Five Hundred and Sixty-Two Scramble
That night, the tunnel boring machine crushed the last rock blocking the way at the southern end of the tunnel, and the view suddenly became clear.
The terrain of the North Pole of the Moon is very complicated. As can be seen from satellite images, there is a flat valley just south of Pit No. 1. On the left side of the valley is a crater that is no smaller than Pit No. 1, and on the right is a three-ring ring-shaped group of craters. , Large and small craters, you have me, I have you, and the terrain is extremely complicated.
At this time, the No. 1 pit has been officially renamed Beiyuezhou in the official documents of Beidu, a very Chinese name. The Yuezhou base is also planned to be changed to Beiyue City at a suitable time in the future, but it has not been officially announced yet.
Seen from the air, the Zhounan Plain is narrow and long, so it should be called the Zhounan Canyon to be more accurate. But in it, the southern continental plain is flat, that is, the visibility of the lunar surface is high, so that you can vaguely see the mountain peaks sandwiched on both sides of the plain.
The height of the bottom of Pit No. 1 is slightly lower than the plain just south of the crater. When formulating the project plan, the designer intentionally raised the position of the south exit of the tunnel to avoid the position of the south exit being too low.
The height difference between the tunnel entrance and the plain is less than ten meters. At this time, the tunnel boring machine and the Zhounan Plain are only separated by a gentle slope. After crossing the rugged slope with a length of no more than 50 to 60 meters, there is a plain below.
The tunnel boring machine opened up the south exit, but did not retreat to the tunnel. Instead, it lowered the drill bit and continued to drive forward, crushing all the uneven rocks on the gentle slope.
Two crawler-type lunar rovers with a height of nearly four meters, a width of no less than five meters, and a vehicle length of almost ten meters drove out of the tunnel. The crawlers bearing the weight of the vehicle crushed the weathered rock all the way, and slowly traveled to the plain outside the mountain.
These two large lunar rovers are lunar transportation tools built by the mechanical team. Although the driving speed is average, the cruising range exceeds 3,000 kilometers. When fully loaded, they can carry five astronauts away from the base and perform a half-month journey alone. Exploration missions.
The task of these two lunar rovers is to explore ore, and find out the distribution of shallow minerals near Pit No. 1 in the shortest possible time.
The engine of the lunar rover is not advanced, it can only be said to be of an ordinary level. The cruising range of 500 kilometers on the earth is burnt with high incense, but the gravity on the moon is low, and the fuel consumption is also low. With proper design, the engineering The personnel successfully improved the endurance of the lunar rover by a large margin.
Then came out several construction vehicles that were completely smaller, and seven or eight trucks with wide compartments. After they drove into the plain, they used buckets to collect lunar soil. After the truck was full of lunar soil, they drove back to the tunnel immediately. Drive directly into the separation workshop in the industrial area.
When it comes to the resources on the moon, the most famous one must be helium 3. The reserve of this thing on the earth is only 500 kilograms at most, but on the moon, the average reserve per square kilometer is about 70 kilograms!
The separation workshop is mainly used to separate the helium 3 in the lunar soil. Although humans have not yet mastered the controllable nuclear fusion technology and cannot use helium for fusion electricity, the helium 3 is combined with the heavy hydrogen extracted from the heavy water of the ice lake. , can be used in the production of nuclear weapons.
For every ton of helium 3 extracted from the lunar soil, more than 6,000 tons of hydrogen, more than 1,600 tons of carbon, and more than 70 tons of nitrogen can be obtained. In addition, iron, titanium, calcium, magnesium, Zinc, cerium, rhenium and other metals.
Among them, metal cerium must be obtained through artificial synthesis, and the existence of natural cerium has never been found on the earth.
Even silicon dioxide, which accounts for about half of the lunar soil, can also be used to make glass and extract silicon.
The composition of the lunar soil is diverse, and the extraction technology is complex, but the extraction of helium 3 requires necessary processing of the lunar soil, and the other resources obtained are just by-products after further refining. After the extraction cost is shared, the extraction cost is not expensive. If you use Scale effect will definitely lower the price even further. I dare not say that the price of cabbage will be lowered, at least it will not be much more expensive than the earth's manufacturing cost, and the manufacturing cost of scarce resources is even lower than the earth's price.
Although the refining industry in the Beiyuezhou base is not yet on a large scale,
But it was an excellent start. In the records of later history books, the tunnel penetration represented the transformation of the Beiyuezhou base from a construction base to an industrial production center. It was a turning point in the construction of the first generation of lunar bases. A heavy stroke has been written in history.
But in it, Ye Han, like all astronauts, did not realize the great significance of the tunnel penetration.
Refinement of lunar soil is a long-term and complicated process. At this time, the main factor restricting the development of Beiyuezhou Base is no longer the grain output in the agricultural area, but the material output in the industrial area. The steel output of Yuezhou base, especially the output of low-temperature alloys, lays the foundation for expanding the industrial capacity of the base.
In order to find a mine suitable for mining as soon as possible, in addition to the two prospecting vehicles dispatched earlier, the Beiyuezhou base concentrated resources to manufacture three prospecting vehicles, which went to various directions to carry out exploration tasks.
The prospecting vehicle does not search blindly, but conducts fixed-point exploration based on the results of satellite telemetry.
The exploration team sent by the Beiyuezhou base is the first large-scale exploration of the moon in human history, and the results directly affect the base's next development plan.
The actions of the prospecting vehicle cannot be concealed from the satellite monitoring system at all. The American satellite discovered this situation just after the prospecting vehicle entered the South Moon Plain.
It is well known that the construction progress of the Beiyuezhou base is faster than that of the international bases. The Yankees expected to launch exploration operations in advance, and Washington did not express any opinion on this matter.
But within a few days, the Yankees couldn't sit still, because they found that the Chinese prospecting vehicles moved extremely fast, and every time they explored a location, they would leave the national emblem mark in the most obvious place.
This is not prospecting, it is simply enclosure!
How can the arrogant Yankee bear this tone? Immediately arrange a press conference. The President of the United States made a speech in person, protesting Beijing's violation of the "Outer Space Treaty" in diplomatic language, and demanding that China immediately stop this practice. .
If it is just a US side, China can completely ignore it, but the international base is jointly built by more than a dozen countries. After the US side explained its own position, other countries participating in the international base plan have made similar voices and proposed from different positions. There are various protests, but there is only one core of all statements: the moon is not the territory of any country, but the common property of all mankind. China must stop its willful behavior and so on. 8 For more exciting novels, welcome to visit our Reading Academy