Ye Han and others did not dare to neglect, and immediately shouted on the radio: "Lao Gao, are you there? I'll call you back immediately!"
Gao Kai is much older than Ye Han, so it seems impolite to call him Lao Gao directly, but the specific situation must be analyzed in detail.
Gao Kai has the rank of colonel, and Ye Han's rank was raised one level after the launch list was confirmed. Both of them are colonels, so there is no hierarchy.
The reason why all work is arranged by Gao Kai is, firstly, because Gao Kai has been to the moon for a long time and understands the situation here; secondly, because Gao Kai is older and more mature and stable, so he was appointed as the temporary person in charge on the ground.
Arranging Ye Han to lead three groups has a very important relationship with Ye Han's colonel rank.
Moreover, Ye Han will be responsible for the security of the entire base in the future. No matter how you look at it, he is one of the scheduled senior leaders of the base. Although he is a little older, Gao Kai is not so narrow-minded that he only looks at age. Everyone has different positions.
In life, they are companions, friends, and comrades who depend on each other for life.
There are only a few living people in this damn place, and everyone can't see each other without looking up, so there's no need to act like a superior or a subordinate.
Gao Kai hadn't finished his lunch yet. He immediately put down his chopsticks when he heard the call: "I'm here, what's the matter?"
"The first batch of ice has just been tested and the heavy water content is 0.6%. What should I do?"
"So many?" Gao Kai was also surprised, "Have you checked them all?"
He is an astronaut who has undergone aerospace training for several years. He was not in a group class like Ye Han. He has a very solid grasp of this type of knowledge and immediately realized the problem.
Everyone else also stopped and looked at Gao Kai.
Even if they don't understand the reason, they can at least see Gao Kai's expression.
"No, I just opened the first furnace."
"Check the rest right away, I'll go over now!"
Yuan Yu quickly stopped: "Eat first!"
"I won't eat anymore." Gao Kai ran out of the restaurant like a gust of wind, making Yuan Yu stomp his feet in anger.
It is a waste to waste food on the earth, but it is simply a crime to waste food on the moon, and it is a heinous crime.
When the others saw this, they didn't dare to neglect and ran out quickly. Yuan Yu almost died of anger, but as soon as he got angry, he heard Gao Kai's voice: "Why are you following me? Come back and eat!"
Several people came back in a mess, ate up the remaining food in two mouthfuls, and ran away as fast as reincarnation.
Instead of running to put on spacesuits, a few of them crowded into the narrow portholes and scrambled to see what was going on in the water treatment cabin.
It's just that the light is dim, and except for the swaying headlights, I can't see anything else.
After Ye Han outside the cabin ended the communication, he immediately opened the lid of the ice melter. The pressure in the container suddenly dropped, and the remaining water immediately boiled and took away the heat. Xu Shui quickly froze at the bottom of the container.
Ye Han took out the inner tank of the ice melter, turned it upside down on the ground, patted the bottom of the barrel, poured out the remaining sediment, put it back into the ice melter, put a few pieces of ice in, and started the melting process with some anxiety and anticipation.
ice program.
Gao Kai rushed to Ye Han and asked, "How is the situation?"
"Just put it in, you still have to wait a while." Ye Han.
Gao Kai stared at the ice melter, as if his eyes were glued to the lid and couldn't move away.
Through the glass on the lid, he could clearly see the ice cubes melting and the rising mist gradually filling the ice melter.
After a while, all the ice cubes finally turned into water. The internal equipment pumped the water out of the ice melter and began to analyze the composition of the water.
Gao Kai's eyes immediately turned to the analysis screen, staring at it without moving.
The screen only displayed the analysis results, not the analysis progress bar, but Gao Kai didn't care and patiently waited for the analysis results.
He knows very well what the content of 6 means.
The analysis results finally appeared on the screen. Gao Kai rushed over like a wild dog, his eyes almost glued to the screen: "It's still 6... Ye Han, come back with me right away for a meeting, Duan Zhiyang, Xu Hua!"
"arrive!"
"You two stay and continue the analysis. Analyze all samples!"
"yes!"
Gao Kai turned around and walked back: "Hu Liang, go back to the living cabin for a meeting right away!"
Hu Liang's reply came over the radio: "Received, will be there soon!"
After a few steps back to the living cabin, several team members who had opened the portholes immediately gathered around to help Gao and Ye take off their spacesuits. A few minutes later, several people entered the restaurant together.
Gao Kai asked eagerly on the radio: "Hu Liang, where are you?"
"Cai Yuanzi, you are getting dressed." Hu Liang replied.
