Gold is one of the most chemically stable elements and does not react with other substances in most cases. This causes gold to exist in the form of free elements in most cases. Even in gold mines on the earth, gold usually Mixed with other substances, such as sand, gold can usually be obtained by sifting.
There are even large pieces of natural high-purity gold on the earth, which are commonly known as nugget gold. The piece in Zhao Changxing's hand at this moment is obviously a piece of nugget gold.
It must have just fallen to the ground. Because this is near human buildings, I don’t know how many people have been here before. If there were before, they would have been discovered by people long ago. And it still has such obvious impact marks, This further proves that it was originally part of the asteroid.
And... there is even gold nugget, which seems to mean that there is a high probability that there is more gold on that asteroid.
Zhao Changxing's heart was beating loudly.
He never imagined that the asteroid that originally meant a huge disaster would suddenly change its identity at this moment.
"Dad, let's move the equipment back quickly... Ouch! What is this? Gold?! Where did it come from?!"
Qian Yue's words interrupted Zhao Changxing's contemplation. After seeing the gold in Zhao Changxing's hand, Zhao Changxing clearly saw Qian Yue's mouth wide open in shock through the mask of his space suit.
Zhao Changxing raised his head and pointed at the shining star - it was only a few hundred kilometers away from the surface of Sedna at this moment, and could be clearly seen with the naked eye: "If I guessed correctly, it should be from It fell off."
"This doesn't mean, doesn't mean..."
Qian Yue was so shocked by the huge surprise that he couldn't even finish his words.
The conversation between the two quickly attracted the attention of the others. People quickly gathered around, looking at the gold in Zhao Changxing's hand, and each of them exclaimed in amazement.
"Such a large piece of gold must be at least five kilograms, right?"
"I think it's six kilograms."
"With this much, even if there is nothing else, if we finish building the No. 2 base, it will probably be enough, right?"
"Absolutely enough, there is still some left."
"I'll go look for it on the asteroid!"
At this moment, people are once again concerned about the asteroid. However, at this moment, they are not worried that it will hit Sedna, but that they are worried about whether it will obtain energy due to the continuous gas injection. Escape from the speed of the Sedna planet, stay away from it, step into the universe and never come back.
People don't know exactly how much gas is inside this asteroid, how long it can be ejected, and how much force it can provide. In the past, people only hoped that the more the better, but now people are praying for the less the better. .
"Don't go now, it's too dangerous." Zhao Changxing stopped the excited people: "The gas injection is still continuing, and it is easy to have accidents when landing now. Just wait."
With such a huge and rapid gas injection, the gas inside it should be exhausted soon. But no one can be sure whether it will be given enough force before the gas is exhausted.
"Otherwise, we can find a way to make the gas channel bigger, so we don't have to worry about it breaking away from Sedna's gravitational field."
The gas channel increases, the gas flow rate slows down, and the reaction force will decrease.
Zhao Changxing shook his head: "We don't have enough explosives. We can't make them now."
I'm afraid it will take several months before people can make enough explosives again - the current chemical plant has had all the key equipment removed. It will also take time to transport the key equipment from the Spark spacecraft, install and debug it. By then.
At that time, if the asteroid was going to fly away, it would have flown away long ago.
"All right."
"Now, let's move the supplies back and restore the operation of several bases first." Zhao Changxing gave the order: "If this asteroid is going to fly away in the end, it's because we don't have such luck."
After the disaster subsided, people started moving the materials back again. Different from the previous relocation work, people at this moment were in high spirits, relaxed and happy.
This time, people have another thing to care about at work. Almost every day, people have to check the gas ejection process of the asteroid, measure its orbit, and calculate its distance from Seder
The gravitational field of Na Star is still far away, and I pray that it will stop ejecting quickly and stabilize.
Today, people have even given up hope of finding gold mines on Sedna, or even if they still have hope, they subconsciously think that it will be very difficult. Now, there is a mine that is likely to contain a large amount of gold.
A substitute, everyone is hoping to get it.
Among the relocation work, Zhao Changxing decided that the No. 2 planting base was the highest priority relocation task. No matter what, the No. 2 planting base must resume production as quickly as possible. For this reason, Zhao Changxing would rather have people in the crowded and cramped Spark spacecraft.
