Interstellar Industrial Age

The Sea of ​​Tranquility on the Moon, the Moon Mining Base of Galaxy Mining Group is here.

As the last box full of lunar soil was carried into the spacecraft by the robotic arm, the entire 'Lushan' spacecraft was already full.

The design take-off weight of the 'Lushan' spacecraft can reach a maximum of 10,000 tons, while its own weight is only about 1,000 tons, which means that its effective load can reach 9,000 tons.

Of course, this is on the earth's side, because the gravity of the moon is only one-sixth of that of the earth, so on the moon, its transportation capacity will be even stronger.

The huge warehouse is filled with dirt and rocks excavated on the moon, weighing a full 50,000 tons. It is filled directly and is ready to be brought back to the earth.

The 'Lushan' spacecraft filled with dirt and rocks soon took off and returned to the earth. There are 6 people left in the mining base, and they continue to be responsible for building the base here and exploring for resources.

Without any accident, the 'Lushan' spacecraft rose directly into space, flew around the moon a few times, and after gaining a greater speed, returned towards the earth.

There is no way, the weight of the spacecraft is too heavy, 50,000 tons of soil and rocks, it is better to fly around the moon a few times, which can save some fuel and time as much as possible.

With a long tail flame, like a firefly that has been flying in the dark night, the 'Lushan' spacecraft embarked on the road to return. This time, the return time is expected to exceed 5 hours, carrying too much dirt and rocks. The heavier it is, the slower it will be.

"Apply to the country immediately. The 'Lushan' spacecraft needs to be parked at the Tiangong Space Station, and some goods will be temporarily placed in the Tiangong Space Station."

At the ground control command center in Huangping Town, Lu Qingwei instructed his subordinates.

The weight of the 'Lushan' spacecraft is too large. It is loaded with 50,000 tons of lunar soil and rocks. If it flies directly to the earth, its load exceeds the limit, and it will crash directly into it like a comet. Earth.

Therefore, the goods must be placed in the Tiangong space station in space, and then the soil and rocks must be transported back to the ground in batches.

"I don't know how much the rare earth content is, but this rare earth is called white gold~"

Qin Yi on the side touched his chin, but his eyes were full of expectations.

The reserves of rare earths on earth are very small, but the precious metals in rare earths are indispensable for high-tech industries and fields, so the price of rare earths has always been very high.

And in recent years, as China has begun to take measures to protect resources, reduce the mining of rare earths, and severely crack down on the phenomenon of random mining, the international price of rare earths has continued to rise year after year.

On the one hand, there is an ever-expanding demand, and on the other hand, there are fewer and fewer resources to be dug. Rare earths are also called white gold.

Five hours later, the 'Lushan' spacecraft successfully arrived at the earth, was captured by the earth's orbit, and after constantly adjusting its orbit, it was also very smoothly berthed in the space port of the Tiangong Space Station.

The door of the 'Lushan' spacecraft opened, and the robotic arm here in the spaceport quickly unloaded the large boxes in the spacecraft and temporarily deposited them in the spaceport.

After one-fifth of the box was left, the hatch of the 'Lushan' was closed again, and it slowly left the Tiangong space station.

After a few laps in orbit, after adjusting the position, one head flew into the earth.

Here at the Xinghe Aerospace Industrial Base in Huangping Town, news media reporters from all over the world flocked to the area. In the planned news media reporter area, the crowd was full of people, and long guns and short guns were aimed at the slowly descending 'Lushan' spacecraft.

After a day, the 'Lushan' spacecraft returned from the moon very smoothly, and brought back the first pot of gold mined by humans from the moon.

The spaceship, like a feather without a trace of weight, slowly landed on the airport lightly, and the huge hatch slowly opened, revealing neat boxes one by one.

The ground crew who have already been prepared have come over and started to unload the boxes in the spacecraft. The work of the spacecraft has not been completed, and there are tens of thousands of tons of soil and rocks in space that need to be transported.

"Good afternoon, audience friends, my current location is in the Xinghe Aerospace Industrial Base, Huangping Town, Jiangnan Province, China. You can see behind me, this huge spaceship has returned from the moon smoothly, and the boxes are one by one. It's full of dirt and rocks dug up from the moon."

"According to what we have learned from Galaxy Aerospace Industry Group and Galaxy Mining Group, these soils and rocks contain a large amount of rare earth minerals. We will continue to provide you with live broadcasts. Please watch."

