This is how black technology should be used

Chapter 285 Environmental Protection~ It's a Good Thing!
Although technology has improved human life a lot, all kinds of waste and consumption are also increasing day by day.

But it is easy to manage one or two people, but it is not easy to manage ten or eight people. After all, each person has his own ideas.

Let alone more than a billion or billions of people, there is really no way.

If you want to talk about saving and environmental protection, a few people will listen, but when there are tens of millions of people, the effect will not be so great.

Even people who used to be economical and environmentally friendly have joined the ranks of waste and pollution because of herd mentality.

"It's not just me doing it alone, everyone is doing it."

"I saw everyone doing it, so I did too."

"It doesn't matter much if I'm alone, right?"

"The purification ability of nature is so strong, one more is not much, and one less is not much."

"Haha, human beings think too highly of themselves..."

In this case, higher levels also have to play a game, whether to "open source" or "throttling" first?
How to put it this way, anyway, each country has its own development model, so Fanxing chose to "open source" first.

As for the problems encountered in the development, then use development to solve them.

Originally, Fan Xing also walked step by step, but the practical technology suddenly appeared, as if he was on a high-speed train, and flew away.

Open source?
Is there anything better than controlled fusion?

With it, various high-energy-consuming projects can be started.

Even before, because of the high energy consumption, the use of the finished product was not so great, and the project that was calculated to lose money in the end could be carried out.

After all, the electricity from controllable nuclear fusion is very cheap, and the larger the scale, the cheaper it is.

If energy is cheap, things that lost money because of energy in the past will no longer lose money.

And there are some things that cannot be simply judged by whether you can lose money or not, such as the one-stop process from waste recycling to environmental protection, and then from environmental protection to environmental regeneration.

And coincidentally, these things are exactly what aerospace engineering needs.

If we do not do environmental protection on the earth, it will not affect the survival of human beings in a short period of time, but if we do not do "environmental protection" in space, then the future of mankind will be in danger.

Mankind's development of the universe is at a stage of rapid development, but due to the immaturity of space technology, the earth's orbit, which is most used by mankind, has become more and more crowded.

With the launch of large Internet satellites such as the Starlink satellite network, the number of satellites in Earth orbit has multiplied, and space junk has become a thorny problem.

According to statistics, there are about 2.2 large objects orbiting the earth, including working satellites, "retired" satellites, and old rockets that were once used for space exploration.

If you count everything from equipment discarded by astronauts during space travel to debris about 1 centimeter in size from satellite collisions, there are about 100 million pieces of space junk in Earth's orbit.

And their combined mass may be 1 million tons.

Of course, this figure may only be a conservative estimate.

Because with the number of satellites and rocket launches rising every year, the number of space junk and usable spacecraft is still growing rapidly, and the possibility of collision between them is also increasing.

There are two main orbits for satellites, low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit.

In low-Earth orbit, which is about 200 to 1000 kilometers away from the earth, various space stations and thousands of other satellites circle the earth every 90 minutes.

The geosynchronous orbit is located at an altitude of 3.6 kilometers, and the force keeps the satellites in the same position in the orbit.

Satellites in geosynchronous orbit are stationary relative to a point above the Earth, so this makes them enormously useful for weather forecasting and communications.

In geostationary orbit, when a satellite's life draws to a close, its owner places it in a higher "cemetery" orbit, floating it some 300 to 400 kilometers from internationally agreed protected areas.

But in the geostationary orbit, only 80% of the "retired" satellites can enter the "cemetery" orbit, and the remaining 20% ​​need emergency treatment.

For example, falling directly into the earth's atmosphere and turning into a meteor that some people wish for.

The "graveyard" track is effectively the equivalent of an unattended abandoned dump, with bright flashes faintly visible.

In this little-noticed place, unspent fuel or undegraded batteries could trigger a satellite explosion, and debris from the explosion would fall back into geostationary orbit, threatening satellites in orbit.