Squeeze in for a while.
In less than a month, the equipment that had been dismantled and moved was reinstalled in the No. 2 planting base, and crop planting began immediately. A large number of corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and other crops began again
After growing up, Zhao Changxing's heart, which had always been worried about famine, finally stabilized.
After that, it was the turn of the recovery work of Comprehensive Base No. 1. On the third day after this work was carried out, people were surprised to find that the long-lasting gas ejection on the asteroid showed a weakening trend. It seemed that the internal
The pressure has been reduced.
After Comprehensive Base No. 1 has been restored, and adults can finally move back to live in comfortable and spacious double rooms compared to those in the Spark spacecraft, the rate of gas ejection from the asteroid is much lower than in its heyday.
It has dropped by more than 90% and is still continuing to drop.
This means that landing on this asteroid has become possible. So after a period of preparation and planning, Zhao Changxing led a few people and brought relevant prospecting equipment to the asteroid again.
At this moment, the asteroid's mass has dropped by more than 30 million tons compared to its initial mass. Even excluding the debris thrown out by the explosion and orbital change, the mass of the ejected gas is as high as more than 20 million tons. This makes
People have to lament the richness of gas material reserves on this asteroid.
At this moment, its orbit is at an average distance of more than 2,000 kilometers from Sedna. Based on this distance, its current orbit data, and the reaction force of the gas jet, it can no longer escape the gravitational field of Sedna.
.This also means that people have almost permanent access to this asteroid. Of course, if there are no precious minerals such as gold on it, it will be of little use.
Wearing spacesuits, Zhao Changxing and a few others flew around on its surface like supermen, touching here and looking there. After being busy for more than half an hour, Chen Feng suddenly shouted with excitement: "Dad
, come and take a look!”
Zhao Changxing's heart skipped a beat, and he and several other people immediately flew to the place where Chen Feng was in their spacesuits.
The place where Chen Feng is located is a "peak" with a height of more than 50 meters. Flying directly over, people can see that Chen Feng is holding a fist-sized black and gray stone in his hand. He shines the headlight of his space suit over and observes carefully.
, Zhao Changxing saw something as big as a small piece of sand, glowing with golden light, just above the stone, among the sharp edges.
"Gold sand? Take it to the spaceship to see."
Several people hurriedly flew back to the Falcon 1 spacecraft, which was parked nearby and orbited the Sedna star along with the asteroid. They carefully used hammers to smash the stone into pieces, and then found more than a dozen golden grains.
The gravel is gathered together and placed under the instrument for testing.
The test results came out quickly, and there was no doubt that it was gold. It was just that there was some silver mixed in, and the whole thing was in the state of amber gold.
This is another unexpected surprise. You must know that not only gold, but silver is also relatively scarce on Sedna. Although there is no shortage at this stage, in the long run, if no silver mine is found, the silver will obviously not be enough.
of.
Now, two rare mineral deposits have been discovered from an asteroid.
At this moment, it is almost certain that there is a vein of gold and silver ore with considerable reserves on this asteroid. The chasm that stood in front of mankind disappeared in an instant.
"I don't know which supernova explosion created these golds. I don't know how long they wandered in the vast universe and what they encountered before they finally entered the solar system and were discovered by us. But it doesn't actually matter. What's important is
Yes, now, these gold and silver are all ours!"
Zhao Changxing's heart was filled with excitement.
"When our population increases, it will be necessary to build a gold refinery directly here."
It would be too troublesome to directly bring the ore back for refining. It would be more time-consuming and labor-saving to build a gold refinery here to refine the gold and then transport it back.
This trip has achieved a satisfactory result. People once again left the Falcon 1 spacecraft, manipulated the instruments to mine about a dozen tons of gold ore for initial testing, and then successfully returned to Sedna.
With the addition of the natural nugget gold, there is no obstacle to the construction of the second comprehensive base. At this moment, people are seizing the time to repair the industrial zone and build the second comprehensive base. When the second comprehensive base is completed, 60 third
People in this era can truly move to Sedna.
Time passed quickly, and this day soon arrived. At this moment, the number of adults under Zhao Changxing who could be assigned work had reached an unprecedented 100.
With enough manpower, many subsequent tasks can be put on the agenda.