"Good evening everyone, it's 4:00 p.m. China time, and I'm here at the Galaxy Aerospace Industrial Base to bring you the first detailed report on mining on an alien planet in human history."

"At present, the Lushan spacecraft has successfully returned to the ground, and it is filled with soil and rocks collected from the moon that are said to be rich in rare earth resources. We are fortunate to have obtained permission, and we will be allowed to enter Xinghe in the future. The smelting plant of the mining group has personally witnessed the smelting of rare earth ore.”

News media reporters from all over the world are reporting frantically, all kinds of lights flickering constantly, and news media, social networks, etc. around the world also reported this event in the form of headlines almost immediately. .

It is the first time in human history to go to an alien planet for mining, which is a big event enough to be written into human history.

The Galaxy Group is also very generous in choosing to open it up, inviting many news media to report, the most important purpose of which is naturally to let the Chinese people see that moon mining is profitable, and it is also hugely profitable~

Boxes were constantly being loaded and unloaded from the 'Lushan' spacecraft. The loaded boxes were marked with a letter on the huge parking lot. The lids on the boxes were opened, revealing the soil and rocks inside.

"Crack~Crack~"

The Galaxy Group gave these news media reporters ten minutes to report. After ten minutes passed, a truck came over and began to transport the soil, rocks, etc. to the smelting factory.

The smelting factory is also in a huge factory building, and there are also invited news media reporters in the huge smelting factory.

The smelting of rare earth ore is completely different from the smelting of general resources.

Smelting rare earth ore from soil and rock requires the use of strong acid or alkali, soaking in a solution of strong acid or alkali, and extracting rare earth from soil or rock.

When you see strong acids and alkalis, everyone should know that the damage to the environment caused by rare earth mining is extremely serious.

The first damage is to destroy the green mountains and green waters. To mine soil or rocks, it is definitely necessary to push the mountain skin away and expose the mountain directly. The most direct impact is that soil erosion is very serious. Mining can quickly turn into a desert.

But that's not the worst of the damage.

What really damages the environment is that rare earth mining requires the use of strong acids and alkalis, and the impact of acid-base solutions on the environment is too great.

In the rivers in the rare earth mining area, almost all living things will die out, and no living thing can survive in the waters polluted by acid and alkali, especially when the pollution just started, when the acid and alkali concentrations are high, wherever they go. , no grass grows.

Secondly, there is also great pollution to groundwater, which is long-term, and the water in rare earth mining areas cannot be drunk at all.

There is also the waste residue left after mining. These waste residues have been soaked in strong acid and alkali, so there is no way to grow any vegetation on these waste residues. It takes many years to slowly grow new vegetation.

The randomly accumulated waste residue will enter rivers and cultivated land as soon as it is washed away by rainwater, which will seriously damage the ecological environment.

The damage to the environment caused by the mining of rare earths is almost irreversible, and it lasts for a long time, and the pollution is very serious. Therefore, in areas where rare earth resources are very rich, with the phenomenon of random mining and digging, the environmental damage is very serious.

In the southern Jiangxi region, the place that used to be green mountains and clear waters has appeared unbelievable desert areas due to the mining of rare earths.

This is also why the country strictly prohibits the random mining of rare earth resources, because the pollution to the environment is too serious, especially private mining, if you only care about making money and don't care about the ecological environment, the pollution is even more serious.

The total amount of rare earths contained in the vast territory of the United States accounts for 40% of the world's total, but Americans simply do not mine their own rare earth mines, because they clearly know that the sacrifice of rare earth mining to the environment is too great, and it is difficult to recover. .

In addition, they are very chicken thieves and like to use other people's resources first, so the United States is extremely rich in various resources, but Americans never dig their own resources.

Galaxy Mining Group also uses strong acid and alkali to extract rare earths, but because it is extracted in a factory, Galaxy Mining Group can effectively control it.

Both waste water and waste residue can be treated by scientists' methods, which can reduce the pollution to the environment to a minimum, and can even basically say that there is no pollution at all.

"Boom~"

Under the watchful eyes of many news media reporters around the world, the soil and rocks in the boxes were poured into the crusher.

To extract rare earths, the first step is to crush the rock into the smallest particle state, so that the rare earth ore contained in it can be perfectly extracted.

If the rock is not crushed, there is no way to extract the rare earth ore inside the rock with strong acid and alkali.

PS: Rare earth thing~ I have it near my hometown. When I was a child, I grew up watching rare earth. I have witnessed its pollution to the environment. It is extremely serious. The places where rare earth has been driven have turned into desert areas. This is definitely not a lie~