Great Country Academician

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Also in the headquarters building of the Science and Technology Institute on Fuxing Road, a seminar convening experts and academicians in aerospace, biology, engineering, materials and other fields is also being held.

Outside the spacious conference room, Academician Xu Hongchang, wearing a simple gray shirt, walked into the conference room. Many people were already seated at the conference table filled with nameplates.

Glancing around the conference room, there was a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Today's meeting was notified at short notice. It was said to be an internal meeting, but the content was not disclosed.

At first, he thought it was just a small meeting, related to his professional field. Such meetings happened often to him, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

Now it seems that there is something wrong with the speculation. Judging from the nameplates on the table and the people present, the number of academician-level scholars present at this meeting exceeds double digits.

Looking at the posture and formations, the things to be discussed should not be simple.

After glancing at the people present, Academician Xu Hongchang withdrew his gaze with interest and walked to his seat. Just as he was about to sit down, a familiar voice came to his ears.

"Old Xu, are you here too?"

Xu Hongchang turned around and looked over. Next to him, an old man about the same age as him who had just walked in from the conference room was walking towards here carrying a thermos cup.

Seeing his old friend, Xu Hongchang was stunned for a moment and asked in surprise: "Weren't you still doing research in the South China Sea yesterday? Why are you here today?"

Opposite, Academician Wu Weihua, who walked in with a thermos cup, put the thermos cup on the table with a smile and said: "I received a temporary notice that there is an urgent meeting to be held, so I came over."

As he said that, like Xu Hongchang, he glanced at the conference room and sighed: "As expected of him, this speed, this influence, tsk tsk, it's ridiculously big."

Hearing this old friend's emotion, Academician Xu Hongchang was stunned for a moment, and then curiously asked quickly: "Do you know what today's meeting is about?"

Wu Weihua nodded with a smile and said, "If I guessed correctly, I should know."

"What? Don't hold back, tell me quickly." Xu Hongchang urged.

Wu Weihua shook his head, smiled and said mysteriously: "It is related to the family member with your surname."

"My family name?"

Hearing this, Xu Hongchang thought quickly in his mind and then asked: "Are you talking about the person over at Jinling?"

Wu Weihua smiled and said: "Who else can have such a great influence besides him."

Hearing this, Xu Hongchang asked with interest: "What about the content of today's discussion?"

Wu Weihua smiled and said, "You will know later."

On the side, Xu Hongchang glanced at him and cursed: "You old guy, you are still appetizing."

Wu Weihua smiled, said nothing, and sat down in his seat, his eyes falling on the nameplate of the conference table again.

Aerospace, biology, engineering, materials... Tsk tsk, the academicians he knows alone are more than a slap in the face, let alone those unfamiliar academicians and experts in other fields.

If I guess correctly, this meeting should be related to the Lunar Biosphere Project, right?

Of course, he couldn't be sure, but judging from the experts and scholars attending the meeting, it was very likely that it was a lunar biosphere project.

After all, apart from this, he could not think of any plan or project that required so many experts and scholars from different fields to discuss together.

But what made him a little confused was, if it was a lunar biosphere project, why didn't that person come?

As the hour hand on the wall reached ten o'clock, all the leaders, experts and scholars from various departments and fields participating in the meeting arrived.

In the spacious conference room, the staff maintaining order closed the door of the conference room and stood at attention behind the door.

At the conference table, the person presiding over the meeting finally started. The person presiding over the meeting was naturally Yuan Zhouli, a man of science and technology.

Standing in front of the microphone, he cleared his throat. After Yuan Zhouli announced the start of the meeting, he continued: "I would like to trouble you all to take time out of your busy schedule to come here to attend this meeting. Because of the tight schedule and confidentiality, there was no advance notice. I hope everyone can understand the content of the meeting.”

After a slight pause, he continued: "In the following meeting, the discussion will involve the moon above our heads. Because it involves a relatively sensitive international situation, before the country officially announces it, please keep the content of today's meeting strictly confidential. .”

Hearing this, everyone sitting in the conference room had different expressions on their faces, some were surprised, some were surprised, some were interested, and some looked as expected.

But at this moment, everyone turned their attention to the silver-white curtain in the conference room.

There, a PPT picture has been displayed.

When I saw the picture being displayed, the originally quiet conference room suddenly became filled with some noisy discussions.