It takes a while to put on and take off the spacesuit, and necessary tests must be carried out every time. Only if there are no problems can you leave the cabin. Just now, Gao Kai was so hot-headed that he rushed out without testing at all. If the ground found out, he would inevitably be punished one by one.
"Then you listen on the radio first." Gao Kai.
"good!"
Gao Kai raised his head: "Comrades, the ice retrieved by the three groups contains heavy water 6. Do you understand the significance of this content?"
Everyone was speechless and looked at Gao Kai in confusion, even Ye Han was no exception.
Ye Han only knew that a high content of heavy water in ice was beneficial, but he did not elaborate on its specific significance.
Gao Kai did not want to sell out, and asked and answered himself: "This means that we can separate heavy water at a very low cost, and can produce heavy hydrogen in large quantities... The fusion reaction of heavy hydrogen and helium 3 does not produce neutrons. You may not know this yet."
, the main reactor of the base is a magnetic confinement fusion reactor, and the main fuel is heavy hydrogen and helium 3!"
Everyone suddenly realized that after more than half a year of aerospace training, everyone knew what second-generation nuclear reactions were, no matter how bad they were.
Ye Han asked in surprise what everyone was thinking: "Lao Gao, has controllable nuclear fusion been completed?"
Gao Kai shook his head: "If there is such a plan, it must be a technological breakthrough, and it may also be the result of international cooperation."
"It's not an experimental reactor, right?" Ye Han was worried.
"Probably not. I made a point of finding out about it after I found out about it."
“Are magnetic confinement reactors reliable?”
"I don't know, it should be no problem." Gao Kai, "This thing relies on magnetic field to constrain the fusion reaction. The moon has low temperature and no air pressure, so it can be easily guided. This is very important for the magnetic confinement reactor... What we are discussing now is heavy water.
It’s not a fusion reactor, and I’m not a reactor developer. If you have any questions, I’ll check the information myself!”
Ye Han grinned: "I don't want to have a large hydrogen bomb sitting under my butt every day."
Gao Kai glared at Ye Han: "Place alone and away from the main base."
"I have no problem anymore." Ye Han accepted it.
"Let's continue to use heavy water." Gao Kai finally straightened the crooked building. "This discovery is of great significance to the country and the Moon Palace Project. It must be reported to the command center as soon as possible, but it will take a few more hours for the satellite to fly back.
So I suggest that we first discuss a reporting charter..."
"What else are we discussing? Just report it directly and let the ground make a decision!" Hu Liang said on the radio, "We don't have heavy water separation equipment, and the function of the water treatment cabin is not to separate heavy water."
"I know, but heavy water cannot be electrolyzed. We can use this method to collect heavy water!" Gao Kai.
The water treatment cabin has two main functions. One is to provide clean domestic water for astronauts, and the other is to electrolyze water to produce oxygen for astronauts to breathe.
Astronauts cannot lack oxygen, and electrolyzed water must not be omitted no matter what. It is just a matter of obtaining heavy water.
"Do we have distillation equipment?" Ye Han suddenly asked.
"No."
"Then we can only separate heavy water through electrolysis?" Ye Han was annoyed. "Okay, now, all the ice we got back was electrolyzed. If we want to use water, we have to combine hydrogen and oxygen again. Is it possible to arrange a special place to burn hydrogen and oxygen to get water?"
He knew some knowledge about separating heavy water. The conditions on the moon are limited, and the only suitable methods are electrolysis and distillation.
There is no need for electrolysis. The so-called distillation method is a method of obtaining heavy water through repeated evaporation by taking advantage of the high boiling temperature of heavy water.
However, the boiling temperature of heavy water is only 42 degrees Celsius, which is very different from the boiling temperature of light water, and there is no air pressure on the moon's surface, so a pressure vessel must be used to use the distillation method, which is not as convenient and simple as the electrolysis method.
Gao Kai gritted his teeth: "To overcome it temporarily, use circulating water for a while."
Ye Han's vision went dark and he felt as sick as if he had eaten a fly. The expressions of the others were not much better... Ye Han was definitely not the only one who hated recycled water, even Gao Kai was no exception.
No one can feel comfortable drinking urine all day long.
When the door opened, Hu Liang finally rushed back to the living cabin. As soon as he sat down and didn't have time to speak, Duan Zhiyang's voice came from the radio: "Team Leader Gao, I am Duan Zhiyang!"
"Speaking!"
"The results of the third analysis are out, the heavy water content is 62!"
"Higher than 2? Accurate?"
"Analyzed it twice."
"I know, let's continue!" Gao Kai sighed, "There are 2 more. How much heavy water must be stored in such a large glacial lake!"