The failure of a satellite can cause an abnormal TV signal, increase the error of the weather forecast, prevent the normal flight of the plane, or a tornado that people do not realize is approaching.

But if it's not just a malfunction, but it is directly smashed into a large number of fragments, and the number of fragments is large enough to collide with other satellites, and the number of fragments is also increasing due to chain reactions.

In the end, the entire orbit may be paralyzed due to excessive debris, or even lock the way for humans to leave the earth and go to the stars, completely imprisoning humans on the earth.

So people have been thinking of ways to solve the problem of space junk, and even some results have been achieved, which can not only solve obstacles in the way, but also turn waste into treasure.

On the earth, people can "want" waste, but in space, people have to care about every detail... Oh, no, it should be "careful", and those that can be recycled will never be "shipped" from the ground.

the cost is too high.

When uncontrollable, the remains of those spacecraft are space junk, and if they can be recycled, they are treasures.

It is envisioned that by repairing, reusing or recycling satellites and "space junk" in Earth orbit, the materials they recover could be used to build future spacecraft or detection outposts.

Not only reduces space junk, but also reduces costs.

If it is completely unusable, it must be recycled.

Some are only partially damaged, for example, the core is fine, but the outer shell and some lines are damaged, as long as a new shell and new lines are replaced, it will be a new device.

And it can be exchanged for new.

For example, the efficiency of solar panels on space equipment will decline over time, but as long as the solar panels are refurbished, or replaced with new ones, and some fuel is added, it can function again.

This is much less expensive than re-launching a new device.

This is what the "industrial zone" in the second phase of the Starry Space Station project is for. When it is completed, it will definitely surprise the whole world.

At the same time, it will also bring the design and manufacture of space equipment into a new stage.

As for the "environmental regeneration" to be done on the earth, it will be the "ecosphere" in space.

To put it simply, it is to transform a place suitable for human survival in a place that is not suitable for human survival. Not only must there be flowers and trees, but also recyclable air and water sources.

On a bigger scale, it is "planet transformation".

Directly transform a planet that is not suitable for human habitation into a "second earth".

If you want to talk about the ecological circle, humans have really done it before.

Right here in the Commonwealth of Liberty.

In the wake of the first man on the moon and fantasies about space travel and colonization, a Free Federal scientist has a bold idea.

"If we can simulate the living environment that human beings need, then we can "clone" an earth in outer space!"

As soon as this crazy idea came out, it aroused the interest of a rich man. He was the well-known oil king at that time-Edward P. Bass.

So the rich man spent huge sums of money to build a "clone earth" in the desert of Arizona, Commonwealth of Liberty, and named it "Ecosphere 2".

Why not Biosphere 1?

That's because No. 1 ecosphere is the super huge ecosphere of the earth, so the small ecosphere located on the earth and in a desert can only be called No. 2.

"Biosphere 2" cost a total of about 1.5 million federal currency.

It is still the federal currency more than 30 years ago.

Its main construction materials are white-painted steel beams and sealed glass. The total building area is 1.2 square meters and the total capacity is as high as 14.1 cubic meters.

Although some people describe it as a white palace, it actually looks more like a greenhouse.

The interior design of the building simulates the common ecological environment of the earth, including oceans, rainforests, deserts, grasslands and plains, etc., as well as two artificial biomes - agricultural areas and residential areas.

Of course, in order to simulate the natural environment as much as possible, there are as many as 2 species inside the "Biosphere 4000".

These species also come from all over the world, of which there are about 3000 species of animals and plants, and the remaining 1000 species are microorganisms.

After the completion of this ideal "greenhouse earth", the first round of experiments can't wait to start, but this first round of experiments is far from as simple as imagined.

In the first year after the completion of "Ecosphere 2", the first experiment officially started.

For the first time, 8 scientists from different fields are quite powerful in their respective fields, and they also believe that they can survive in this environment with their knowledge.

