Moon Tranquility Sea, here is the lunar mining base of Galaxy Mining Group.
As the last box filled with lunar soil was carried into the spacecraft by the robotic arm, the entire Lushan spacecraft was already filled to the brim.
The designed take-off weight of the 'Lushan' spacecraft can reach a maximum of 10,000 tons, but its own weight is only about 1,000 tons, which means that its payload can reach 9,000 tons.
Of course, this is on the earth's side, because the moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of the earth, so its transportation capacity will be even stronger on the moon.
The huge warehouse is filled with soil and rocks excavated from the moon, weighing a full 50,000 tons. It is filled directly and is ready to be brought back to Earth.
The 'Lushan' spacecraft filled with soil and rocks quickly took off and returned to the earth. Six people were left at the mining base, who continued to be responsible for building the base and exploring resources here.
Without any accidents, the 'Lushan' spacecraft ascended directly into space, flew around the moon several times, gained greater speed, and returned to the earth.
There is no way, the weight of the spacecraft is too heavy, 50,000 tons of soil and rocks, it is better to fly around the moon several times, so as to save as much fuel and time as possible.
Dragging a long tail flame, like a firefly that has been flying in the dark night, the Lushan spacecraft embarked on its return journey. This time, the return time is expected to be more than 5 hours, and it carries too much soil and rocks.
If it is heavier, the speed will be much slower.
"Immediately apply to the country. The 'Lushan' spacecraft needs to be parked at the Tiangong Space Station and some of the cargo will be temporarily placed in the Tiangong Space Station."
At the Huangping Town Ground Control Command Center, Lu Qingwei gave instructions to his men.
The weight of the 'Lushan' spacecraft is too great. It is loaded with 50,000 tons of lunar soil and rocks. If it flies directly to the earth, its load will exceed the limit and it will directly hit the earth like a comet.
Earth.
Therefore, the cargo must be placed in the Tiangong Space Station in space first, and then the soil and rocks must be transported back to the ground in batches.
"I don't know how much rare earth content there is, but this rare earth is called white gold~"
Qin Yi on the side touched his chin, his eyes full of expectation.
The reserves of rare earths on the earth are very small, but the precious metals in rare earths are indispensable in high-tech industries and fields, so the price of rare earths has always been very high.
And in recent years, as China has begun to take measures to protect resources, reduce the mining of rare earths, and severely crack down on indiscriminate mining and excavation, the international price of rare earths has continued to rise year after year.
On the one hand, there is an ever-increasing demand, and on the other hand, there are fewer and fewer resources being mined. Rare earths are also known as white gold.
Five hours later, the 'Lushan' spacecraft successfully arrived at the Earth and was captured by the Earth's orbit. After constantly adjusting its orbit, it also successfully docked at the space port of the Tiangong Space Station.
The cabin door of the 'Lushan' spacecraft opened, and the robotic arms at the space port quickly unloaded the large boxes in the spacecraft and temporarily stored them here at the space port.
After one-fifth of the box was left, the cabin door of the Lushan was closed again, and it slowly left the Tiangong Space Station, flew several times in orbit, adjusted its position, and flew into the earth.
Here at the Galaxy Aerospace Industrial Base in Huangping Town, news media reporters from all over the world almost swarmed in. The planned news media reporter area was crowded with people, and long guns and short cannons were aimed at the slowly descending Lushan spacecraft.
After a day, the Lushan spacecraft returned from the moon very smoothly and brought back the first pot of gold mined by humans from the moon.
The spaceship was like a weightless feather, landing lightly and slowly on the airport. The huge hatch slowly opened, revealing neat boxes one by one.
Ground crews who had been prepared had already arrived and started loading and unloading the boxes in the spacecraft. The work on the spacecraft was not yet completed. There were still tens of thousands of tons of soil and rocks in space that needed to be transported.
"Good afternoon, audience friends. I am currently located at the Xinghe Aerospace Industrial Base in Huangping Town, Jiangnan Province, China. You can see behind me that this huge spacecraft has successfully returned from the moon. Each of these boxes
It is filled entirely with soil and rocks excavated from the moon."
"According to the information we learned from Galaxy Aerospace Industry Group and Galaxy Mining Group, these soils and rocks contain a large amount of rare earth minerals. We will continue to provide you with live broadcasts, so please tune in."
"Good evening everyone, it is now 4 o'clock in the afternoon China time, and I am here at the Galaxy Aerospace Industrial Base to bring you a detailed report on the first mining on an alien planet in human history."