"That's not all." Hu Liang, "There are many glacial lakes in the Arctic, and there may be some with higher contents!"
"It makes sense!" Gao Kai's eyes shone, "We should be proactive and investigate all the ice lakes..."
"Are you dreaming?" Hu Liang was not polite at all, "We only have so little equipment and can't get out of a chain-shaped mountain, but we still want to investigate an ice lake?"
"Let the ground deliver the equipment!" Gao Kai said viciously.
"That has to be approved by the ground." Hu Liang said tit for tat, "Our task is to dig out the base. Once the base is built, everything will be fine. If the base is not built well, what will happen no matter how much heavy water reserves are stored? You can also move the glacial lake back.
Earth?"
Hu Liang's words were like a basin of ice water poured on Gao Kai's head. The ice made him stunned for a while, and his original excited expression gradually turned into depression. After a while, he frowned and smiled bitterly: "You're right, yes
I thought wrong, wait for the satellite to come over and report to the ground, and let the higher ups make a decision."
The meeting is over, and there is still a long time before the satellite returns. We cannot give up the work that should be done because of this matter. Everyone should rest and work when they should work. Ye Han returned to the water treatment cabin and took some out of the water tank.
Water is injected into the electrolytic cell, and when the power is turned on, there is no need for human intervention.
Electrolysis equipment can automatically collect gas, compress and liquefy it and store it in cylinders.
The electrolysis equipment was very efficient. After a while, the oxygen tank, which was not much bigger than a brick, was filled with sky-blue liquid oxygen. Ye Han replaced it with a new one, threw the old one on the ground and ignored it.
The cylinder that stores oxygen is particularly interesting. It is not a cylindrical shape that is common on the ground, but a square box shape, and the top cover can be opened!
This design is because the ambient temperature in the crater is lower than the melting point of oxygen. After the liquid oxygen is left for a period of time, it will naturally solidify due to the lower temperature. At that time, the lid can be opened and the solidified oxygen ice can be poured out, like ordinary
The ice cubes are stored together naturally, and there is no need to store them in jars, which is convenient and economical.
Hydrogen is an important industrial raw material. When the base is built in the future, there will definitely be a place for using hydrogen. But the melting point of this thing is too low and it cannot solidify naturally on the lunar surface. It cannot be solidified and preserved like oxygen. Moreover, the temporary base has limited resources and does not have that much storage.
The hydrogen is in a box, so I can only waste a little and let it go.
Using hydrogen storage metal is also a good choice, but hydrogen is made from water. Where there is water, there is hydrogen. The cost is pitifully low. If a lot of money and resources are spent just to preserve hydrogen, it will put the cart before the horse and waste resources.
More than two hours later, all eight air storage tanks were filled and arranged neatly in a row. The huge temperature difference between the tank and the ground caused the temperature in the tank to drain quickly. As long as you wait for a while, the oxygen can be released.
Take out the ice.
The first air storage tank had been thrown on the ground for more than half an hour. Ye Han picked it up and there was no feeling of liquid sloshing at all. He looked at the air pressure gauge again and saw that the pointer had returned to zero.
"This is ready!" Ye Han greeted, and Duan and Xu immediately came over. Under the witness of their two companions, Ye Han opened the lid of the air tank, and a piece of light blue transparent oxygen ice appeared in front of everyone.
Xu Hua praised: "This thing is so beautiful. Even if you don't know this thing, some people will believe it is a gem."
"Then I'll give you this piece to make a set of accessories for your wife." Ye Han handed the oxygen ice to Xu Hua.
Xu Hua took it in his hand and curled his lips: "Put it away quickly. It's the first oxygen brick we've ever made. Let's mark it later. Maybe it will be put in a museum as a cultural relic in the future."
"Forget it," Ye Han laughed, "hurry up and send Curry away."
"Got it!" Xu Hua agreed loudly and sent the oxygen ice into the warehouse as quickly as possible.
Although the temperature of the moon is low, oxygen bricks stored directly in the open air are likely to be lost due to sublimation, so it is safest to store them in a warehouse with a constant temperature.
There was still some water left in the electrolytic cell, and Ye Han said without thinking: "The content of heavy water in this must be more than 6, come and help!"
Ye Han asked his superior Duan Zhiyang to work together, drain the remaining water in the electrolytic cell into a container, freeze it into ice and put it aside, keeping it for the future when the time is right to extract heavy water.
Water ice turns white, and oxygen ice turns blue, and they can't be mixed even if they are put in a warehouse. However, with the temperature of the moon, it doesn't matter if water ice is stored for tens of thousands of years. There is no need to use this thing to compete for the space of oxygen ice.