The two brothers A and B of Yutu No. 3 smashed on the ice, and the first one who didn't hold back after getting the news was Xinyuan.

Explorer-1 has traveled as far as 45.4 kilometers around the landing site, and the biggest takeaway is finding a one-kilogram piece of oversized ore containing 1.5% rhenium, almost 10 times more than rhenium ore on Earth.

This may be the debris from the meteorite impact, or it may be that there are mineral deposits of the minerals themselves, but the significance is not too great at the moment, and it is almost the same for later.

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

As a result, the space agency smashed directly into the ice??!

You must know that the landing site is not a blind choice, the three "Laurel" satellites have not collected a lot of information in vain in the past few months, and the three landing sites of Chang'e-5 are all places where ice is very likely to be found in Antarctica.

Even if it's not ice, even if it's the remains of an ice meteorite, the water resources of the Qom 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 of the B-level base had already been manufactured, or 6, and he planned to throw them up in January next year to continue looking for them, but now it looks like he doesn't need them?

"Kobayashi! As the saying goes, the old does not go to the new and does not come, there must be gains and losses, you take one or two special tea from me, I have harvested 10 million tons of ice, no loss, no loss! ”

The big guy called Lin Ju as soon as possible, and he couldn't hide his crazy laughter the whole time.

The ground command center has continuously explored the impact crater and has made the latest assessment, and the ice reserves that can be mined in the surface layer of 10 meters alone are about 10 million tons, which is completely sufficient as a base site in the early stage!

Lin Ju: "Then you have to plant the flag quickly, otherwise it will not be good if someone else comes up and grabs it." ”

"Hey, what you said makes sense, we have to prepare for the Chang'e-6 mission soon, just this Qom crater will not lose 10 probes, and in addition to the explorers, we have to start building equipment that can mine and use ice."

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

The big guy was a little surprised: "When do you still have this technical reserve?" It's about mining on a large scale. ”

Lin Ju: "In the past, when customers in Northeast China bought tractors, they customized a kit for drilling ice caves, and it was changed to mining equipment. ”

“……”

The big guy thought about the scene of the astronauts on the moon driving tractors, pulling the joystick, putting down the drill with sharp blades and making holes in the ice, and his expression was embarrassed.

Well, forget that Xinyuan's predecessor still has this business, but considering that the lunar engineering vehicle may be designed as a convertible, coupled with the road environment of the lunar surface, the site structure of the tractor may really be a feasible solution?

The big guy shook his head vigorously, he 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:

"Kobayashi Ling happens to be in the capital, and there should be more accurate detection results around tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and the Aviation Development Commission will hold an emergency meeting to prepare to organize follow-up detection missions as quickly as possible.

The upper part of the Coombe crater is very serious and must be grasped in our hands as much as possible. ”

"That outside news ......"

"No matter what, you can't hide it, I didn't find it before, so the satellite can't find anything in such a large area, if we concentrate on surveying, we will definitely be able to find it, we have to work hard to explore the surrounding area, and determine the ice range as much as possible!"

Lin Ju nodded, anyway, the resources of the moon are there, and whoever can get it depends on their ability to look at their strength, and they look at the capacity of the rocket!

"Xinyuan will fully cooperate, and the Aviation Development Commission should also immediately organize the demonstration of the base planning, and the construction work will start from now on."

……

NACA。

More than 10 hours have passed since the news was disclosed by the Aviation Development Commission, and the LRO satellite has carried out concentrated detection of the Qom impact crater and its surrounding area, and after analysis, it has been basically determined that the ice storage found by Chang'e-5 is true, and the possibility of 10 million tons of ice is not small.

10 million tons of ice!

Claire was shocked by the news and didn't know what to say, as there was no permanent lunar base in the Artemis program.

The significance of the Artemis program is mainly to return to the moon and establish a "gateway" transit space station to the moon, leaving a cabin on the lunar surface that can allow several astronauts to be stationed for a few days to do some reconnaissance missions.

But if there is ice storage, it will be very different, you can first send equipment to provide astronauts with oxygen, fuel, drinking water, greatly reduce the materials required for the mission, and even semi-autonomously gradually establish a large base or scientific research station that can live for dozens of people, just like the earth's Antarctic research station, the meaning is very different.

Just like the advent of the space station, the moon with gravity allows astronauts to live even for more than a year, and can really do some substantive work.

Claire's rationality told him that NACA should immediately follow up with a lunar probe to the Aitken Basin, where the Moon's ice reserves could be up to 200 billion tons, mostly concentrated at the Moon's south pole.

Even if you only count 30 meters of surface ice, that's a lot to calculate in 100 million tons, and if Qom crater finds ice, it means that there is still untold amount of ice underneath the surrounding area.

The problem, however, is that NACA does not have a lunar surface probe available.

Aramco's unmanned exploration of the moon focused on the Apollo program before the pre-manned landing preparations, after the completion of the Apollo program, the focus will be shifted to Mars, and the largest lunar probe is now the LRO resource exploration satellite.

Previously, the Chang'e series of missions had always had a contemptuous attitude towards the concentrated exploration of the moon, and still focused on Mars, but now it found that there was a risk of losing the rear.

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

"Mr. Director, it's the phone number of the boss mansion."

Claire immediately took it, needless to say, definitely for the moon.

"Hey, Director Claire, I've heard that there's a very important place on the moon, and the Chinese are the first to get there."

Claire: "The United Nations enacted the Outer Space Treaty a long time ago, and there is a provision that states that no country, organization or individual can claim sovereignty over outer space. That is, even if it is the moon, no country can claim it alone. ”

"But we all know what it means, no one can own it alone, so how much to divide is all up to strength, right?"

Claire: "If it's really ice, then it's going to be an area at least a few tens of kilometers in diameter, enough for two bases. ”

"But if not, that's the only place, and scientists tell me it's very important, and without water, our astronauts can't stay for a long time, and they don't really occupy the land.

I hope that NACA will soon come up with a plan for the landing of an unmanned probe, which will be part of the Artemis program, and my words will be valid. ”

(End of chapter)