The never-ending 'Dongfanghong No.1'

The great call put forward by Chairman Mao, 'We also want to develop artificial satellites,' has been realized, which is serious, thoughtful, meticulous, reliable, and foolproof! On April 24, 1970, China successfully launched its first artificial Earth satellite, Dongfanghong-1, into space using the Long March-1 carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This historic event marked China as the fifth country in the world to independently launch an artificial satellite, following the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and Japan.

The unit is designed for unsupervised public use: controls are recessed or shielded, moving parts are enclosed, and the interface is operable by a child of about six with no instruction. Where a screen is used, the language can be switched without changing the hardware, and the content can be replaced on site.

The temperature difference in space is as high as over 200 degrees, and in the earliest artificial satellites of humans, temperature control was a difficult problem that troubled everyone. At that time, although France and Japan launched their satellites before China, the satellites they launched failed shortly after their launch due to inadequate temperature control technology. France froze to death, while Japan burned down after only six revolutions. Through the efforts of scientists, Dongfanghong-1 overcame the international challenge of temperature control technology at that time. Min Guirong has developed a zero power consumption solution: the thermal control on the satellite does not consume electricity, and uses the residual heat of the tracking system and music system to control temperature, which has been very successful.