Five Hundred and Forty-Five Moon 1st (7)

Ye Han and others did not dare to neglect, and immediately shouted on the radio: "Lao Gao, are you there? I'll call you back immediately!"

Gao Kai is much older than Ye Han. It seems impolite to call him Lao Gao directly, but the specific situation must be analyzed in detail.

Gao Kai has the rank of colonel, and Ye Han's rank was raised one level after the launch list was confirmed. Both of them are colonels, so there is no hierarchy.

The reason why all work is arranged by Gao Kai is that, first, Gao Kai has been to the moon for a long time and understands the situation here; second, Gao Kai is older and more mature, so he was appointed as the temporary person in charge on the ground.

Arranging Ye Han to lead the third group has a very important relationship with Ye Han's colonel rank.

Moreover, Ye Han will be responsible for the security of the entire base in the future. No matter how you look at it, he is one of the scheduled senior leaders of the base. Although he is a little younger, Gao Kai is not so narrow-minded that he only looks at age. Everyone has different positions. , but in life they are companions, friends, and comrades who depend on each other for life.

There are only a few living people in this damn place, and everyone can't see each other when they look up, so there's no need to behave like superiors and subordinates.

Gao Kai hadn't finished his lunch yet. He immediately put down his chopsticks after hearing the call: "I'm here, what's the matter?"

"The first batch of ice has just been tested and the heavy water content is 0.6%. What should I do?"

"So many?" Gao Kai was also surprised, "Have you checked them all?"

He is an astronaut who has received several years of space training. He did not take a crash course like Ye Han. He has a very solid grasp of this type of knowledge and immediately realized the problem.

Everyone else also stopped and looked at Gao Kai.

Even if they don't understand the reason, they can at least see Gao Kai's expression.

"No, I just opened the first furnace."

"Check the rest immediately, I'll go there now!"

Yuan Yu quickly stopped: "Eat first!"

"I won't eat anymore." Gao Kai ran out of the restaurant like a gust of wind, making Yuan Yu stomp his feet in anger.

It is a waste to waste food on the earth, and it is simply a crime to waste food on the moon, which is still a heinous crime.

Others did not dare to neglect when they saw this.

Yuan Yu hurriedly ran out. Yuan Yu almost died of anger, but as soon as he got angry, he heard Gao Kai's voice: "Why are you following me? Come back and eat!"

Several people came back in a mess, ate up the remaining food in two bites, and ran away as fast as reincarnation.

Instead of running to put on their spacesuits, a few of them crowded into the narrow portholes, vying to see what was going on in the water treatment cabin.

It's just that the light is dim, and except for the swaying headlights, I can't see anything else.

After Ye Han outside the cabin ended the communication, he immediately opened the lid of the ice melter. The pressure in the container suddenly dropped. The remaining water immediately boiled and took away the heat, and the water quickly froze at the bottom of the container.

Ye Han took out the inner tank of the ice melter, turned it upside down on the ground, patted the bottom of the barrel, poured out the remaining sediment, put it back into the ice melter, put a few pieces of ice in, and started the melting process with some anxiety and anticipation. ice program.

Gao Kai rushed to Ye Han and asked, "How is the situation?"

"Just put it in, you still have to wait a while." Ye Han said.

Gao Kai stared at the ice melter, as if his eyes were glued to the lid and couldn't move away.

Through the glass on the lid, he could clearly see the ice cubes melting and the rising mist gradually filling the ice melter.

After a while, all the ice cubes finally turned into water. The internal equipment pumped the water out of the ice melter and began to analyze the composition of the water.

Gao Kai's eyes immediately turned to the analysis screen, staring at it without moving. .

The small screen only displayed the analysis results and not the analysis progress bar, but Gao Kai didn't care and waited patiently for the analysis results.

He knows very well what the 0.6% content means.

The analysis results finally appeared on the screen. Gao Kai rushed over like a wild dog, his eyes almost glued to the screen: "It's still 0.6... Ye Han, come back with me right away for a meeting, Duan Zhiyang, Xu Hua!"

"arrive!"

"You two stay and continue the analysis. Analyze all samples!"

"yes!"

Gao Kai turned around and walked back: "Hu Liang, go back to the living cabin for a meeting right away!"

Hu Liang's reply came over the radio: "Received, will be there soon!"

After a few steps back to the living cabin, several team members who had opened the portholes immediately gathered around to help Gao and Ye take off their spacesuits. A few minutes later, several people entered the restaurant together.

Gao Kai asked eagerly on the radio: "Hu Liang, where are you?"

"Cai Yuanzi, you are getting dressed." Hu Liang replied.

