The rise of nanometers

Southeast of Guanghan Palace City, about 500 kilometers deep in the Imbrium Basin, a lunar spacecraft that was just launched this year, the Yutu-class spacecraft, is parked here.

The Yutu-class spacecraft is different from conventional launch vehicle spacecraft. It is a spacecraft jointly manufactured by the Moon and Blue Star.

This type of spacecraft is not used for navigation between the moon and the Blue Star, but is specially used for various places on the lunar surface, as well as the orbital area within 3,000 kilometers of the lunar surface and the moon.

This kind of spacecraft has a very strange appearance. It looks like a rectangular iron box with six engines hanging outside.

These suspended engines can rotate at multiple angles and change the flight direction and speed by adjusting the direction of the nozzle.

The rectangular main body is to facilitate parking directly on the lunar surface, especially on the plains of the lunar sea. This shape is very convenient for parking the spacecraft.

On the moon, where gravity is relatively weak and there is no obvious atmosphere, the shape of the Yutu-class spacecraft does not need to specifically consider aerodynamics, and can be made as convenient as possible.

The main hull of the Yutu class is a rectangle with a length of 26 meters, a width of 8.6 meters, and a height of 8.2 meters. The volume of the main hull is 1833 cubic meters, the internal movable volume is about 240 cubic meters, and the load capacity is 360 tons. Left and right, using a hydrogen-oxygen engine.

The reason why the Yutu-class spacecraft used locally on the moon uses a hydrogen-oxygen engine is mainly because the moon can produce liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen locally, and fuel supply is very convenient.

Although there is not a lot of water resources on the surface of the moon, there is deep groundwater and polar ice and soil. Conservative estimates suggest that the ice and soil in the polar regions of the moon contain 2 to 5 billion tons of water resources.

From the groundwater extraction in Guanghan Palace City, the space agency knows that the moon's water resources are not scarce as imagined.

In addition, the space agency has also launched another plan, which is a suspended water resource extraction plan in the lunar low-Earth orbit area.

Although the moon's gravity is relatively weak, the moon's low-Earth orbit still contains relatively abundant water molecules and hydrogen atoms, and these resources can also be utilized.

Especially with the intensive use of hydrogen-oxygen engines, a large number of water molecules will be released into the lunar low-Earth orbit. Re-extracting these water molecules can not only increase the recycling of water resources, but also reduce the over-exploitation of lunar groundwater. .

There are currently three Yutu-class spacecraft in service, one of which is used to build Mendeleev City on the back of the moon, and one is stationed in Guanghan Palace City as an emergency spacecraft.

The last one is here.

Judging from the mountains of building materials and panels and the 26 industrial cabins built here, it is obvious that it is an industrial-based production base.

This base is called "Hematite Base". The name comes from the semi-open-air hematite vein nearby. Of course, this base is not for refining steel, but for refining helium 3.

The base is set up here, on the one hand, because the area with a radius of about 136 kilometers is an area with moderate lunar soil thickness and rich helium 3 content.

On the other hand, it is because there is a meteorite impact crater about 31 kilometers south of the Hematite base. The radius of the impact crater is not large, only about 2.7 kilometers.

But there are several underground thermal wells on the edge of this impact crater, which are very suitable for building geothermal power stations.

Helium 3 refining plants must rely on huge amounts of electricity. The currently deployed solar panels and molten salt energy storage power generation pits can only barely maintain part of the initial electricity supply.

Lin Guangzong came here personally to check the construction progress of this base. The person in charge of this base is named Zhang Changle. He said through the communication system:

"Director Lin Ji, the factory's equipment is just short of a batch of core spare parts."

"Don't worry, the local side is already making preparations. It is expected to be delivered by the end of May. When do you estimate it will be put into operation?"

After thinking for a while, Zhang Changle replied: "The fastest is the end of September this year, but it depends on the power station. If the power station cannot keep up, it will be useless after the factory is built."

"I will arrange for people to follow up on the progress of the Hetie Power Station." Lin Guangzong knows the importance of electric energy. If there is no electricity, the factory will not be able to operate.

On the construction site in front of them, a large number of engineering robots, under the operation of several astronauts, were quickly building industrial cabins one after another as if they were joining together building blocks.

These industrial cabins have various functions, such as power distribution cabins, data cabins, micro-supercomputer cabins, equipment maintenance cabins, and helium 3 refining cabins.

Lin Guangzong attaches great importance to this base because helium 3 resources are very important.

Neither the Suiren Group nor the China National Nuclear Corporation currently has a solution to the problem of miniaturization of nuclear fusion power generation units.

However, the miniaturization technology routes of Suiren and CNNC are different.

The idea on the Central Core side is to further optimize the design of the Golden Crow; while on the Suiren side, they plan to optimize the design while considering other options.

One of the most likely solutions is to use helium 3 as nuclear fusion fuel to reduce the amount of neutrons produced in nuclear fusion reactions.

As long as the amount of neutrons produced in the nuclear fusion reaction is reduced, the density and thickness of the positron current layer can be further reduced.

This is not only conducive to reducing energy consumption, but also conducive to reducing the material requirements in the reaction area. If according to the results of supercomputer simulation calculations, using helium 3 as nuclear fuel can at least make the overall weight of a nuclear fusion generator set with a generating power of 500 megawatts Compressed to less than 5,000 tons.

As long as the nuclear fusion power generation unit does not weigh tens of thousands of tons or four to five thousand tons, the space agency can still accept it.

This kind of weight can barely be installed on a large spacecraft.

With nuclear fusion power supply, spacecraft can use ion engines to achieve fast and convenient navigation within the solar system.

Suiren is now designing a new generation of Tanggu nuclear fusion power generation units at Blue Star's scientific research base.

As for Guanghan Palace City, a batch of helium 3 was refined on a small scale using the equipment of the experimental cabin, and the quantity was about 32 grams.

This bit of helium 3 was sent back to Blue Star two months ago.

A group of researchers from the nuclear fusion laboratory conducted several experiments, and the preliminary experimental data obtained were in line with the original expectations.

But there was too little helium 3, and more than a dozen small experiments were done on just 32 grams.

Many researchers are worried that unexpected problems may arise during long-term operation, requiring more helium 3 and several long-term nuclear fusion operation experiments.

Therefore, the Hematite base has a vital impact on Greater China's future aerospace development route.

If helium 3 can be used as a nuclear fuel to promote the miniaturization of nuclear fusion power generation units, then the Hematite base will be used as a model for large-scale construction in the lunar sea.

According to the first phase plan of the Hematite base, the annual production capacity of the entire factory is 60 to 70 kilograms of helium 3.

After the completion of the third phase, a factory with an annual output of about 200 kilograms of helium 3 will be formed.

200 kilograms of helium-3 may seem like a lot, but considering the development in the future, if the Federation of Greater China wants to develop Mars or the like, this production capacity will be far from enough.

Moreover, the helium-3 resources on the lunar surface are also very precious. Before the technology of artificially producing helium-3 is mature, helium-3 will be a strategic resource.

This is why the Suiren Department says that the miniaturized nuclear fusion power generation unit powered by helium 3 is a solution that treats the symptoms rather than the root cause.

Because helium 3 is a rare resource.

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