This is how black technology should be used

Chapter 265 Lunar Industry Vision
It has been three months since Fanxing's manned orbit around the moon turned into a manned moon landing. Although many scientific research results have been released during this period, it is not very intuitive to ordinary people.

Those data comparisons, radiation scans, lunar soil composition analysis, etc., most people can't even read them.

Ordinary people just look at the photos of the moon that they have taken, but as more and more photos are taken, most people feel boring.

But this time is different, this time not only has the result, but also transported back to the earth.

It's still calculated in terms of "tons".

While the people outside were still arguing about how many tons of lunar samples were brought back this time, there were also debates within the Starry Space Agency.

There will be no live broadcast of the unboxing, and the unboxing video will be released at that time. After all, there are too many boxes, and there are more bags inside, and there are water ice samples inside.

This gadget will definitely shock the world after its debut, so when it will be unveiled, the relevant units will have to hold a meeting to study it.

But with the discovery of water ice, other projects are about to start moving forward.

That is how to mine the water ice mine in the crater and make full use of it, and how to build a lunar base.

These permanently shadowed lunar craters at -249°C are the coldest naturally occurring places in the solar system, requiring heat and energy to function properly.

Plutonium-based batteries and thermal insulation modules based on natural decay heat generation are too expensive, and generally speaking, the 15 lunar rovers developed by Practical Technology are relatively small, as long as a little temperature difference heat source can protect the core components, but if you want to use it in this crater When large-scale equipment is installed in the field, or even a certain scale of industrial production is launched, the cost will increase rapidly.

Therefore, the most cost-effective way to mine the moon is to use the energy of the sun. It is not only the largest heat source in the solar system, but also the largest energy source in the solar system.

As long as it is used properly, the cost will be very "cheap".

When it comes to using solar energy to dispel the cold and supply energy, you can refer to a small town in Europa.

More than ten years ago, the people there erected a huge mirror on a mountain to directly refract the sunlight into the town, and the central square, which was cloudy and cold in winter, was illuminated into a bright place.

Some scientists see this as a solution for mining water ice in craters.

Giant mirrors erected on the crater fold sunlight into the pit, which is used to heat the ice and convert it into steam, which is then condensed into water that is then transferred to a treatment plant.

By the way, the condensed water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of solar energy, and then the gas is stored as fuel or put into a fuel cell for energy.

However, this method has limitations. First of all, the mirror must be able to move, or it will only illuminate a certain place, and it will be useless after the water ice there melts.

Moreover, a giant movable "pot cover" is needed to stop the water vapor. In addition, there must be supporting facilities, which must also have a mobile function, so that it can be moved to a new place after draining one place.

This method can be very tossing the engineers who design the factory and the staff working on the field.

The other method is much more stable, but requires one more step of collection and transportation.

It is still the mirror that refracts sunlight to illuminate the crater, but instead of directly illuminating the water ice mine, it illuminates a rocky area, and then builds a factory in that area.

Here, the sun can be guaranteed, and at the same time, solar power can be generated, and then engineering vehicles can be used to collect water ice and transport it back for processing.

With a solar power plant, the vehicle can be heated with electric energy, and then wireless transmission equipment is installed along the way to ensure that the vehicle has sufficient power.

Although this is more cumbersome, it is more in line with people's impression of the factory.

Although there were few steps in the last one, the plan to relocate the factory after working for a period of time did not meet people's expectations.

Even if the earliest factory is definitely experimental and destined to be small in scale, the first plan may be the size of a few large cars, which is very convenient to move around, but it must also be considered for larger factories in the later stage.

And now Practical Technology is developing technology with longer transmission distances. Maybe building a central tower in the future can ensure the power consumption of equipment within a radius of 20 kilometers.

20 kilometers is exactly the diameter of Shackleton Crater.

So in the long run, obviously the second option is more suitable.

In fact, if large chunks of water ice are not available, there is another source of water on the moon that could be tapped.

It's just that the steps of this method are more complicated, the energy consumption is higher, and some materials need to be brought from the earth.

Lunar soil, also known as regolith, contains silicon and metal oxides, and on average contains 43% oxygen by mass, which is found everywhere on the moon.

Oxygen extracted from the soil could power remote bases of scientific or economic interest and produce useful by-products such as rare metals.

It's just that the regolith doesn't give up its "wealth" easily, because releasing the oxygen from the chemical bonds is quite energy-intensive.

Theoretically, the reactor could use large condenser mirrors to refract sunlight into a special reactor that heats the lunar soil to more than 900 °C until it glows.

At this temperature, hydrogen or carbon brought up from the earth can strip oxygen from minerals and combine with hydrogen to form water.

Some scientists have tested in the laboratory using simulated lunar surface debris to prove that this operation is feasible, but they have not tested the low gravity and vacuum environment, so whether it can be used on the moon needs field verification.

The researchers hope to improve the technology even further, reducing what has to be brought up from Earth.

An aerospace research team is developing a prototype machine that can work at low temperatures. It can recycle all input materials, such as methane and hydrogen, so that water and fuel can be obtained only by consuming soil.

However, a set of such equipment is very inefficient, and it will take decades to generate enough fuel to send the original Apollo-type lunar lander into orbit, so if you want to really use it, you have to build a Huge factory.

Other teams are trying to deoxidize solid metal ores by passing electricity through molten salt baths instead of using chemical reactions. They hope this technology can provide high-quality alloys for the aerospace industry and, in the future, for machines used on the moon. High purity metal.

据估计，190吨月球土壤就含有15~16吨含氧铁矿物，可制得1吨氧气，而1年只需要生产1吨氧便可维持月球上10人生存的需要。

However, these laborious projects no longer need to be considered. Fanxing has found a large water ice mine that can directly produce water.

And with water, there is everything on the moon.

(End of this chapter)