"At present, the Lushan spacecraft has successfully returned to the ground and is filled with soil and rocks collected from the moon that are said to contain rich rare earth resources. We are fortunate to have obtained the permission, and we will be allowed to enter the galaxy in the future.
The smelting plant of the mining group witnessed the smelting of rare earth ores in person."
Reporters from news media all over the world are reporting frantically, with all kinds of lights flashing. News media, social networks, etc. all over the world almost immediately reported this event as headlines.
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For the first time in human history, we went to an alien planet for mining. This was a big event that could be written into human history.
Galaxy Group also chose to make it public very generously and invited many news media to report on it. The most important purpose is naturally to let the Chinese people see that lunar mining is profitable, and it can also make huge profits~
Boxes were being loaded and unloaded one after another from the Lushan spacecraft. The unloaded boxes were placed in a row on the huge parking lot. The lids on the boxes were opened, revealing the soil and rocks inside.
"Kacha~Kacha~"
Galaxy Group gave these news media reporters a full ten minutes to report. After ten minutes, trucks came over and started transporting the soil, rocks, etc. to the smelting plant.
The smelting plant is also located in a huge factory building. In the huge smelting plant, there are also reporters from the news media invited here.
The smelting of rare earth ores is completely different from the smelting of general resources.
Smelting rare earth minerals from soil and rocks requires the use of strong acid or strong alkali. The solution of strong acid or strong alkali is used to soak the rare earth minerals in the soil or rock to extract the rare earth minerals.
When you see strong acids and alkalis, you should know that mining rare earths is extremely damaging to the environment.
The first damage is to destroy the green mountains and green waters. To mine soil or rocks, it is definitely necessary to push the mountain skin away and expose the mountain directly. The most direct impact is that water and soil erosion is very serious. Once the green mountains and green waters are once
Mining will soon turn into a desert.
But that's not the worst damage.
What really damages the environment is that rare earth mining requires the use of strong acids and alkalis. The impact of acid and alkali solutions on the environment is really great.
In rivers in rare earth mining areas, all living things are almost extinct. No living things can survive in waters polluted by acid and alkali. Especially when the pollution just begins, when the acid and alkali concentration is high, wherever it passes
, not a blade of grass grows.
Secondly, there is also great pollution to groundwater. This is long-term. The water in rare earth mining areas is not drinkable at all.
There is also the waste residue left after mining. Because these waste residues have been soaked by strong acids and alkalis, there is no way for any vegetation to grow on these waste residues. It will take many years for new vegetation to slowly grow.
Randomly accumulated waste will enter rivers and farmland when washed by rain, seriously damaging the ecological environment.
The environmental damage caused by rare earth mining is almost irreversible, lasts for a very long time, and causes serious pollution. Therefore, in areas with very rich rare earth resources, with the phenomenon of indiscriminate mining and excavation, environmental damage is very serious.
In southern Jiangxi, where there were originally green mountains and green waters, incredible desert areas have emerged due to the mining of rare earths.
This is why the country strictly prohibits the indiscriminate mining of rare earth resources, because the pollution to the environment is too serious, especially when private mining only cares about making money and does not care about the ecological environment, the pollution is even more serious.
The vast territory of the United States accounts for 40% of the world's total rare earth content, but Americans do not mine domestic rare earth mines because they know clearly that the environmental sacrifices caused by rare earth mining are too great, and it is difficult to recover.
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In addition, they are very thieves and like to use other people's resources first, so the United States is extremely rich in various resources, but Americans never dig into their own resources.
Galaxy Mining Group also adopts the method of refining rare earths using strong acid and alkali, but because it is extracted in a factory, Galaxy Mining Group can effectively control it.
Wastewater and waste residue can be treated using scientists' methods, which can reduce environmental pollution to a minimum, or even basically eliminate any pollution.
"Boom~"
Under the watchful eyes of many news media reporters from around the world, boxes of soil and rocks were poured into the crusher.
To refine rare earths, the first step is to crush the rock into the smallest particle state, so that the rare earth minerals contained in it can be perfectly extracted.
If the rock is not crushed, there is no way to extract the rare earth minerals inside the rock using strong acid or alkali.
ps: Rare earths are something that exists near my hometown. I grew up watching rare earth drives when I was a child. I saw with my own eyes that they pollute the environment very seriously. Any place where rare earths are driven turns into a desert area. This is definitely not a lie~