The base can build airplanes, rockets, and even robots and tractors, but it really does not have the accumulation of mining and smelting technology.

Although laser smelting on the moon is very different from the smelting process on Earth, it still relies on many traditional technologies, and it is impossible to build a new ore smelting process from scratch.

After setting the plan for the lunar mining base, Xinyuan contacted well-known domestic iron and steel companies, such as TISCO and Baosteel, to study how to smelt the required steel and rare metals on the moon simply and conveniently.

Laser smelting satellites that can provide 2 to 3 times the ultra-high temperature of traditional smelting furnaces can indeed rely on absolutely violent means to greatly reduce the use of chemical raw materials, but the huge demand for water in metal smelting is unavoidable.

Traditional processes such as beneficiation, sintering, coking, ironmaking, steelmaking, and steel rolling require a large amount of water, and although most of the water in modern processes can be recycled, each ton of steel also needs to consume about 1 ton of water.

Based on the potential for the future, the smelting base should be closer to the water source than to the mine, so the transportation of ore is a problem.

If the abundance of rhenium ore is 1%, 1,000 tons of ore must be transported for every 10 tons of rhenium, and according to the current survey, the nearest water source is 200 kilometers away from the mining location, and there is a crater in the middle, if you build a kilometer, you have to build about 300 kilometers.

If you don't build a road, the road conditions on the moon are too bad, there are big pits and small pits everywhere, the quality of the ore transport vehicle is not light, and the speed cannot be too slow, and a flat road must be built to ensure the safety and efficiency of transportation.

Another problem is that high-speed transport vehicles will inevitably adhere to a large amount of charged moon dust, which will greatly aggravate mechanical losses, and if there is a paved road surface, the service life can be well extended.

The only advantage is that the gravity on the moon is small, the construction is not difficult, the road requirements are not as high as the earth, and there will be no wind, rain, earthquake and flood interference.

Although the comprehensive construction difficulty will not be greater than that of the earth's highways, it is also a 300-kilometer long road, which can be repaired technically, but it is still necessary to save costs as much as possible.

Academician She was speechless for a while after listening to the ins and outs of the matter, but he didn't expect that the early investment in mining would first come to a big project, 300 kilometers of highway, which is not a small project in China.

If you want to get rich, you must first build roads; Although he has not been able to make money from the moon, the classic link of road construction is still unavoidable.

The resources needed to build roads on the moon should not be much, and most of them can be used locally, and there are already finished products in the world of space cement, which should be able to be used for reference, but the development and launch costs of construction machinery are probably not a small number.

Moreover, the process of building the highway on the moon is certainly very different from that of the earth, and the preliminary verification process is indispensable, which is a completely new topic.

"In this way, the lunar road project can solicit opinions and ideas from scientific research institutes across the country in accordance with our old practice, and it will also be listed as one of the public bidding projects of the Aviation Development Commission.

In fact, there are many technologies in domestic universities and research institutes, and some of them may be available. ”

Lin Ju felt that this idea was very good, and his original intention was to try to pull the country to do it together, so that it could also play a certain role in publicity.

"Then if it is determined, the domestic civil engineering major can open a space construction branch."

Academician She: "......"

……

Capital.

McMaster sat in the first row of the Great Hall, which was very consistent with his identity.

There were also many representatives sent by countries to celebrate the "Dawning-3 manned lunar mission and rescue operation successfully concluded" celebration and commendation meeting.

The other delegates were firstly looking forward to the astronauts who were waiting to be on the moon, and secondly, they were secretly observing McMaster's reaction.

They already knew that the two Artemis astronauts had been "sent to the hospital for medical examinations" after arriving in Beijing, and that the space agency had rejected the Aramco-American delegation's request for a visit in the name of "checking for unknown viruses and lung health," saying that all astronauts were so and that there was no target.

But McMaster was deeply suspicious that they were trying to prevent him from meeting with the astronauts in order to interfere with their elaborate celebrations.

Yesterday morning, the astronauts returned to Earth, and today they are in a hurry to start a conference, which is too obvious!

In order not to let others see the joke, McMaster can only always maintain a professional smile, and can neither say that he is happy nor unhappy.

This was not the case with the other delegates, who saw the temporary predicament of NACA and discussed it loudly and unconcerned, not paying any attention to the fists that McMaster had already clenched.

In this uncomfortable atmosphere, the commendation ceremony officially began.

But when Victor and Koch were seen entering the red carpet behind the butts of the three Chinese astronauts, McMaster broke the defense.

How he hoped that the two of them would find a reason to refuse to participate in the event of physical discomfort or other reasons, but he didn't expect Victor to greet everyone with a smile instead, and only then did he freeze when he saw him.

The superiors first solemnly commended Zhang Zhiguang, who stepped on the first step on the moon, and spent the first half an hour to award the national medal to Shuguang-3, which is now the highest honor in China.

After rewarding the three beaming astronauts, he began to praise Victor and Koch for their bravery in the face of danger, and then awarded each of them a medal for the Dawn 3 mission.

Koch was still a little reserved, but Victor happily touched the delicate medallion, a path he had never envisioned.

McMaster's face in the audience was extremely dark, and when he applauded, he was as hard as swatting flies.

Fortunately, the two foreigners did not participate in the subsequent parade, so McMaster hurriedly called a negotiating delegation after the commendation meeting in the morning.

He gritted his teeth and gurgled at the various negotiators, and said with a straight face:

"I don't care what the outcome of the negotiation is, but immediately, immediately, it's best to send those two embarrassed guys back now, don't waste time with the Chinese people anymore, I will contact John at any time, and this farce must be ended as soon as possible!"

NACA's Deputy Director General Jim Free, who has only just landed, frowned and said:

"Then I'm afraid we have to make more concessions, Bezos privately asked them to use robots to find the black box of the 'Blue Moon', I heard that it has been removed, we must get the data inside as soon as possible, which is related to the final investigation results."

McMaster: "Is the black box important?" ”

Jim: "With the black box, we know what's wrong, and the Navy can't go to the moon to salvage the wreckage, so we have to rely on them for the time being." ”

"Okay, you go and try to get a passable agreement first, I'll agree if it's not too much.

Remember, the United States has paid a lot for NACA's failure. ”

(End of chapter)