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

On the evening of December 20th.

The Lunar Exploration Engineering Office of the Aerospace Development Commission once again released news, preliminarily confirming that a large-scale ice deposition zone was found under the Qom impact crater.

Although it is still unclear and there are only a few blurry pictures, it does prove that there is quite a lot of ice under the Qom impact crater, which is at least enough for early exploration.

This news had a huge impact on the international aerospace community. The most important thing was that it greatly increased the interest of various countries in the moon.

The presence of water means that organic matter can be synthesized, which means that it is possible to realize self-sustaining stations on the lunar surface, greatly reducing the pressure on the ground.

At the same time, this also shows that it is possible to colonize the moon. Although it is not a small project, it is much simpler than Mars.

The European Space Agency, which was the first to react in the media, immediately announced that the area around the Qom crater is rich in resources. The European Space Agency will immediately launch an early unmanned exploration mission and is expected to launch a satellite into lunar orbit within 6 to 8 months. and a lunar surface patrol vehicle, tentatively named Project Pandya.

This plan was unanimously approved within ESA with unprecedented speed, and it also made them pay more attention to the "Selene" plan.

Following closely behind is NACA.

Claire immediately thought of a solution after receiving the call, and finally found one: Perseverance.

In 2011, NACA sent the first nuclear-powered Mars rover to Mars, Curiosity, which weighed more than 900 kilograms. It also carried out follow-up projects similar to Curiosity. It was called "Perseverance" after its public collection and naming in 2020. , now it is simply called "Mars Rover 2" internally.

The "Mars Rover 2" weighs slightly more than one ton. Its basic skeleton and structure are the same as those of Curiosity. It just carries many different scientific research equipment. It has been carried out in a leisurely manner. There are no technical difficulties anyway.

Claire's request is to modify the "Mars Rover 2" and launch it to the moon.

So the original "Perseverance" of later generations was directly named "Isis" by him.

Isis is the goddess of life, magic, marriage and fertility in ancient Egyptian mythology, and water is the source of life.

For Isis, which uses the same chassis as Curiosity, working on the moon is not very troublesome and only requires minor modifications.

The lowest temperature of the moon and Mars is more than 100 degrees below zero. The difference is that the temperature of the moon is extremely high when it is exposed to direct sunlight, but it can be modified to sleep, which is also a minor problem.

The main thing is that the equipment needs to be replaced and remanufactured, which may take some time.

Rockets are readily available. Astros 5, which can send the rover to Mars, can also send Isis to the moon. There are many medium-sized disposable rockets such as ULA.

The lander does not need to be significantly modified. Even if the parachute is cancelled, the sky crane will be enough under the low gravity of the moon, and there is even room to modify the program.

So Claire set the launch date of Isis around early March 2017, and two months was enough to modify Isis.

But before they could announce it, SpecaX was the first to react.

Musk first praised the Aerospace Development Commission on Twitter and Weibo, and then said that the first batch of 10 Starlink satellite launch missions in January will be canceled and will be sent to the moon by a Falcon 9 rocket after modification.

"Star Chain" is finally here.

…

Class B base.

Serev looked at the six "Explorer II" assembled in the workshop and scratched his hair.

Compared with external disclosures, the Aerospace Development Commission has operated two Yutu-3s in the past few days to conduct more detailed explorations. Based on the model of the moon's geological conditions, it is speculated that there should indeed be a cave under the south pole of the moon, that is, under the Aitken Basin. Extremely large ice formations.

The cause of formation is unknown, but the area may exceed 3,000 square kilometers. The average depth is about 20 to 50 meters from the surface. The thickness is temporarily unknown, but it is conservatively estimated to be more than 20 meters.

The Qom Impact Crater is likely to be a higher point of this ice layer. It came into contact with the ice layer when it was formed by an impact many, many years ago. This resulted in the average depth of lunar soil covered in the impact crater being less than 25cm, and the thinnest The place is even only a few centimeters.

The conservative ice reserves in the entire estimated ice area are approximately more than 600 million tons, which is an unimaginably huge resource.

There was a huge commotion within the Aviation Development Commission at that time. The missions of Chang'e-6, 7, and 8 were planned at once, and they were prepared to launch the detectors as quickly as possible, just to occupy more space for no other reason. .

Before astronauts set foot on the ground to establish a scientific research station, they can only rely on robots to encircle the land and occupy the shallowest and best land first.

Xinyuan Company built a total of 12 Explorer IIs when manufacturing Explorer II, and the remaining 6 have been completed and placed here, ready to be launched at any time.

These six have been designated as Chang'e-6 patrol vehicles. The lander will be completed within this month, and the Chang'e-6 mission will be launched in early January. Xinyuan-2 has plenty of them anyway.

The space agency bought two of the six detectors, so that there would be 8 robots in the Qom Crater, forming a crushing advantage over the world.

In Lin Ju's words: "If their detector dares to enter the land we occupy, we will cut off their solar panels! Dismantle them and throw them into the crater."

Although it is a joke, it does illustrate the large number of robots in the Aerospace Development Commission. There are currently 7 robots on the moon!

However, Serev knew that both Explorer I and Explorer II had mostly detection properties. After finding a certain ice layer, he had been thinking about the next generation of practical machinery that could produce, purify, and produce water with considerable efficiency. A machine that synthesizes the desired compound.

First of all, there is the quality issue. The lunar orbit transportation capacity of Xinyuan 2B (third stage) is 18 tons. This number is very large, and it can send a maximum load of 6 tons to the lunar surface.

6 tons... 6 tons is too rich for a probe, but it is a very small number for construction machinery, especially on the moon, which can provide a small proportion of the load weight for working equipment.

The simplest way to produce hydrogen is through electrolysis. Producing 1 cubic meter of hydrogen and 0.5 cubic meters of oxygen requires about 4.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. If a 6-ton machine is used to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen and compress it, the weight is almost enough.

According to the commonly used catalyst and proton membrane electrolysis method, 5 cubic meters of hydrogen can be produced in one hour, which is 120 cubic meters of hydrogen and 60 cubic meters of oxygen in one day.

120 cubic meters of hydrogen is only 10.788 kilograms. It is definitely not enough to be used as rocket fuel, but it is completely enough to use synthetic materials to supply a scientific research station.

What's more important is oxygen. 60 cubic meters of oxygen is 60,000 liters. An adult consumes about 550 liters of oxygen a day. This means that one electrolysis device can provide the oxygen that 100 adults can breathe in a day, which is completely enough.

The power consumption of such electrolysis equipment is about 20 to 40 kilowatts. The nuclear power train being developed at the Qingshan base can provide 38 kilowatts of power, which is enough.

In addition, a mining machinery is needed, a nuclear tram may be towed to provide electricity, and some gas tanks for storing hydrogen and oxygen are needed. They can be made larger and preferably buried under the lunar soil, so an excavator is also needed?

Serev made a rough calculation and found that 6 tons is a better controllable quality for these construction machinery and large-scale equipment. It will require almost 6 launch missions and cost at least 2 billion yuan. However, the Aviation Development Committee can be involved and more than 60% can be shared, so the cost Not much money.

Serev thought about it and wrote "Draft of Lunar-1 Early Small Development Task" on the tablet, conceiving the design of the base.