the sun into electricity. According to the design, when fully exploiting ISS's solar battery system, it can produce up to 120 kilowatts of electricity, equivalent to living electricity for 42 large households.

Completion of the solar power system will fully serve on-site scientific experiments and implement an expansion plan based on the doubling of the number of current 3-time resident astronauts, from May. / 2009. Currently ISS has completed more than 80% of the design.

NASA's Discovery ship is connecting to the station that will return to Earth on March 28. Two days earlier, the Russian space shuttle Soyuz will also take off from the earth carrying a three-man crew to the ISS station, including US billionaire Charles Simonyi, who spent $ 35 million to be a breathtaking tourist. space scene.

The International Space Station (International Space Station - ISS) is a space research complex worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the finishing phase, in cooperation with the world's five largest space agencies, NASA ( USA), RKA (Russia), JAXA (Japan, CSA (Canada) and ESA (Europe). Under the plan, ISS will be completed in 2011 and operate until 2016.