He exchanged surprised glances with the people sitting next to him, and many people saw surprised expressions on each other's faces.

A 'large-scale lunar comprehensive base' composed of 'lunar biosphere project' + 'lunar outpost scientific research station'! ’

Although everyone here today already knew that the manned moon landing project was a perfect success, they still did not expect that today's meeting would be discussing this.

In particular, the lunar biosphere project can be said to have exceeded almost everyone's expectations.

No one thought that what they were going to discuss today was actually building a biosphere on the moon?

In the conference room, Academician Xu Hongchang looked at the displayed picture, opened his mouth and looked at it in disbelief for a while, then turned his head sharply, swallowed, and asked his old friend sitting next to him:

"Is this... building Biosphere 3 on the moon?"

On the side, Academician Wu Weihua nodded, and just as he was about to speak, Chief Yuan, who was sitting in front of the conference table, spoke.

"With the perfect success of the Xinghai manned moon landing project, it has become one of the major fields of future space exploration. It is foreseeable that space will undoubtedly be our future and the future of mankind."

"According to the proposal of Academician Xu Chuan, the chief designer of the Manned Spaceflight and Lunar Exploration Project, building a large-scale comprehensive base on the moon will become an important springboard and bridge for us to go beyond the earth and go to deep space in the future."

"The base will have a lunar biosphere project and a lunar scientific research outpost as its core. While solving the problems of low gravity, no air, and difficulty in survival that humans encounter after entering space, it will also develop materials related to space development. "Transportation problems', 'artificial photosynthetic material manufacturing problems', 'long-distance high-power wireless and energy transmission technology problems' and other scientific research problems."

"The project will be split into two parts, the 'lunar scientific research outpost' and the 'lunar biosphere project.' The former is tentatively slated to be solely responsible for the country, and whether domestic aerospace companies will be approved to enter is yet to be determined. The latter is currently tentatively scheduled to invite the United States, the European Union, Tsarist Russia, the Middle East, and other countries and regions have jointly invested and implemented it.”

"The total budget of the large-scale lunar comprehensive base project is tentatively set at 300 billion yuan, with the 'lunar scientific research outpost' and 'lunar biosphere project' worth 100 billion and 200 billion respectively. It is expected to mobilize universities, scientific research institutions, and private enterprises. There are over a hundred institutions.”

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In the conference room, Qin Anguo, who is advanced in science and technology, read out the contents of this meeting from the main seat.

In the audience, even the people who participated in this meeting were all top experts in the country, and many were even academician-level experts, they were also shocked.

A 300 billion super project!

Speaking of this number, many people may have no idea. Or maybe they think that for an infrastructure maniac like China, a 300 billion project is nothing.

But in fact, there are only a handful of single projects that truly exceed 300 billion, leaving aside the infrastructure construction such as roads and railways that run through the country.

Even the world-famous Three Gorges Hydropower Project has a total cost of only 248.5 billion yuan, less than 250 billion yuan.

If you look at the aerospace field alone, the single project with the largest investment currently is the Chinese Space Station, but the total investment in this project so far is about 10 billion.

Of course, the investment in the space station is calculated in terms of rice dollars, which when converted is about 70 billion RMB (when the space station was built, controllable nuclear fusion had not yet been realized, and the rice dollar had not depreciated.)

This is the single project with the largest investment in the aerospace field in China, but in comparison, a large comprehensive base on the moon can build four space stations, which is more than enough.

Sitting at the conference table, Academician Wu Weihua couldn't help but take a breath of the air-conditioning blowing from the central air conditioner, and said with some emotion: "A 300-billion-yuan project, good guy, you are so willing to give it up."

Although he had already guessed that the content of today's meeting would most likely be the lunar biosphere project he had discussed with the person before, he never expected that that guy would be so ambitious.

Three hundred billion, tsk tsk.

Not to mention other people, even he, who is also an academician of the Academy of Sciences, was envious and a little bit sour.

Apart from other things, when has there ever been such a large amount of investment in the field of biological research?

Not to mention 300 billion, even tens of billions.

For research in the field of biological sciences, more than one billion is considered a large project.

He still remembers that the national endangered wild animal germplasm gene protection project cost 13.8 billion and was almost the top bioscience project in the country.

By comparison, it's not even a fraction of what others have. It's really incomparable.