To live in "Biosphere 2", you cannot rely on any external objects, and you need to be self-sufficient in water and food.

However, this is not a problem at all for those who have just moved in, because "Ecosphere No. 2" not only has sufficient food, but also meat and poultry, and life is not worse than the outside world at all.

In terms of power supply, solar panels are designed, and in terms of water source, there is also a complete water circulation system.

Even here you can watch TV if you want, make phone calls if you want, and talk about anything as long as you don’t go out, but these can only be enjoyed on the premise of completing daily work, because they have to communicate with the ecosystem every day. data are monitored.

At the beginning, life in the ecosystem was no different from outside, but something went wrong in two months.

Because the eight scientists who stayed here lacked the knowledge and experience of farming, the yield of crops was getting lower and lower, making their food not very sufficient.

This made the eight scientists not only hungry, but also had to work every day, which made their mental state very bad.

However, as they gradually mastered some farming knowledge, the food problem was alleviated, but new problems that appeared later directly threatened their lives.

After the food crisis eased, the eight scientists continued to live in the ecosphere as usual, but the good times didn't last long. The scientist responsible for testing the oxygen quality found that the oxygen index of the ecosphere was very unstable.

At first they thought that the simulated environment was not stable enough, but in the following period of time, the scientists surprisingly found that the oxygen in the ecosystem was declining at a rate of 0.5% per month.

The oxygen content dropped to around 14%.

What is this concept?
Such a low oxygen content is like standing on the top of a mountain with thin air.

This made the scientists miserable, and some even suffered from altitude sickness.

In desperation, they had no choice but to ask the outside world to oxygenate the ecosystem.

It's just that as time goes by, the external oxygen supply is useless, not only a large number of plants die, but the river water also deteriorates.

The first experiment was declared a failure just two years later.

But the Freedom Federation scientists don't understand why the good oxygen disappears?

At first, scientists thought that the microorganisms in the soil were at work. They took soil samples for research and found that there were indeed more microorganisms in the soil than normal.

Could it be that these microorganisms consume oxygen?
Scientists soon discovered that if the microorganisms consumed oxygen, the carbon dioxide content would also increase, but in fact the carbon dioxide content did not increase, which is strange.

But soon, scientists found the culprit of this oxygen consumption, which was the concrete exposed to the ecological environment.

According to the sampling research on both sides of the concrete, the calcium carbonate content of the concrete inside the ecosphere is more than 10 times higher than that on the outside.

After the oxygen problem was discovered, the Freedom Federation conducted a second experiment. This experiment also specially selected a scientist with rich farming experience.

But after only 6 months, the experiment failed again.

This time, it is because the species diversity is relatively single, and there is not enough decomposer function, resulting in most animals and plants not being able to grow or reproduce normally, and their extinction rate is faster than expected.

In addition, uncontrolled rainfall, the extinction of most animals, the death of insects that pollinate plants, and black ants crawling over buildings are also reasons for the failure of Biosphere [-].

However, although this experiment failed, it can be regarded as providing valuable experience for similar experiments in the later stages of human beings.

That is, if you want to create an ecological circle, you must either make the site extremely huge and allow enough creatures to participate, or don’t even think about relying on self-circulation, and you have to use a lot of energy to harden it.

It's like a project that practical technology is now cooperating with the country.

There is no difficulty in a small ecological circle, as long as the energy supply problem is solved, it can be built at any time.

At most, it is to develop some vegetation with strong vitality and easy survival.

At the beginning, Fanxing used Chang'e-[-] to get back some lunar soil of his own, and then learned the sad news that "the lunar soil cannot be farmed".

But in the current lunar outpost, the astronauts have planted many plants with lunar soil.

Of course, the focus here is not on lunar soil. After all, hydroponics can also grow plants. The focus is on the super nutrient solution of practical technology.

With this nutrient solution, coupled with some special plants, practical technology can turn the desert into an oasis!
(End of this chapter)