It takes a while to put on and take off the spacesuit, and necessary tests must be carried out every time. Only if there are no problems can you leave the cabin. Just now, Gao Kai was so hot-headed that he rushed out without testing at all. If the ground found out, he would inevitably be punished one by one.

"Then you listen on the radio first." Gao Kai said.

"good!"

Gao Kai raised his head: "Comrades, the ice retrieved by the three groups contains 0.6 heavy water. Do you understand the significance of this content?"

Everyone said nothing and looked at Gao Kai in confusion, even Ye Han was no exception.

Ye Han only knew that the high content of heavy water in ice was beneficial, but he couldn't tell what the specific significance was.

Gao Kai didn't want to sell out, and asked and answered himself: "This means that we can separate heavy water at a very low cost, and can produce heavy hydrogen in large quantities... The fusion reaction of heavy hydrogen and helium 3 does not produce neutrons. You may not know this yet." , the main reactor of the base is a magnetic confinement fusion reactor, and the main fuel is heavy hydrogen and helium 3!"

Everyone suddenly realized that after more than half a year of aerospace training, everyone knew what a second-generation nuclear reaction was, no matter how bad they were.

Ye Han asked in surprise what everyone was thinking: "Old Gao, has controllable nuclear fusion been completed?"

Gao Kai shook his head: "There is such a plan from above. It must be a technological breakthrough, and maybe it is also the result of international cooperation."

"It's not an experimental reactor, right?" Ye Han was worried.

"Probably not. I made a point of finding out about it after I found out about it."

“Are magnetic confinement reactors reliable?”

"I don't know, it should be no problem." Gao Kai said, "This thing relies on magnetic field to constrain the fusion reaction. The moon has low temperature and no air pressure, so it can easily achieve superconductivity. This is very important for the magnetic confinement reactor... What we are discussing now is Heavy water is not a fusion reactor, and I’m not a reactor developer. If you have any questions, I’ll check the information myself after the meeting!”

Ye Han grinned: "I don't want to have a large hydrogen bomb sitting under my butt every day."

Gao Kai glared at Ye Han: "Place alone and away from the main base."

"I have no problem." Ye Han accepted it.

"Let's continue talking about heavy water." Gao Kai finally straightened the crooked building. "This discovery is of great significance to the country and the Moon Palace Project. It must be reported to the command center as soon as possible, but it will take several hours for the satellite to fly back. , so I suggest that we first discuss a reporting charter..."

"What are we still discussing? Just report it directly and let the ground make a decision!" Hu Liang said on the radio, "We don't have heavy water separation equipment, and the function of the water treatment cabin is not to separate heavy water."

"I know, but heavy water cannot be electrolyzed. We can use this method to collect heavy water!" Gao Kai said.

The water treatment cabin has two main functions. One is to provide clean domestic water for astronauts, and the other is to electrolyze water to produce oxygen for astronauts to breathe.

Astronauts cannot lack oxygen, and electrolyzed water must not be omitted no matter what. They only obtain heavy water by the way.

"Do we have distillation equipment?" Ye Han suddenly asked.

"No."

"Then we can only separate heavy water through electrolysis?" Ye Han was annoyed. "Okay, all the ice we got back was electrolyzed. If we want to use water, we have to recombine hydrogen and oxygen. Is it possible to arrange a special place to burn hydrogen and oxygen to get water?"

He knew something about separating heavy water. Conditions on the moon were limited, and the only suitable methods were electrolysis and distillation.

Needless to say, the electrolysis method, the so-called distillation method is a method of obtaining heavy water through repeated evaporation by taking advantage of the high boiling temperature of heavy water.

However, the boiling temperature of heavy water is only 101.42 degrees Celsius, which is very small compared to the boiling temperature of light water. Moreover, there is no air pressure on the surface of the moon, so a pressure vessel must be used to use the distillation method, which is not as convenient and simple as the electrolysis method.

Gao Kai gritted his teeth and said, "To overcome it temporarily, use circulating water for a while."

Ye Han's vision went dark and he felt as sick as if he had eaten a fly. The expressions of the others were not much better... Ye Han was definitely not the only one who hated recycled water, even Gao Kai was no exception.

No one can feel comfortable drinking urine all day long.

When the door opened, Hu Liang finally rushed back to the living cabin. As soon as he sat down and didn't have time to speak, Duan Zhiyang's voice came over the radio: "Team Leader Gao, I'm Duan Zhiyang!"

"Speaking!"

"The results of the third analysis are out, the heavy water content is 0.62%!"

"0.02 higher? Is that accurate?"

"Analyzed it twice."

"I know, let's continue!" Gao Kai sighed, "Another 0.02 is added. How much heavy water must be stored in such a large glacial lake!"