After staring at the PPT screen for a while, Academician Xu Hongchang suddenly said: "The Biosphere Project is a project we have been looking forward to for a long time. But how difficult will it be to build it on the moon?" Is it too big?"

After a pause, he frowned and continued: "I'm afraid even basic materials such as water, air, glass, and supporting metal structures cannot solve the problem. If it needs to be transported from the earth, this project is really unrealistic."

Like Wu Weihua, as an academician in the field of biological sciences, he is naturally looking forward to China's own biosphere project, but to be honest, he is really not optimistic about the lunar biosphere project based on current technology.

In fact, Academician Xu Hongchang is not the only one who has this idea. Many other people who participated in this meeting have this idea.

The difficulty of lunar biosphere engineering is simply too great.

On the conference stage, after introducing the overall deployment plan of the large-scale lunar comprehensive base project, Yuan Zhouli picked up the water glass on the table, lightly moistened his throat, and continued:

"The relevant situation is currently like this. We will discuss it at the next meeting. I hope everyone will be generous with their opinions and put forward any ideas they have at the meeting."

As soon as he finished speaking, an arm was raised in the audience.

The person who raised his hand was Academician Park Mingqi from the Academy of Engineering. This old man has long been engaged in the design theory and technology research of aerospace agencies and special robots. He once presided over the design of the Chinese space station.

Yuan Zhouli looked over and nodded to signal the other party to speak.

Academician Park Mingqi stood up, looked at the PPT shown on the screen and said: "Let's not talk about the cost of this project for the moment. The key point is the feasibility."

"There's nothing much to say about biosphere engineering. If it were built on earth, there's no need to talk about it at today's meeting. But if it were placed on the moon, the transportation and extraction of various basic materials would be a huge problem."

"For example, water, air, animals and plants, cement, glass, steel bars, special metals, etc. How should these materials be obtained?"

"In addition, construction on the lunar surface is also a huge problem. In a low-gravity vacuum environment, construction is also quite unfriendly. Have you considered these issues?"

At the reporting table, Yuan Zhouli nodded and said, "Of course, these things are explained in the planning report that was distributed to you at the beginning of the meeting, and there are corresponding questions and page numbers in the table of contents."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the conference room immediately picked up the planning report document on the table.

On the stage, Yuan Zhouli continued to answer the question asked by Academician Park Mingqi just now: "As for the material collection, the current tentative plan is that most of the materials will be obtained from the moon, such as water, cement, glass, steel bars, metal, etc."

"These things have been investigated during the manned lunar landing project. Air, flora and fauna, resources that are not available on the moon do need to be transported from the earth, but most construction materials have relatively sufficient raw materials on the lunar surface, which can be It meets the needs of this project.”

After a slight pause, he added: "Of course, these are basic mineral materials. How to convert and refine them into raw materials for construction projects on the lunar surface is a difficult problem that needs to be solved in this project."

Standing in front of the conference table, Academician Park Mingqi didn't pay attention to Yuan Zhouli's addition. What he cared about was the information revealed in Mr. Yuan's words.

After all, as a scholar in the aerospace field, he naturally knows the importance of lunar bases.

This is their bridgehead to the deep space, and it is also the future of human development.

However, it is extremely difficult to build a lunar base, especially when it is also mixed with a lunar biosphere.

If the difficulty of building a lunar scientific research outpost alone is 100, then with the addition of a lunar biosphere project, the difficulty can be directly increased to ten times or even a hundred times.

Not to mention other things, water resources alone are enough to block this planning project.

After all, the biosphere requires more than a little water. It would be too expensive to transport a large amount of water from the earth.

But what if water resources are found on the moon?

This is what he cares about.

Water, cement, glass, steel bars, and metals can all be self-sufficient from the moon. The amount of information revealed in this sentence is too great.

If the basic mineral materials are sufficient, it is not difficult to refine them into raw materials for building a lunar base. It’s just that how to reduce costs and increase efficiency needs to be considered.

It seemed that the harvest of Xinghai Research Institute's manned moon landing project was greater than he expected.

Thinking about it, Academician Park Mingqi's breathing became a little heavy for a while.

If this 'large lunar comprehensive base project' can be successfully completed, they will completely occupy a leading position in the future aerospace field, and the future era will be led by them!