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

Hydrogen bombs and atomic bombs are not expensive. The main expenditures of various nuclear-armed countries are actually in the development stage and annual maintenance. If you just produce a batch and use it on the moon immediately, the money actually spent is less than imagined. .

Moreover, according to the base's supercomputer simulation, the greater the yield of the nuclear bomb used, the more beneficial it will be for future mining and can continue to reduce subsequent costs.

The overpressure when a multi-million-ton hydrogen bomb explodes can throw away all the rocks and lunar soil, and due to the low gravity of the moon, the resulting explosion crater will be an unimaginably smooth paraboloid, and the wall will be compacted by the shock wave. Don't worry about collapse.

The most ideal model is to use a super hydrogen bomb with an yield of 200 million tons to detonate at a depth of about 1,000 meters, but this is almost impossible. A more realistic plan is to use 6, 3, and 1 hydrogen bombs with an yield of 15 million tons in three times. It is exploded in three layers, and a mine depth of 1,200 meters to 2,000 meters is obtained by controlling the explosion position.

This is much more convenient than traditional methods. Not only can the cost be saved by more than 80%, but the construction period can be reduced to about one month, and the conditions for mining are almost ready after the explosion.

Therefore, the nuclear explosion plan has always been the best solution that the base considered, but it did not propose it immediately. Instead, it waited until the early research encountered difficulties before proposing it.

Now Lin Ju wanted to test the tone first and see what the attitude above was like.

Anyway, the base will never build these things, so they still have to find a way to persuade the officials.

He originally thought that Academician She's reaction would be great, but the latter was only slightly surprised and fell into thinking, as if he was really considering the feasibility of this matter.

Nuclear bomb mining... In fact, when the space agency was discussing the establishment of the joint mining industry, it was discussed within the space agency, and it was easy to think of this direction.

Not to mention using nuclear bombs can save the number of launches of large rockets. An atomic bomb or hydrogen bomb weighs at least more than 100 kilograms and at most two or three tons. Long March 6, Long March 2, 3 and even some private aerospace companies Small rockets can easily hit it, and it is technically very simple.

But the reason why this plan was ultimately unpopular was not the technology, but a treaty.

"Xiao Lin, you should know the Outer Space Treaty."

Lin Ju immediately understood what Academician She was referring to.

In the last century, with the rapid development of major countries in possession of atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and ballistic missile technology, the whole world was worried that outer space would become another battlefield. In addition, all parties in the Cold War were unwilling to continue to expand the scope of armaments and increase pressure. Finally, the signing of the the Outer Space Treaty.

One of the most important ones is that no party is allowed to build military bases or destructive weapons in space or other celestial bodies. In fact, it is restricting the proliferation of nuclear weapons into space.

As a big country that cares about its reputation and credibility, it must not blatantly violate the treaty it signed. The impact of that would be too bad.

Even if in fact, all countries have never given up their efforts in militarizing space, but under the banner of "reconnaissance" and "defense", they will never openly admit that it is too sensitive to drop a nuclear bomb directly on the moon. Caused widespread and fierce controversy.

The Outer Space Treaty must be abided by. This treaty is the basis for the operation of the current world space order, including the previous rescue of astronauts from other countries who had accidents. In fact, it is an obligation stipulated in this treaty, and it is a legal document endorsed by international law. action.

But before, everyone was still a little cautious when they thought about it secretly. Now that the two of them have talked about it, they are comparing the various benefits of using nuclear bombs in their hearts, and they can see the movement in each other's eyes.

The atmosphere was silent for a while, then Academician She tapped his fingers thoughtfully and said:

"In any case, our purpose must be peaceful resource development, which has nothing to do with military purposes, and there is still a certain possibility of operation.

Maybe we can try it out in a step-by-step manner. There is no precedent for using nuclear bombs for people's livelihood purposes! "

"You mean..."

Academician She stood up and walked to the window, then made up his mind and turned around:

“Now that all countries are actually concerned about the results of the Tianmu-2 mission, we can publish some of them, especially experts’ research on the mining methods and costs of the mines, and appropriately exaggerate the costs of traditional means.

In addition, we need to reduce the public's sensitivity to nuclear bombs and find some media to publish the incidents of the former alliance using nuclear bombs to extinguish fires and bomb reservoirs. Anyway, it will take a long time, and maybe there will be a turn for the better if we slowly calculate it. "

Lin Ju nodded in agreement, and he also thought of a way:

"I think we need someone who has a lot of say in this area to come out and say a few words... Cheng Nankai at our base has a good relationship with Academician Yu Min. It would be great if he could also publish an article."

"You can give it a try. However, I'm more worried about Ami causing mischief."

…

Texas.

Musk has been paying attention to the Tianmu-2 mission, or in other words, space agencies around the world are very attentive.

From United Mining, they have seen that China is really planning to develop lunar resources. Although they don't know whether it can succeed, everyone agrees that this is an inevitable step for mankind. Even if it fails, it will be good for future generations. Provides quite a rewarding experience.

Starting from August 12, the Aerospace Development Commission finally began to release some specific test data and analysis reports collected by the Tianmu-2 mission. Musk, who has always attracted attention, immediately obtained the summarized information.

Tom Mueller joins him to decipher as much information as possible from the Canopy 2 mission.

Tom directly turned to the blasting test part that he was most interested in, probably in order to let more people understand. Although the published content contained many professional charts and information, it also included the test results of the same technology on earth, so that people who don’t understand People can also roughly know what the situation is like.

"Oh, that's not good."

Musk glanced at the final result at a glance. The conclusion analysis is that if the progressive blasting method is used, using more than 4 tons of explosives for every 5,000 tons will require 7.6 million tons of traditional explosives; if a new type of high-energy explosive requires 4.5 million tons, It is impossible to transport so much explosives up by rocket.

Even if it can be transported up, the price is too high. Even 7.6 million tons of cement costs two to three billion, not to mention explosives.

Although the article ends by saying that scientists have been able to develop high-energy explosives synthesized from lunar soil and lunar ice, that is at least 4.5 million tons of high-energy explosives. In terms of fertilizer production, Aramco's annual fertilizer output in 2016 was only 12 million tons!

And the infrastructure to be built around this super explosives factory... requires huge investments on Earth, let alone the moon?