This star is going to the moon

Chapter 535 A New Lunar Mineral—Chang'e Stone! Lunar Rare Earth Elements and Helium-3!

As Lu Yun and his team flew to Paris, the world's attention began to be focused on the city.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, both China and the United States will announce some details about manned lunar landings at this International Astronautical Congress.

Around this time, an animated series called Cyberpunk: Edgewalker was released on streaming platforms.

It also features a storyline about a manned lunar landing, and includes the classic scene of the female lead holding the male lead's hand as they fly across the moon.

Unfortunately, its background music is called "The Little Song of a Widow".

Then, the number of online players in the game Cyberpunk 2077 skyrocketed, and a game boss named "Adam Hammer" suffered a lot.

[Waaaaah, I shouldn't have watched this anime, the aftereffects were too strong!]

David, don't worry, I've already stormed the Arasaka Tower for you!

No, Rebecca-chan!!

This is too difficult; the aftereffects of tragedy are truly powerful!

[Sigh, why did this happen? Cyberpunk world really isn't a place for humans.]

[Sigh, the moon. Lucy went to the moon all by herself.]

[Yes, it's so tragic. We agreed to go to the moon together, but in the end, only Lucy went.]

The opening scenes of traversing the virtual moon were so beautiful; I wish my memory could stay there forever.

[It's true that if you don't meet someone amazing when you're young, it can really ruin your life!]

I wonder if I'll ever have the chance to go to the moon in my lifetime?

[In the animation, it was 76, and going to the moon cost 25 euros. Now it's 22, and going to space alone would cost over 100 million euros. You can do the math.]

[Hey, this looks promising! I think Lu Shen can definitely bring the price down. Maybe by 76, a trip to space will only cost 1 euros, and a trip to the moon will only cost 5 euros.]

[In 76, I feel it will be cheaper then. After all, by then, controlled nuclear fusion for "forever 50 years" should have been mastered, making going to the moon definitely cheaper. And most importantly, we are Chinese, not a lonely city of night.]

[Ah, well said! I'm starting to look forward to what Lu Yun will say at this International Astronautical Congress!]

I'll definitely be watching the live stream on time!

I'm slacking off at work...

Lu Yun will not be the first to appear at this International Astronautical Congress, since the Tianwen-1 team won the "World Space Award" this time.

After receiving the award, they released an update on the Tianwen-1 mission.

"The Tianwen-1 orbiter has been in orbit for more than 780 days, the Nezha Mars rover has traveled a total of 1921 meters, and the Fenghuolun Mars rover has traveled a total of 1308 meters, completing the planned scientific exploration mission and acquiring 3180 GB of raw scientific data!"

"Through the study of first-hand scientific data independently acquired by my country, the scientific research team has obtained abundant scientific results, revealing the impact of Martian wind and sand and water activity on geological evolution and environmental changes. This provides strong support for the hypothesis that an ocean once existed in Utopia Planitia on Mars, enriching human understanding of Martian geological evolution and environmental changes." "The Tianwen-1 orbiter continues its scientific exploration in its remote sensing mission orbit, continuously accumulating first-hand scientific data..."

Having discussed Mars, let's move on to the Moon, but not a manned lunar landing. Instead, we'll discuss the successful completion of the Chang'e 5 unmanned sample return mission.

The lunar samples from Chang'e 5 were open to the public for application, and the Nuclear Industry Geological Research Institute was one of the first 13 research institutions to obtain lunar samples.

Three research projects were approved: “Research on Fusion Nuclear Energy Nuclides in Chang’e-5 Lunar Samples”, “Research on Uranium Nuclear Energy Nuclides and Isotopes in Chang’e-5 Lunar Samples”, and “Research and Significance of Uranium Series Nuclides in Lunar Nuclear Energy Elements”.

The goal of the three projects is to conduct basic geological research on lunar fission and fusion resources, providing important basic data for lunar evolution and lunar resource assessment.

During the mineralogical study of the first batch of lunar soil powder samples, the research team from the Institute of Nuclear Geology discovered clues to new minerals.

At the time, it was a particle of about 10 micrometers, coexisting with pyroxene. Neither experimental methods nor subsequent data processing could completely remove the pyroxene, so ideal structural data could not be obtained.

After obtaining the second lunar soil sample, the research team counted 14 particles on the sample target and found traces of some new minerals, but only one had the potential to be detected as a single crystal, and this one was even broken into three small pieces.

Ultimately, the team used focused ion beam electron microscopy to cut out a pure single crystal particle measuring 10*7*4 micrometers, which is less than one-tenth the size of the average diameter of a human hair!
Researchers then transferred the particles to a single-crystal diffractometer to collect diffraction data, and finally deciphered the crystal structure of the new mineral.

They conducted Raman spectroscopy analysis, crystal optical characterization, and physical property calculations on the new mineral, and through systematic and detailed mineralogical studies, determined that it was a new mineral that had never been discovered before.

Lu Yun also participated in the naming seminar for this new lunar mineral, and after much discussion, it was finally determined to be "Chang'e Stone".

Chang'e Stone is the sixth new mineral discovered on the moon, making China the third country in the world, after the United States and Ursa Majority, to discover a new mineral on the moon.

Of course, it was mainly these three countries that obtained a large number of lunar samples.

"Chang'e Stone" is another name with ancient Chinese cultural characteristics in lunar scientific exploration, in addition to lunar geographical entities such as "Guanghan Palace", "Weaver Girl" and "He Gu".

It is a major scientific achievement of Laos and China in the field of space science, and also a powerful exploration of cross-industry and cross-professional cooperation between nuclear and aerospace.

The phosphate minerals to which Chang'e Stone belongs are common on Earth, but Chang'e Stone is not among them, which proves that its formation requires an environment and conditions that are completely different from those on Earth.

By studying the formation conditions of the Chang'e Stone in the future, we can deduce the special historical processes that the moon underwent during its initial evolution, which is of great significance for understanding the origin and evolution of the moon.

In addition, the Chang'e Stone contains high levels of rare earth elements, which provides new possibilities for the future development of lunar resources.

Fortunately, developing rare earth elements is one of China's strengths, giving them an overwhelming advantage on Earth.

Now, the Chinese and Laos want to bring this advantage to the moon.

Not to mention that the Chang'e Stone contains helium-3, which is an ideal nuclear fusion fuel.

Because of the discovery of the Chang'e Stone, the Chinese and Lao people have many more reasons to go to the moon!

Next, it was Lu Yun's turn to appear. He was going to announce the progress of China's manned lunar landing program!
"Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon!"

Lu Yun walked onto the stage and confidently declared, "I am Lu Yun!"

(End of this chapter)