The day after Snowbird's maiden flight, Storm reached the moon for the second time.

Through exquisite orbital calculations, it approached the Wutu space station after decelerating into orbit, and then opened the cargo compartment and gently leaned up with the built-in node module, so that a super-large assemblage weighing nearly 200 tons appeared in lunar orbit.

The space shuttle and the space station are large enough for seven astronauts to live comfortably for a long time, so there is no need to rush to the moon, they will spend a whole day observing the landing site.

The landing site is the shallowest layer of the mineral deposit found by the explorers, although there is a relatively clean area but there is a non-negligible inclination, so the difficulty and gold content of this landing mission are not low.

The two Abel astronauts were enthusiastically communicating with China, while the other five Chinese astronauts were inspecting the materials and equipment for the landing and preparing for the landing.

The docking of this mission is actually more complicated, but it is not because of technical reasons.

Originally, astronauts could directly enter the lander from the cargo compartment of the space shuttle, and take off directly to dock with the space station after disengaging to complete the landing mission, which is very convenient to dock once in total, but this time the ground took into account the problem of lunar dust caused by continuous high-intensity operations.

After the ascent vehicle takes off, it will not dock directly with the space station, but will wait for the Storm to disengage and give way to the nodal module perpendicular to the fuselage, so that it can dock with the shuttle's nodal module.

The other docking parallel to the cargo compartment is unlikely to dock and can only be used for pre-docking on the ground.

At that time, the astronauts and materials covered with moon dust can be transferred to the node module and fixed, and then carefully cleaned up here with the pre-prepared liquid cleaning robot, and finally take off the spacesuit and enter the space shuttle, and then dock with the space station after the node module is closed.

The node module, which is covered with lunar dust and dirt, will not be hoisted out separately until it returns to the ground, and will be used as a one-time transition module so as not to pollute the environment of the Wutu space station.

This was the only way to do this until the XH40 was put into service, and the latter was equipped with a powerful automatic disinfection transition chamber.

Deng Lei was checking the approximate vein distribution map drawn by the resource exploration satellite, and frowned when he saw the figure at the shallowest depth of 1,083 meters.

In order to boost investor confidence, United Mining announced that the figure is "about 1,000 meters deep", which is actually the shallowest depth, with an average valuable excavation depth of nearly 1,400 meters.

Moreover, the main storage at this depth is iron ore, which can only be used to smelt crude steel, and rare earths have to continue to be dug down, and the deepest depth of the entire vein is close to 3,000 meters, containing extremely rich mineral deposits.

Do you want to dig a super crater with a depth of 1,400 meters?

Of course not, although the gravity of the Moon is one-sixth of that of the Earth, the difficulty of excavation is not equal to one-sixth of 1,400 meters of 233 meters.

There are not many mines on the earth at a depth of more than 200 meters, and there are not many mines of one thousand meters, but there are not so many engineering vehicles for lunar operations, and even if they can be sent, the cost is too high to be worth it.

Therefore, the mining method planned inside the base is the easiest and most primitive blasting, first blowing out a shallow pit, and then blowing down layer by layer, all the way to the right depth.

When the mine is large enough to be used, a large-diameter TBM is used to dig an ultra-deep mine from a more stable place, and the casing and lifting track are laid to continuously lift the initially broken ore up, which is relatively easy to achieve because of the low gravity of the moon.

One of the items landed on the moon this time was two detonators and two explosives, which were stored separately in special containers, and the astronauts had to find a piece of relatively hard ground for two blasting tests to see the effect.

Although the space agency has done rigorous tests to ensure that there will be no accidents, Deng Lei is still a little scared.

Li Wei on the side had just finished half an hour of cycling activities, and as soon as he came over, he saw a complex ore vein distribution map.

"Hey, you're working on the mine again?"

"No way, the official document says that Tianmu 2 is the first prospecting mission hired by United Mining, which is our main purpose."

“……”

Li Wei: "So that's why we also want to get a business trip subsidy from United Mining?" No matter where it is, it is still the most profitable mining. ”

Deng Lei: "Dear aerospace hero honorary miner, let us work together for the development of great lunar resources." ”

……

August 3rd.

"May Allah bless you."

"Good luck to you."

"Brother Li, come on!"

“……”

Alkarli and the other four astronauts stood outside the Storm node hatch and waved goodbye to the four as they prepared to enter the lander.

Reyana was much more comfortable moving in the Pioneer I spacesuit than he was in training, and he carefully touched the green flag on his chest to check that it didn't loosen before getting inside.

He knew that behind the camera now were believers from the whole world, and that going to the moon was a remarkable feat, regardless of the doctrine.

All three astronauts entered the ascender and closed the hatch, completing the final inspection and securing themselves and supplies in an hour.

After the holding mechanism of the lander inside the cargo compartment was loosened, and the astronauts on the Wutu space station confirmed it with the porthole, Deng Lei carefully disconnected the connection with the node module.

Immediately after that, the RCS on the side of the lander quickly spewed nitrogen gas, gently pushing itself diagonally out of the cargo hold, without loading anything.

After another half an hour to adjust the direction, the lander started the engine and began to slow down and lower the track.

In order to show the outside world the importance of the mission of Tianmu 2, Lin Ju, Academician She, and Prince Switan all made high-profile appearances in the ground command center, and applauded cooperatively when the lander successfully detached.

Academician She pulled the sleeve of the Lin torch and whispered:

"I heard that the prince and they withdrew tens of millions of cash this time, and I don't know where they hid it, and they didn't check it out when they came in."

"Is it possible that they aren't going to throw money here?"

"How come, look at these young people, they are all waiting to drop money from the sack, Li Gong ran to support Mukara and got a million dollars, more than seven million."

“……”

Lin Ju looked back at the staff in the hall with vaguely expectant expressions, thought for a while and said:

"Then we won't have fireworks during this year's Spring Festival, or will we change it to money? When the time comes, everyone will come out and pick up money all over the place? ”

"Tut-tut......" Academician She pointed to Lin Ju, and finally gave a sentence:

"You have to be accused of deliberately destroying the renminbi, and the amount is very huge, and you will ...... when you come out You haven't. ”

Lin Ju: "......"

"Wait, how are you ......"

"Don't say it, don't say it."

Kavining

(End of chapter)