Much improvement has been made on the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft to be put into space Wednesday on the basis of Shenzhou-5, China's first manned spacecraft that orbited the Earth two years ago, a senior expert said in Jiuquan Tuesday.

Sufficient or even surplus food, water and sleeping bags are prepared for the two astronauts to be aboard Shenzhou-6. The air condensation system is improved to ensure humidity inside the spacecraft is below 80 percent, said Zhang Bainan, chief designer of the spacecraft system.

In the orbital module, there are a food heater, dishware and a sleeping bag, and the excrement collecting facility is used for first time.

The buffer function of chairs in the return module is improved. The designers also invented a kind of cloth to clean the gates of modules, Zhang said.

Compared with Shenzhou-5, the black box of Shenzhou-6 is 100 larger in storage space, 10 times quicker in message writing and reading, but only half in size.

Source: Xinhua