Super technology leader

In fact, the thing called "Solar Energy Capture and Reflection Tracking Device" is a mirror with signal tracking.

It can be seen from its structure that its role is to reflect sunlight, and then keep tracking the solar panel of the lunar rover carrying the beacon, so that the lunar rover can get sunlight in the permanent shadow area.

This method was not originally created by the navigator, nor was it invented by the Tianxia Space Agency. This method has been around for a long time.

But it was the first time it was used on the moon.

Its previously planned usage is more direct, not for charging the lunar rover, but for "boiling water".

There is ice in the shadow area of ​​the moon. This is almost a consensus. The rest is how to land on the moon and how to find it.

These -249°C permanently shadowed lunar craters are the coldest places naturally formed in the solar system. Excavating equipment requires heat and energy to extract these compounds and then convert them into fuel.

Because plutonium-based batteries based on natural decay to produce heat are too expensive for private companies, even for the scientific research tasks of the national team, it is best to use the sun's energy for lunar mining.

That stuff is much cheaper.

A small town in Europa provided inspiration for this. More than ten years ago, people set up a giant mirror on a mountain overlooking the town. In winter, the cloudy and cold central square was illuminated by a bright spot.

Scientists hope that future lunar ice extractors can follow this move on the moon. The sunlight on the mountain can be directly folded into the pit to heat the ice and convert it into steam, and then the condensed water will be transferred to the treatment plant. With the help of solar energy, these gases are decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. These gases will be stored and used as fuel or put into fuel cells for energy.

However, this method is suitable for a lunar base with complete infrastructure. If you use this method when there is nothing, it will only be a waste of water.

Another way is to take a few more steps, that is, the rover can shovel the icy soil and put it in the stove to heat it to release water. The stove can be heated directly by high-energy laser irradiation, or it can be irradiated on the solar panel first, and then Converted into electric energy for heating.

Someone has tested it in the laboratory, and the results are all feasible. How to achieve it on the moon needs specific verification.

If large pieces of ice cannot be obtained, there is another source of water on the moon, which is lunar soil, also known as surface debris.

The surface debris contains silicon and metal oxides, and on average it contains 43% oxygen by mass, which is found everywhere on the moon.

The oxygen extracted from the soil can provide energy for bases far away from the polar regions, with scientific or economic value, and produce useful by-products, such as rare metals.

Surface cuttings will not easily give up its "fortune", releasing oxygen from chemical bonds is more energy-consuming than heating ice.

Theoretically, the reactor can use a large mirror to refract sunlight into a special reaction furnace and heat the lunar soil to over 900°C until it shines.

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

More than ten years ago, some scientists conducted tests in the laboratory using simulated lunar surface debris to prove that this operation is feasible, but did not test the low gravity and vacuum environment, so can it be used on the moon? Need field verification.

The researchers hope to improve this technology a bit and reduce the things that must be taken from the earth.

An aerospace research team is developing a prototype 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, it takes decades for a set of equipment to generate enough fuel to put the original Apollo-type lunar lander into orbit, so if you want to actually use it, you have to run multiple reactors on the moon at the same time. Row.

Other teams try not to use chemical reactions, but to deoxidize solid metal ores by energizing molten salt baths. They hope that this technology can provide high-quality alloys for the aerospace industry, and may also provide machines for use on the moon in the future. High purity metal.

It is estimated that 190 tons of lunar soil contains 15 to 16 tons of oxygen-containing iron minerals, which can produce 1 ton of oxygen, and only 1 ton of oxygen is produced in a year to support the survival of 10 people on the moon.

Secondly, if human beings want to live in the self-sufficient system of the moon, they must also ensure food supply, and food also needs water.

Where does the food come from?

In recent years, scientists have conducted a large number of biological experiments on the space station, and have cultivated more than 100 kinds of "space plants", including wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, tomatoes, radishes, cabbage, beets, lettuce, etc.

And it proved that under the conditions of weightlessness in space, plant seeds in the lunar soil have a higher germination rate, faster growth, and earlier flowering or heading time.

Scientists have also conducted experiments on some animals to prove that weightlessness will not affect the birth of new life.

In the space station, fruit flies can mate, lay eggs, and reproduce offspring as they do on Earth.

Bees will build nests, and the queen bee will give birth to children.

The 60 quail eggs sent to the spacecraft can still hatch small quail eggs after returning to the ground.

The fish eggs were put on the spacecraft for 59 days, and they all hatched successfully after returning to the ground.

Mammals are no exception. Female rats and male rats are placed in cages and sent to space. They still live together with acacia. Female rats still get pregnant and conceive. After returning to the ground, they gave birth to the first generation of "space rats."

As long as lunar agriculture and breeding bases are established on the moon, the source of food for people on the moon is fully guaranteed.

Research also shows that the energy supply to the lunar base is even less problematic.

Because there is no wind or rain on the moon, sunny and no overcast, there is sunlight all day long, and there is no atmospheric absorption, the solar radiation intensity is about 1.5 times that on the earth.

Therefore, solar energy can be used on the moon for lighting, heating, heating, and power generation.

Of course, when necessary...well, after the technology is mature, nuclear power plants can be built on the moon to ensure sufficient supply of energy for the base.

It can be said that scientists are very optimistic about human survival and exploration on the moon and have done a lot of experiments for this.

It's just a matter of conducting a real moon experiment.

No, there was a lunar experiment. At the beginning, Tianxia’s Chang'e 4 carried a miniature ecosphere, and a seed in it successfully sprouts.

It’s just because the micro-ecosystem is too "micro". It is not so much an eco-sphere as it is an eco-tank. The total weight is only 3 kg, so there is no heating function. The plant shoots die immediately.

Now, Navigator and Tianxia are here, and the completed astronaut survival capsule.

The astronaut’s mission sequence includes plant and animal cultivation. There is a corner in the survival cabin with a planting module and a breeding box, which is specially used to cultivate plants and raise small animals.

So not only do fuels need water, they also need water, and it cannot be water brought from the earth.

On the evening of the second day after the astronauts landed on the moon, Navigator and Tianxia Space Agency released a picture at the same time.

The picture is very clear, illuminated by light, and under the light is a large gray area. The most striking thing is the arm of a white spacesuit, or the gray crystal in the palm of the hand.

Under the shining of the light, some places of the crystal reflect inexplicable brilliance, and some translucent places are more eye-catching.

quartz?

crystal?

No, just a dirty piece of ice!

Yes, the name given to that picture by the Navigator and the Space Agency is-"A Dirty Piece of Ice".

There is no need to guess, people directly give the answer to the mystery.

Gray land, space suit arms, ice cubes!

outside world.

"!!!"

"Wait, isn't it, isn't it what I think?!!!"

"This is only the first day, is there such a big discovery?"

"Now it's a real hammer. The moon is by nature a transit point for humans to go to space."

"The horror is out, and finding water on the moon is equivalent to having everything!!"

"Ahhh, the great discovery of the century!"