MTL - The Rise of Space Technology-Chapter 255 , the lunar gold mine

   Chapter 255, The Moon Gold Mine

  The desolate and dead lunar surface is full of potholes and rocks of various sizes. A lunar rover is walking slowly, and while walking, it is using probes to detect underground resources.

  The lunar rover carries a variety of high-tech detection equipment. Just by walking from the ground, you can roughly know the mineral resources contained in the ground.

   "DiDi~DiDi~"

The detection equipment on the lunar project is constantly running and working. All data and information are transmitted to the control and command center on the earth side. At the same time, Cao Fei, who is driving the lunar rover, is also chatting with other teammates. It is desolate here. On the surface of the moon, if you don't chat, everything is silent, and the whole person will feel panic.

"Tsk tsk, the resources on the moon are really too rich. I found a giant ilmenite ore here. The preliminary detected reserves are as high as 5 billion tons, which is comparable to the giant iron ore of our Tianfu PZH. This is just the initial stage. The detection results, and according to the detection data, the iron ore is still open-pit, and the iron content is very high."

  The voice of teammates came from the communication headset.

   "Titanium and iron are the most widely distributed on the moon. There are 22 main lunar seas on the lunar surface, 19 of which are distributed on the front side of the moon (the side facing the earth)."

"There are a lot of lunar sea basalts in these lunar seas. The lunar sea basalt is rich in iron and titanium. The volume of basalt filled in the 22-month sea is about 1010 cubic kilometers, and the lunar sea basalt is rich in titanium, iron, etc. resource."

   "The area chosen by our lunar base itself has been explored by scientists using resource exploration satellites in advance. The surrounding area contains rich mineral resources. The discovery of an iron ore is nothing at all."

   At this time, some teammates immediately followed. Obviously, he had already learned the relevant information beforehand, and he was very clear about it. Ilmenite is just the most common thing on the moon, so it is not unusual at all.

   "Haha, a major discovery, I have discovered the Kerklip Rock here."

   At this moment, an excited voice came from his ear.

   The Kripp rock he mentioned is the name of a rock that is widely distributed on the moon and is one of the three major rock types in the lunar highlands. It is named for its richness in potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus.

  The thorium- and uranium-rich Krippite is covered by the late lunar basalt, and the Krippite mixes and forms high thorium and uranium material, and its thickness is estimated to be 10km to 20km.

The total resources of rare earth elements in the Kripp rock in the storm ocean area are about 22.5 billion tons to 45 billion tons. The rich thorium and uranium contained in the Kripp rock are also one of the important mineral resources for human development and utilization of lunar resources in the future. .

"How quickly did you discover rare earths, but this is nothing, rare earths are still very widely distributed on the moon, and the Ocean of Storms area is one of the areas with the largest amount of Kripp rocks, so finding rare earths is nothing. ."

   "Let's see who can discover rarer resources first."

   At this time, the voice of teammates sounded again, and everyone was very happy to play a treasure hunt game with each other.

   "Helium 3 is everywhere, and the distribution of helium 3 in the soil of this moon is too rich."

  Cao Bin looked at the data that kept appearing in the computer, what resources were probably in the places where the lunar engineering rover passed, and the detectors on the engineering rover would be automatically displayed on the computer.

  Helium-3, the lunar soil is rich in helium-3, while there is almost no helium-3 on the earth, and the content of helium-3 in the lunar soil is estimated to exceed 10 million tons.

  Helium fusion using deuterium and helium-3 can be used as an energy source for nuclear power plants. This fusion does not produce neutrons, is safe and pollution-free, and is an easy-to-control nuclear fusion. It can not only be used in ground nuclear power plants, but also especially suitable for space navigation.

Due to the large amount of helium-3 reserves on the moon, for the earth in the future, which is relatively short of energy, it will undoubtedly be a help in the snow. However, in terms of the current technological level of the earth, the controllable nuclear fusion technology has not yet been mastered. For the time being, the moon contains the most Abundant sources of helium-3 are of no use at all.

However, the resource of helium 3 is still very important. In the future, once mankind masters the controllable nuclear fusion technology, a large amount of helium 3 will be needed, but this resource is not available on the earth, and the moon is rich in helium 3. Resources will naturally become the focus of competition among the world's major powers.

Of course, that will be in the future, but now, only Xinghai Technology has established a lunar base on the entire moon. It can be said that it is advanced. The moon is so big, if you want to occupy that piece, you will occupy that piece. Where there are abundant resources, there is no one competing with them anyway.

   "Haha, I found a large copper mine here with reserves of hundreds of millions of tons."