"That's not all." Hu Liang said, "There are many glacial lakes in the Arctic, and there may be ones with higher contents!"

"It makes sense!" Gao Kai's eyes shone, "We should be proactive and investigate all the ice lakes..."

"Are you dreaming?" Hu Liang was not polite at all, "We only have so little equipment and can't even get out of the mountain, but we still want to investigate the glacial lake?"

"Let the ground deliver the equipment!" Gao Kai said viciously.

"That has to be agreed by the ground." Hu Liang said tit for tat, "Our task is to dig out the base. Once the base is built, it won't matter. If the base is not built well, what will happen no matter how much heavy water reserves there are? You can also move the glacial lake back. Earth?"

Hu Liang's words were like a basin of ice water poured on Gao Kai's head. The ice made him stunned for a while, and his original excited expression gradually turned into depression. After a while, he frowned and smiled bitterly: "You're right. I just thought wrong, wait for the satellite to come over and report to the ground, and let the higher ups make a decision."

The meeting was over, and there was still a long time before the satellite returned. We couldn't give up the work that we should do because of this matter. Everyone should rest and work when they should work. Ye Han returned to the water treatment cabin and took out some water from the water tank. Water is injected into the electrolytic cell, and when the power is turned on, there is no need for human intervention.

Electrolysis equipment can automatically collect gas, compress and liquefy it and store it in cylinders.

The electrolysis equipment was very efficient. After a while, the oxygen tank, which was not much bigger than a brick, was filled with sky-blue liquid oxygen. Ye Han put on a new box, threw the old one on the ground and ignored it.

The cylinder that stores oxygen is particularly interesting. It is not the cylindrical shape commonly seen on the ground, but looks like a square box, and the top cover can be opened!

This design is because the ambient temperature in the crater is lower than the melting point of oxygen. After the liquid oxygen is left for a period of time, it will naturally solidify due to the lower temperature. At that time, the lid can be opened and the solidified oxygen ice can be poured out, like ordinary The ice cubes are stored naturally when stacked together, and there is no need to store them in jars, which is convenient and economical.

Hydrogen is an important industrial raw material. When the base is built in the future, hydrogen will definitely be used. But the melting point of this thing is too low, so it cannot solidify naturally on the lunar surface and cannot be solidified and stored like oxygen. Moreover, the resources of the temporary base are limited and there are not so many storage boxes to hold hydrogen, so we can only waste a little and let it go.

Using hydrogen storage metal is also a good choice, but hydrogen is made from water. Where there is water, there is hydrogen. The cost is pitifully low. If a lot of money and resources are spent just to preserve hydrogen, it will put the cart before the horse and waste resources.

After more than two hours, the eight air storage tanks were all filled and arranged neatly in a row. The huge temperature difference between the tank and the ground caused the temperature in the tank to drain quickly. As long as you wait for a while, you can put them in. Take out the oxygen ice.

The first air tank had been thrown on the ground for more than half an hour. Ye Han picked it up and there was no feeling of liquid sloshing at all. Looking at the air pressure gauge again, the pointer had already returned to zero.

"That's it!" Ye Han greeted, and Duan and Xu immediately came over. Under the witness of the two companions, Ye Han opened the lid of the air tank, and a piece of light blue transparent oxygen ice appeared in front of everyone.

Xu Hua praised: "This thing is so beautiful. If you don't know this thing, even if you say it is a gem, some people will believe it."

"Then I'll give you this piece to buy a set of jewelry for your wife." Ye Han handed the oxygen ice to Xu Hua.

Xu Hua took it in his hand and curled his lips and said: "Put it away quickly. It is the first oxygen brick we have made. I will mark it later. It may be put in a museum as a cultural relic in the future."

"Forget it." Ye Han laughed, "Send Curry to him quickly."

"Got it!" Xu Hua agreed loudly and sent the oxygen ice into the warehouse as quickly as possible.

Although the temperature of the moon surface is low, if the oxygen bricks are stored directly in the open air, they are likely to be lost due to sublimation, so it is safest to store them in a warehouse with a constant temperature.

There was still some water left in the electrolytic cell, and Ye Han said without thinking: "The heavy water content in this must be more than 0.6%, come and help!"

Ye Han asked his superior Duan Zhiyang to work together, drain the remaining water in the electrolytic cell into a container, freeze it into ice and put it aside, keeping it for extracting heavy water at a suitable time in the future.

Water ice is white, and oxygen ice is blue, and they can't be mixed even if they are put in a warehouse. However, with the temperature of the moon, it doesn't matter if water ice is stored for tens of thousands of years. There is no need to use this thing to compete for the space of oxygen ice.