Cool stuff - the porthole in each bunk compartment is a nice touch. The overall tone feels like it must have been meant for schoolkids, it's just slightly too cute (which is endearing, but maybe not in the way it was intended to be).
I am surprised by how different it looks from the ISS. By comparison, the Chinese space station looks much cleaner, with a strong sense of up and down. When you look at the ISS, it is clear that it is out of this world, here, it looks like a research station that could have been on Earth.
> it looks like a research station that could have been on Earth.
It looks like a research station that was designed to be _maintained_ on Earth. Their sense of cleanliness, I feel, is going to cost them in labor and repairability in the long run.
So many integrated panels. A microwave? Plants out in the work area with no shielding and nothing to constrain waste from floating away?
There exists no better method for heating the food there, and many kinds of food are much tastier and also healthier warm than cold. They might eat some paste from a tube, but it certainly becomes more appetizing if it is heated.
The cost of having there microwave ovens is low and the improvement in the quality of the food is great. Moreover, they might also be useful for heating water or other things for some of the scientific experiments.
No, they have better options than mush and compressed biscuits. They can enjoy Chinese food that is nearly identical to what is available on Earth, with varieties and flavors that may be better than what the vast majority of foreigners have experienced
On the ISS they heat food by rehydrating it with hot water. A microwave is fairly wasteful of power and hard to properly isolate from generating interference.
Magnetrons are about 80% efficient, so not really that huge.
It also looks like they have a conventional ISS-style "suitcase" warmer, and a hot and cold water dispenser similar to the ISS. I expect the microwave is used sparingly.
I think the "strong sense of up and down" is mostly just how it was filmed. The camera is held at head height (vs locating cameras in the middle of the module), and the taikonauts are holding their bodies straight and upright, keeping their feet on the floor almost all the time (vs floating and flying).
The ISS does also have a sense of up and down, with lights always located on the ceiling. The ISS even has labels for overhead, deck, port, and starboard.
Someone should kindly inform you that this comment was unnecessarily defensive.
There was no "how dare you" attitude, China-blaming, or really any negativity at all in their comment. All they did was use the common phrase "space race." There was no offense in that.
Consider this: when people run in a foot race with many other people, they don't think "how dare they participate in a race with me!!"
Some people cheer for the progress of humanity, while some others spread hate for political reasons. Even cleanliness and tidiness are slandered by them. China's aerospace development is because the United States did not allow their scientists to join the "International" Space Station project.