   Another voice sounded in my ear. The resources on the moon are too rich. Many times there are not only one or two resources in a place, but many resources are densely and concentratedly distributed together.

  The resources on the moon are too rich, and the storm ocean area selected by the scientists has been explored by resource exploration satellites in advance, and it is definitely a very fertile area.

Looking at the data in the computer, Cao Bin can detect a lot of good minerals everywhere, iron ore, copper ore, titanium ore, rare earth ore... If these minerals are placed on the earth, it is estimated that they have been robbed long ago. Clean it up.

   But now, all the resources here are unowned resources. As long as you have the ability to dig and mine on the moon casually, no one will argue with you, because there are so many resources on the moon.

  Cao Bin drove the lunar rover on the desolate and dead moon. From time to time, he saw large rocks. He also controlled the drilling machine on the lunar rover to drill the rocks to see if there were any special treasures inside.

   Just like a curious little baby broke into a sea of ​​treasures, there are treasures everywhere.

   "There seems to be no gold on the moon?"

   "Yeah, so far I haven't found gold, nor silver."

   "I didn't find gold here either."

   "There should be very little gold on the moon, and if there is, it should be buried deep in the ground."

   "If you can find a gold mine, you'll be really rich."

   "By the way, are you hungry?"

   "I'm a little hungry, I really want to eat hot pot."

"Hot pot. Forget it, you can only eat it when you return to Earth, but the Houyi ship seems to be carrying a lot of fresh ingredients. I just contacted the Houyi command center. Now We're already preparing lunch for everyone."

   "That's not right, count the time, it should be time for dinner now."

   "Looks like it's dinner."

   "Everyone is exploring for half an hour. After half an hour, we all go back to eat, and then take a good rest. It seems that the Moon Palace Base is ready to be put into use. You can sleep in the Moon Palace Base at night."

   "I think I might not be able to sleep because it's no different here than during the day."

  The chat voice of teammates came out of the headset.

   "DiDi~DiDi~"

   At this moment, the detector made bursts of noise, Cao Bin quickly looked over, and his eyes suddenly widened slightly.

  Because according to the results detected by the detector, the ground beneath my feet seems to contain gold.

   "Brothers, I seem to have found gold!"

  Cao Bin couldn't help shouting excitedly.

   "Gold?"

   "Real or fake?"

   "I just mentioned gold. There really are gold mines on the moon. How big are the reserves?"

When the    teammates heard it, they couldn't help but get excited.

   Since ancient times, the most fascinating color is gold, and the most irresistible is gold. Hundreds of years ago, Europeans colonized the Americas for gold and silver.

  Gold is the most motivating thing.

   "It's really a gold mine. You can't go wrong. It looks like it's buried about ten meters underground. It's no wonder that resource exploration satellites in space can't explore it."

   "The reserves seem to be very, very large~"

  Cao Bin looked at the real numbers on the display, and started to explore the surroundings carefully while driving the exploration vehicle. At the same time, he said excitedly.

   "Big, big?"

   "How big is it?"

   "That's right, hurry up and say it, you're an appetizer, you're in a hurry."

When the    teammates heard it, they all hurriedly asked.

   "According to the figures shown above, there may be more than 100,000 tons of gold here!"

  Cao Bin looked at the numbers on the display, and he was dumbfounded. With such a huge gold reserve, is this still gold?

   "One hundred thousand tons of gold?"

"Did you make a mistake, is this gold or iron ore, 100,000 tons of gold, you must know that the proven reserves of the Grasberg Gold Mine, the largest gold mine on earth, are only less than 200 tons, you This 100,000-ton gold mine."

   "Do you know how much gold is produced on earth in one year? The annual gold production of the entire earth is only more than 3,000 tons. Are you sure it is a gold mine?"

   "Yeah, now a gram of gold costs about 400 yuan, and a meal of gold is worth about 400 million yuan. Your 100,000-ton gold mine, doesn't it mean that you have discovered a huge wealth worth 40 trillion yuan?"

   The teammates didn't believe it at all. This 100,000-ton gold mine was simply unbelievable.

   "Maybe more than 100,000 tons, maybe more than 300,000 tons!"

   Cao Bin watched as he drove the detector to and fro continuously, and the numbers displayed on it jumped again. He couldn't help but say it again.

   At the same time, because the probe's data was sent back to Houyi and the Earth Command and Control Center synchronously, the Earth Command Center also quickly discovered this amazing news.

   A super large gold mine was discovered on the moon, containing a super large gold mine of more than 300,000 tons!

  PS: In the interstellar era, what resources do you think are the most precious?

   (end of this chapter)