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

Two brothers, Yutu No. 3 A and B, hit the ice. After receiving the news, Xinyuan was the first to not hold back.

Explorer 1 has traveled as far as 45.4 kilometers around the landing site. The biggest harvest was to find a one-kilogram super-large ore containing 1.5% rhenium, which is almost 10 times more than the rhenium ore on Earth.

This may be the fragments brought by the meteorite impact, or it may be that there are mineral deposits in it, but it is not of great significance at the moment and will be left to the future.

The remaining four new explorers of Chang'e-5 have just landed at the two landing sites. They found no surprises and are ready to dig day and night until they are scrapped.

As a result, the space agency directly hit the ice? ? !

You must know that the landing site was not randomly selected. The three "Laurel" satellites have collected a large amount of data in the past few months. The three landing sites of Chang'e 5 are all places in Antarctica where ice is most likely to be found.

Even if it is not an ice layer, even if it is the remains of an ice meteorite, the water resources in the Qom Impact Crater are completely sufficient!

Lin Ju, who was in the capital, didn't know how to react when he heard the news, because the third batch of new explorers for the B-level base has been manufactured, and there are still 6 of them. He plans to throw them in January next year and continue to look for them. Now it seems that they are no longer needed?

"Xiao Lin! As the saying goes, if the old doesn't go and the new doesn't come, there will be gains and losses. You took one or two special tea leaves from me, and I harvested 10 million tons of ice. No loss, no loss. ah!"

The boss called Lin Ju immediately and couldn't hide his crazy laughter the whole time.

The ground command center continues to explore the impact crater and has made the latest assessment. The exploitable ice reserves in the surface 10 meters alone are about 10 million tons, which is completely sufficient for early base site selection!

Lin Ju: "Then you have to plant the flag quickly, otherwise it will be bad if others come up and grab it too."

"Hey, what you said makes sense. We have to prepare for the Chang'e-6 mission right away. It would be enough to throw 10 detectors into the Qom impact crater alone. Besides, in addition to the explorers, we have to start building machines that can mine and use ice. equipment.”

Lin Ju thought for a moment and said, "Leave this to us. Xinyuan has the technical reserves."

The boss was a little surprised: "When will you still have this technical reserve? This is for large-scale mining."

Lin Ju: “Customers from the Northeast used to customize ice hole drilling kits when they bought tractors, and then modified them into mining equipment.”

"..."

The boss thought about the scene of the astronauts driving a tractor on the moon, pulling the joystick and lowering the drill with a sharp blade to drill holes in the ice, and his expression became awkward.

Okay, I forgot that Xinyuan's predecessor still had this business, but considering that the lunar engineering vehicle may be designed to be open-top, and coupled with the road environment on the lunar surface, the tractor's chassis structure may really be a feasible solution?

The boss shook his head vigorously and couldn't think about it anymore. The more he thought about it, the more outrageous it became.

He coughed dryly and his tone became serious:

"Xiao Linqian happens to be in the capital, and more accurate detection results should be available tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. The Aviation Development Committee will hold an emergency meeting to prepare to organize follow-up detection missions as quickly as possible.

The higher authorities attach great importance to the Qom Crater and must keep it in our hands as much as possible. "

"The news from outside..."

"No matter what, we can't hide it. We haven't found anything before, so satellites can't find anything in such a large area. If we focus on surveying, we will definitely find it. We must work hard to explore the surrounding areas and determine the extent of the ice as much as possible! "

Lin Ju nodded. Anyway, the resources of the moon are there. Whoever gets them depends on their ability, and the rocket's capacity depends on them!

"Xinyu will fully cooperate, and the Aviation Development Committee should immediately organize the demonstration work of the base planning. The construction work will start from now on."

…

NACA.

More than ten hours have passed since the Aerospace Development Commission disclosed the news. The LRO satellite has conducted concentrated detection of the Qom impact crater and its surrounding areas. After analysis, it has been basically confirmed that the ice storage found by Chang'e 5 is true. The possibility of tens of millions of tons of ice is not small.

Ten million tons of ice!

Claire was shocked by the news and didn't know what to say, because the Artemis plan actually did not include a permanent moon base.

The main significance of the Artemis program is to return to the moon and establish Laurel's "Gateway" transit space station. It is enough to leave a cabin on the lunar surface that can accommodate several astronauts for a few days to do some survey tasks.

But if there is ice storage, it will be very different. The equipment can be sent up first to provide oxygen, fuel, and drinking water for the astronauts, greatly reducing the materials required for the mission, and even semi-autonomously and gradually building a living space for dozens of people. The large-scale base or scientific research station is similar to the scientific research stations of the North and South Pole on the earth, and the meaning is very different.

Just like the emergence of the space station, the moon with gravity can allow astronauts to live for more than a year, and can really do some substantial work.

Claire's rationality told him that NACA should immediately follow up and launch a lunar surface probe to the Aitken Basin. The moon's ice reserves may be up to 200 billion tons, and most of them are concentrated at the south pole of the moon.

Even if only the 30-meter-thick surface ice layer is counted, that amount needs to be calculated in billions of tons. If ice is found in the Qom impact crater, it means that there is still countless ice underground in the surrounding area.

But the problem is: NACA has no lunar surface detectors available.

Aramco’s unmanned exploration of the moon was concentrated before the Apollo program to prepare for manned landing. After the completion of the Apollo program, the focus shifted to Mars. The largest lunar probe is now the LRO resource exploration satellite.

In the previous Chang'e series missions, NACA had always had a disdainful attitude towards the concentrated exploration of the moon, and still focused its attention on Mars. But now it has discovered that there is a risk of the rear being lost.

Just when Claire was impatient, the assistant quickly brought the phone and whispered:

"Mr. Director, this is the boss's office phone number."

Claire picked it up immediately, needless to say, for the moon.

"Hey, Director Claire, I heard that there is a very important place on the moon, and the Chinese were the first to reach it."

Claire: "The United Nations formulated and implemented the Outer Space Treaty a long time ago. One of the provisions states that no country, organization or individual can declare sovereignty over outer space. In other words, even the moon has no Which country can claim sole possession."

"But we all know what it means. No one can have it alone, so how many divisions are made depends on strength, right?"

Claire: "If it is really ice, then this will be an area of ​​at least tens of kilometers in diameter, which can accommodate two bases."

"But if not, there is only that one place. Scientists tell me that it is very important. Without water, our astronauts cannot stay for a long time, and it does not really occupy the land.

I hope NACA can come up with a plan for unmanned probe landing as soon as possible. This will be part of the Artemis program. My words are valid. "