Chapter 1,724: Permanent Commercial Research Station on the Moon
Compared with this inflatable inflatable lunar short- and medium-term commercial research station, the permanent scientific research station is of course a long-term building, so its operational service life is naturally much longer.
As he spoke, Wu Hao slid the folding screen under his hand, and the first aerial rendering of the lunar scientific research station was displayed on the big screen.
"If you want to build a permanent lunar commercial scientific research station and rely solely on transporting materials from the earth, the efficiency is too low, and the cost is very high. It is definitely not cost-effective. Such a permanent lunar commercial scientific research station is not to mention an enterprise.
, even if the country wants to bear it, it is very difficult.
Therefore, the best way is to make full use of the existing resources of the moon and use local materials to build this permanent lunar commercial scientific research station."
Experts did not find this idea surprising, because using local materials and using lunar resources to build a lunar scientific research station can be said to be one of the more economical and reliable solutions considered by academic circles. So for Wu Hao and others, they adopted this method
No one was surprised by the construction plan, but rather thought it was quite reasonable.
As for Wu Hao, he went on to say: "Among the lunar resources that we have discovered, in addition to some metal element mineral resources and helium-3 resources that we humans are very eager to obtain, the most abundant ones in the lunar soil are probably quartz and basalt.
Alright.
Our materials for building a permanent lunar commercial scientific research station mainly focus on these two substances.
Whether it is basalt particles or quartz stone particles, they are relatively hard and stable, and can be said to be good building materials. Therefore, we believe that the high-temperature dissolution characteristics of quartz can be used to combine these two materials and press them into bricks under high pressure and high temperature.
, such bricks are more suitable for use in some foundations, pavements outside the scientific research station, and other materials.
Of course, it is also possible to use these bricks to build some houses. But in comparison, we have better materials."
Better materials? Everyone present wondered.
Yes, a better material. Wu Hao nodded and said: "This is glass. Use quartz sand to bake glass, and then use glass as the main building material of our permanent lunar commercial research station."
Glass?
Experts and leaders started talking about it, and it was obvious that everyone had different opinions on Wu Hao and his team's choice of this material to build a permanent lunar commercial research station.
Are there such conditions for making glass on the moon? Zou Huanyi and Mr. Zou asked Wu Hao.
Facing everyone's gaze, Wu Hao smiled and slid the transparent tablet under his hand, then displayed a new picture, and then introduced it to everyone.
Of course, we have already begun to verify this technology and have made good progress in the laboratory. Wu Hao smiled and said: "It can be said that it is still difficult to make glass in the harsh vacuum environment of the lunar surface.
It is very huge, so our current conventional glass production methods cannot be used, at least in the early stages, we do not have such capabilities.
So how to make glass on the moon, we came up with an excellent plan."
Wu Hao said that Wu Hao deliberately put it off. He paused for a moment until everyone started to look curious, and then he continued: "Why can't we print out these glasses?"
print it out?
The conference room suddenly became noisy, and one of the experts in his fifties asked him: "You mean 3D printing technology."
Wu Hao smiled and nodded: "Yes, 3D printing technology. At present, 3D printing technology has matured. We can now use various consumables to print a variety of products and models. From some toys to as large as airplanes and rockets
Some important parts and so on.
So why can't we apply this technology to the moon? Melt the quartz sand on the moon into pure glass consumables, and then put these glass consumables into a special 3D printer, dissolve them again at high temperature into liquid glass, and then
Use a special printing nozzle to print into the required glass shape.
Then, these printed glasses are installed and assembled to build a glass lunar module."
With that said, Wu Hao slid the folding screen under his hand, and a video was played on the big screen.
"This is a video recording of glass printed by our self-developed 3D glass printer in the laboratory. Please watch it.
We put these initially dissolved glass consumables into this 3D glass printer. The small electric furnace on the printer can quickly heat the glass to 1,600 degrees to form liquid glass. At this moment, the liquid glass is like liquid juice.
, the fluidity is very good. These liquid glasses are introduced through the heating tube, flow into the special nozzle, and then 3D printed to print such a piece of glass product."
"In the early days, because the technology was not mature enough, the glass we printed was not transparent, but the surface was uneven layer by layer. There were also some bubbles in the glass, which were trachoma produced during printing. Although
Printing on the moon is in a vacuum state, and bubbles cannot appear. However, such trachoma pores will definitely affect the quality of the glass, thus posing safety risks.
Therefore, after our continuous experiments and improvements, the quality of our printed glass products has improved a lot.
You see, this is our latest printed glass. Not only is the surface very smooth, but it also has no previous printing layer patterns. This also makes the glass very transparent, and there are no trachoma or bubbles on it. This kind of glass is very suitable for
Build a lunar warehouse in a permanent lunar commercial research station.”
Looking at the light reflected on the 780-80cm square piece of transparent glass shown in the video, the experts and leaders watching nodded one after another. The glass printed by this 3D glass printer is quite good.
, but can such glass really be used to build scientific research stations? Is it safe?
How thick can this kind of glass be printed? Some experts asked.
Wu Hao smiled and answered: "The thickness can reach two centimeters."
Regarding his answer, the expert nodded slightly, but still said with some worry: "The thickness of two centimeters is not bad, but if you want to withstand the huge pressure inside and outside the field, as well as various radiations from the universe, I am afraid it is still
It's a bit weak. And if such a large piece of glass breaks, the consequences may be disastrous."
After this expert finished speaking, other experts present nodded in agreement. Indeed, in everyone's perception, glass is a fragile product. When using glass to build scientific research stations, the first thing that everyone thinks of is is it really safe?
.And as this expert said, once such a large piece of glass breaks, it will have a devastating blow to the astronauts and scientists living in the scientific research station, so we have to be cautious.
