The completion of Base No. 1 means that the lunar base has initially begun to develop towards self-sufficiency; the completion of the first phase of the project means that the lunar base has preliminary industrial capabilities.
Although the design and production capacity of the first phase of the project is very small, it is a real industrial production capacity and covers various industries involved in the construction base.
At this point, as long as the lunar base is given enough time, in ten or twenty years, the lunar base will gradually grow into a behemoth.
But what mankind lacks most is time. It is impossible to wait for more than ten or twenty years under the pressure of giant insects. The industrial equipment installed in the lunar base is not used for production, but for verification.
The operation and use of equipment on the moon lays the foundation for the design of high-capacity equipment.
Food has to be eaten one bite at a time and the road has to be walked step by step. Although humans have a very good understanding of the situation on the moon, moving industry to the moon is definitely not that simple. Scale verification is the safest way.
Just imagine if large-scale equipment is directly launched, no matter whether there is an abnormality in the equipment or a problem with the product, the cost will be so heavy that no country can bear it.
The industrial system of the lunar base is the top priority of the entire Moon Palace plan. When the news was sent back to the earth, the space base sent two spacecrafts to the sky in just three days. The more than 20 astronauts on board the spacecraft were all
Generalist in industry, including chemical industry, metallurgy, manufacturing and other industries.
After all, having industrial capabilities is only the first step for a lunar base. Only by converting industrial capabilities into real production capacity can the continued development of the lunar base be guaranteed.
After the expert team arrived on the moon, they immediately took over the industrial area of the lunar base and formulated a comprehensive industrial plan based on the actual conditions of the lunar base.
The first step in the plan is to extract the iron and titanium from the lunar basalt.
As the name suggests, mare basalt is the basalt found in the lunar mare, but things are by no means only found in the lunar mare. The main component of the crater surrounding the temporary base is mare basalt!
Construction workers dug out a large amount of lunar basalt in several months of engineering operations. Countless rocks are piled near the base. As long as a part is selected and sent to the industrial area, the metal content in it can be measured, crushed and screened before smelting experiments can be carried out.
.
Everyone knows that although rocks contain a large amount of iron and titanium, the so-called large amount is based on the fact that the moon has a large amount of mare basalt, not that the metal content of the rock is particularly high.
On Earth, ores of this grade have no mining value at all. But on the moon, the industrial group has no choice in the short term unless large-scale iron or titanium ores are discovered.
But how can mines be found so easily?
The experts in the industrial team are all real elites in the industry, and no one is free of charge. In just a few days, the first metal was extracted from a large pile of rocks.
The metal in this furnace is mainly iron, with some titanium, but the total amount is less than one-fifth of iron.
The steel industry is one of the most important basic industries. With enough steel, the construction level of the base can be improved by several levels.
The plan to launch large-scale equipment was immediately put on the agenda, and various mineral processing equipment was immediately put in place. While the mineral processing work was in full swing, the industrial team dismantled the two spaceships, sent the outer shells of the spaceships to the industrial area, and placed them in the smelting area.
The spaceship was designed with multiple uses in mind. After dismantling the equipment and carrying out certain modifications, the outer shell of the spacecraft immediately turned into two electric furnace shells more than ten meters high.
Although it is just a shell, it also solves a big problem for the industrial group. Without the outer shell of the spacecraft, the industrial group can only use the meager output of the experimental furnace to slowly accumulate the metal needed to make the electric furnace.
As for the other materials needed for the electric furnace, all of them can be obtained locally and must be reported immediately if provided by the ground.
A series of changes dazzled Ye Han. First, he built smelting equipment, then made cement from lunar soil. The strength of lunar soil cement was actually much higher than ordinary cement, and then made glass from lunar soil.
Is the composition of lunar soil also silica?
What made him even more unexpected was that the industrial group actually solved the radiation problem of the lunar soil, and the method couldn't be simpler - scrape off the surface layer of the lunar soil and only take out the deep lunar soil!
The radiation of the lunar soil is the same as the radiation on the surface of the glacial lake. The rays from the universe are blocked by the surface layer. Unless the deep lunar soil contains radioactive materials, it does not contain any radiation.
Because of this, the lunar base must use lunar soil cement, but the lunar soil resources in the crater are too small, making large-scale application unrealistic.
In order to solve this problem, the engineering team proposed a new plan to continue digging the No. 4 hole where the industrial zone is located until the crater is dug through and connected to the world outside the crater, thereby obtaining more resources.
Although it is troublesome to open up the crater, it is much easier than climbing over the crater. Moreover, tunneling can also be regarded as expanding the industrial area. Then use satellites to assist, grasp the direction of the excavation, and even the location of the exit can be strictly controlled.
While the industrial group is working hard, the second phase of the lunar base project is in full swing.
The plan is not as fast as it changes. The original second phase plan has been changed accordingly with the progress of base construction. The entire second phase plan has only two directions.
The first is the tunnel that penetrates the crater. The tunnel project is related to the subsequent base construction and must be given the highest priority.
The second is the expansion plan of the agricultural area to increase the food supply capacity of the lunar base as quickly as possible.
The tunnel project does not require too many manpower. Gao Kai only arranged a construction team. The remaining construction workers were all concentrated in the No. 1 hole. While expanding the space to the left and right sides, they also expanded it underground. It was planned to build the No. 1 hole into a multi-story building.
The short-term goal of the compound three-dimensional farm is to supply staple and non-staple food to 1,000 people, the mid-term goal is to expand the supply to 10,000 people, and the long-term goal is to supply 100,000 people. This goal is too far away, so it is just a goal at the moment.
.
During this period, the second nuclear reactor of the lunar base was settled in Cave 2.
The power capacity of the No. 1 reactor is enough to supply a medium-sized city, but the base is located at the lunar pole. If the reactor fails, the operation of the entire lunar base will immediately stop. If the reactor cannot be repaired in a short time, once the liquid metal in the reactor is cooled
If it solidifies, the reactor is in danger of melting down. All astronauts must leave the moon immediately, and even the lunar base must be abandoned.
Now that the lunar base has taken shape, having only one reactor is too risky, so the ground is sparing no expense to send a second reactor to the moon.
Fortunately, military reactors are not large and can barely fit into a spacecraft.
