I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

The base can build aircraft, rockets, and even robots and tractors, but it does not have the technology accumulation for mining and smelting.

Although laser smelting on the moon is very different from the smelting process on the earth, it still relies on many traditional technologies, and it is impossible to build a new ore smelting process from scratch.

After setting up the plan for the lunar mining base, Xinyuan contacted well-known domestic steel companies, such as Taiyuan Iron and Steel, Baosteel, etc., to conduct detailed research on how to smelt the required steel and rare metals on the moon simply and conveniently.

Laser smelting satellites that can provide ultra-high temperatures 2 to 3 times those of traditional smelting furnaces can indeed rely on absolutely violent means to greatly reduce the use of chemical raw materials, but metal smelting's huge demand for water is unavoidable.

Each part of traditional processes such as mineral processing, sintering, coking, ironmaking, steelmaking, and steel rolling requires a large amount of water. Although most of the water in modern processes can be recycled, each ton of steel also consumes approximately 1 ton of water.

Considering future potential, the smelting base should be closer to water sources rather than mines, so the transportation of ore is a problem.

If the abundance of rhenium ore is 1%, 1,000 tons of ore must be transported for every 10 tons of rhenium refining. According to current surveys, the straight-line distance between the nearest water source and the mining location reaches 200 kilometers, and there are craters in the middle. It would be about the same if one kilometer was built. 300 kilometers have to be repaired.

Not building a road is not enough. The road conditions on the moon are too bad. There are big and small pits everywhere. The ore transport vehicle is not light and cannot be too slow. A flat road must be built to ensure transportation safety and efficiency.

Another problem is that high-speed transport vehicles will inevitably adhere to a large amount of charged lunar dust, which will greatly increase mechanical losses. If there are paved roads, the service life can be extended.

The only advantage is that construction on the moon is not difficult due to the low gravity, and the road conditions are not as demanding as those on Earth. There will be no interference from wind, rain, earthquakes or floods. Once repaired, it will probably last forever.

Although the comprehensive construction difficulty will not be greater than that of the Earth's highways, it is still a 300-kilometer-long road. It can technically be repaired, but it is still necessary to save costs as much as possible.

Academician She was speechless for a while after hearing the ins and outs of the matter. Unexpectedly, the initial investment in mining would be preceded by a major project, a 300-kilometer highway, which is not considered a small project in China.

To get rich, build roads first; although money has not been made from the moon yet, the classic link of building roads cannot be avoided.

The resources needed to build roads on the moon should not be huge, and most of them can be obtained locally. There are already finished products in the world of space cement that we can learn from, but the cost of developing and launching construction machinery is probably not a small amount.

Moreover, the process of building a lunar highway is definitely very different from that on Earth, and the preliminary verification process is essential. It is a completely new topic.

“Well, the lunar highway project can follow our old practice of soliciting opinions and ideas from scientific research institutes across the country, and list it as one of the Aerospace Development Commission’s public bidding projects.

Domestic universities and research institutes actually have a lot of side technologies, and some of them may be useful. "

Lin Ju thinks this idea is very good. His original intention was to try his best to attract domestic cooperation, which would also play a certain publicity role.

"Then if it is confirmed, the domestic civil engineering profession can open a space construction branch."

Academician She: "..."

…

Beijing.

McMaster sat in the front row of the Assembly Hall, befitting his status.

There were also representatives sent by many countries to celebrate the "successful conclusion of the Shuguang-3 manned lunar landing mission and rescue operation" celebration and commendation ceremony.

The other representatives were first of all looking forward to the lunar landing astronauts who would come on stage later, and secondly they were secretly observing McMaster's reaction.

They already know that the two astronauts from the Artemis mission were "sent to the hospital for physical examination" after arriving in Beijing. The space agency rejected the visit request of the Aramco negotiation delegation in the name of "checking for unknown viruses and lung health" and stated that all aerospace agencies It is not targeted that all members are like this.

But McMaster deeply suspected that they wanted to prevent him from meeting the astronauts and interfere with their carefully planned celebration (humiliation) ceremony.

The astronauts returned to Earth yesterday morning, and today they are in a hurry to hold a meeting. This is too obvious!

In order not to make others laugh, McMaster could only keep a professional smile and could neither say that he was happy nor unhappy.

However, this was not the case for other representatives. They all saw the dilemma that NACA was temporarily under control and discussed loudly without paying any attention to McMaster's clenched fist.

In this uncomfortable atmosphere, the commendation ceremony officially began.

But when he saw Victor and Koch entering from the red carpet behind three Chinese astronauts, McMaster still broke through.

How much he expected that these two people would find physical discomfort or other reasons to refuse to participate, but he did not expect that Victor would smile and greet everyone, and his movements froze until he saw him.

The superiors first solemnly commended Zhang Zhiguang, who took the first step on the moon, and spent the first half hour awarding the National Medal to Shuguang-3, which is now the highest honor in the country.

After rewarding the three beaming astronauts, he began to praise Victor and Koch for their bravery in dangerous situations, and then awarded each of them a commemorative medal for the Dawn-3 mission.

Koch was still a little cautious, but Victor happily touched the delicate medal. This was a path he had never imagined.

In the audience, McMaster's face was extremely dark, and when he clapped, he seemed to be swatting flies.

Fortunately, the two foreigners did not participate in the subsequent float parade, so McMaster quickly convened a negotiating delegation after the commendation meeting in the morning.

He gritted his teeth in front of each negotiator and said with a straight face:

"I don't care what the outcome of the negotiation is, but immediately, immediately, preferably now, send those two embarrassing guys back immediately, and don't waste time with the Chinese people anymore. I will contact John at any time, and this farce must be ended as soon as possible. !”

NACA Deputy Director Jim Free, who had just landed, frowned and said:

"Then I'm afraid we have to make more concessions. Bezos privately asked them to use robots to find the black box of 'Blue Moon'. I heard that it has been dismantled. We must get the data inside as soon as possible. This is related to the final outcome." Findings."

McMaster: “Are black boxes important?”

Jim: "With the black box, we know what went wrong. The Navy can't go to the moon to salvage the wreckage. We can only rely on them for the time being."

"Okay, first try your best to get a decent agreement. I will agree to it if it's not too much.

Remember, the United States paid a lot for the failure of NACA. "