On March 11, 2022, China's Manned Space Engineering Office announced:

The crew of astronauts to carry out the 2 manned missions during the construction phase of the space station has been selected, and training for the mission is underway.

Although it has not been determined when the launch will take place, rumor has it that the launch will likely take place at the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in May 2022, and public information indicates that the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft will return to Earth in April, which is theoretically a difference of at least one day, and at most a month or so, so what will happen to the station if there is no one on duty?

Another according to the March 4 National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China Manned Space Engineering Chief Designer Zhou Jianping introduced:

This is also a very interesting news, then in the near-Earth orbit there will be China's space station 6 people, the International Space Station 7 people, a total of 13 people, it is estimated to be the largest number of people since the Space Shuttle in near-Earth orbit.

I believe that you should not worry about China's space station 6 people will not be crowded or not enough oxygen and other issues, after all, China's space station was initially designed to run to 3 ~ 6 people to go, the design of the number of fully loaded is 6 people, all the life-sustaining facilities are for 6 people to consider, and the meeting of the division is about a week or so, you do not have to worry about how crowded it will be.

Because according to the plan, the launch of the experimental module in May, the launch of the experimental module in August, by the end of the year on the space station's zigzag shape into a T-shaped, more than enough space, six astronauts can be put together a table and a half of mahjong, but not lively.

But what if the space station is unmanned in April/May?

It is estimated that at least one month or more of the "window period", many experimental equipment has been online operation, no one guard really feasible? Obviously the answer is yes, first of all, the basic operation of the space station itself does not require personnel management, the ground control center can always "supervise" the operation of the space station.

As for the experimental equipment, there are two modes of operation: manned and unmanned. After all, all the equipment on the space station was designed with these two modes in mind, and it is only when there is a malfunction that can't be eliminated online that it needs to be manned, such as in Russia's Rescue from Space, where the protagonist was accidentally disconnected from the Earth, the Salute to Heaven 7 space station.

The plot is rather interesting, which was a real possibility during the Cold War, hence the story of Space Rescue, with its ups and downs and pretty good special effects, which you might want to check out when you have time.

Of course with our space station unmanned, is it also important to prevent hostile countries from intruding? Indeed there is this concern, but now it is also simple, first of all, the United States no longer have the space shuttle, X-37B is unmanned operation, the Dragon spacecraft does have this ability to reach the space station, and there are also two launches in April, but they are all to the International Space Station.

And the Dragon's maneuverability is not as strong as the shuttle's, and its orbital inclination is too different from China's Tiangong space station to dock with the station, and even if it did, it wouldn't be able to get in! However, if you really want to be bad, it is possible to do some damage, but the possibility of this is almost the same as zero.

The most critical issue, the Shenzhou XIV spacecraft members of the group will actually have which astronauts, because from March announced the list has been determined but did not tell the exact number of astronauts, from the Shenzhou XII began to select the members of the group of the law can be referred to:

Shenzhou XII members of the group: Nie Haisheng (commander), Liu Boming, Tang Hongbo (first time to go into space);

Shenzhou XII members of the group: Nie Haisheng (commander), Liu Boming, Tang Hongbo (first time to go into space);

Shenzhou XIII member group: Zhai Zhigang (commander), Wang Yaping (female), Ye Guangfu (first time in space);

Then Shenzhou XIV must also be the old with the new model, the probability is that two old astronauts and then take a new astronauts, the probability that the astronauts who have recently carried out the mission will not be able to participate in the past space mission, then we can list the following

The last question is, are there any foreign astronauts?

17 countries astronauts are allowed, no U.S.? The answer is obviously no, there is such a statement because of the following news:

Some friends interpreted it as China's Tiangong space station will welcome the participation of astronauts from these 17 countries, in fact, this is a misunderstanding, just unfolding the Tiangong space station experimental program applications, not astronauts cooperation.

But for foreign astronauts to participate in China's space station, China's manned space engineering office, deputy director of the manned space engineering spokesman Lin Xiqiang said at the time that " according to the specific circumstances of the construction of China's space station needs to be systematically studied, and then arranged in due time. "

On December 3, 2021, the Global Times reported that Qi Fa Bremmer, a space technology expert, the first chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in a speech at the first BEYOND International Science and Technology Innovation Expo in the Macao Special Administrative Region on December 2 that:

Therefore, in the future, on the space station, it is not possible to meet foreign astronauts, but it is possible to meet foreign astronauts. So it's not impossible to see foreign astronauts on the future space station, and EU astronauts have long had experience training with Chinese astronauts, for example, as early as June 27, 2018, BBC FUTURE published an article titled "Why Europe's astronauts are learning Chinese" (Why Europe's astronauts are learning Chinese). learning Chinese" (为什么欧洲的宇航员都在学习中文)?