Netizens discuss the Northern Lights from the perspective of astronauts. What do astronauts mainly do in space?

In the early days of manned space flight, astronauts were only a crew member or a simple pilot of a manned spacecraft. Their main task in flight is to monitor the instruments of the spacecraft and control and manage all kinds of instruments and equipment on the spacecraft. Since the mid-1960s, astronauts' missions have added new contents, namely, extravehicular activities and space rendezvous and docking. After 1970s, with the appearance of manned space station and space shuttle, astronauts increased their scientific experiment tasks. With the continuous development of space technology, the content of space experiments is also increasing. Astronauts should not only complete special tasks such as observing the sky, investigating the earth's resources and preparing special materials in space, but also carry out various scientific research and experiments in space life science, space materials science, astronomy, meteorology and space science and technology. Nowadays, astronauts have developed from passengers and pilots in manned spacecraft to lunar explorers, space scientists, spacecraft engineers, military observers and space teachers, playing an increasingly important role in the development of space science and technology.

Another important role of astronauts in space flight is to make the spacecraft fly safer, more reliable, have a longer life and have a higher success rate in completing tasks. Well-trained astronauts can give full play to people's subjective initiative, creativity, high thinking ability and adaptability in space, and find, handle and solve problems in time.

1) When the hardware of manned spacecraft fails, astronauts can carry out on-orbit inspection and maintenance to restore it to normal work.

2) When the automatic control system of manned spacecraft fails, astronauts can safely return to the ground through manual control.

3) Astronauts can independently receive the information displayed by various instruments on manned spacecraft, make judgments and decisions, and make quick responses.

4) When the manned spacecraft loses contact with the ground, the astronauts can complete the task independently and return safely.

5) When accidents and emergencies occur on the spacecraft, astronauts can quickly judge and evaluate the situation and take timely measures to deal with them.

6) The active participation of astronauts can simplify the automatic design of some instruments and equipment on spacecraft.

To sum up, the role of astronauts is mainly reflected in two aspects: on the one hand, astronauts can complete many tasks in space that cannot be completed on the ground, including technical application and scientific experimental research; On the other hand, astronauts can effectively supervise, control, operate and manage spacecraft, give full play to people's subjective initiative, improve the safety and reliability of space flight, and successfully complete the mission.

With the development of manned space technology and the deepening of human space activities, future astronauts will undertake more and more complex tasks in manned space flight and play an increasingly important role in space science experiments and the development and utilization of space resources.

It is good for astronauts to participate in space flight, but we should also see the other side of the story. In space flight, the special space environment will have a certain negative impact on the physiology and psychology of astronauts, and even cause health problems. In the face of complex spacecraft systems, astronauts may also make mistakes in supervision, judgment, decision-making and operation, thus affecting the implementation of space missions.