Let’s talk about the research station project and when it is expected to be completed. Wu Hao changed the subject and asked Zhou Xiangming.
Upon hearing Wu Hao's inquiry, Zhou Xiangming immediately responded: "It is estimated that it will take two years to complete the first phase of the research station project, and at least three more lunar cargo spacecraft will need to be launched.
However, our theme building will be completed probably next summer, and then it will be transferred to the construction of the interior and supporting facilities of the research station. This process is relatively slow, just like decoration, it may only take three days to build a one-story house.
And it takes several months to renovate a one-story house.
The same goes for the research station. What our lunar soil 3D printer prints is just a shell, which is definitely not habitable and must be constantly improved."
Do we still need three cargo spacecrafts? Zhang Jun couldn't help but ask after hearing this. Two have been launched now, and three more will be five lunar cargo spacecrafts. This scale of transportation is probably larger than other inspections that do not use lunar resources for construction.
There are more stations.
You know, their lunar cargo spacecraft can send about ten tons of materials to the moon at a time. These five spacecrafts can carry fifty tons of materials. This cargo carrying capacity is very amazing.
Seeing Zhang Jun's reaction, everyone laughed, while Zhou Xiangming smiled bitterly at Wu Hao and said: "This is already a very conservative estimate, considering the cost of the first phase of our lunar scientific research station.
It covers an area of more than 1,000 square meters, and its construction area is more than 500 square meters. This scale can be said to be unprecedented.
It is far from being comparable to those companies and space agencies that ship a few landers and call themselves research stations."
Everyone laughed when they heard Zhou Xiangming's words. They knew the lunar research stations that this guy meant. To put it simply, they are those who are not very strong in aerospace, but pretend to be fat.
Enterprises that have the strength of their own country or company.
Unable to come up with a real lunar scientific research station, they randomly launched a few extraterrestrial ships, used the extraterrestrial landers to build a small scientific research station, and then called it their lunar scientific research station.
Seeing everyone smile, Zhou Xiangming continued: "These five spaceships are only used for the construction of the scientific research station. If we want to accommodate the personnel, we will need at least two or three spaceships to transport materials to the research station.
For example, food, water, air, and a series of other consumables are all necessities for people's lives. Without them, people may not be able to survive even a day."
"Can't water and air be obtained on the moon?" Zhang Jun asked doubtfully.
Everyone laughed at this. Yu Chengwu chatted with him and explained: "That's right, we can indeed obtain water on the moon, and we have now used the heat generated by the operation of two lunar soil 3D printers.
A lot of water is collected through evaporation and condensation.
But these are far from enough. Living and working on the moon require a lot of water resources. The water resources we obtained on the moon in the early stage are definitely not enough, so we must replenish some from the earth.
In the later period, with our development, the amount of water resources obtained on the moon increased. After meeting the needs of our research station, there was no need to transport water up from the earth.
In addition, this water is not only used for daily drinking, but also used for daily life, production and even scientific research. For example, if we want to build an ecological farm, whether it is soil cultivation or soilless hydroponics, it is inseparable from water.
As for air, although what we really need to breathe is oxygen in the air, too much oxygen is harmful to the human body. Therefore, the oxygen content must be guaranteed to be within a certain range, but we cannot only inhale oxygen, we also need nitrogen.
Dilutes oxygen and participates in the expansion and contraction of our lungs.
On the moon, oxygen can be obtained by electrolyzing water, but nitrogen is not easy to obtain, so it still has to be transported from the earth.
Fortunately, we humans do not consume nitrogen, so the nitrogen will basically not be consumed, and will only consume the oxygen in the air.
Therefore, we need to transport air up from the earth, and then slowly replenish the oxygen in the entire scientific research station to ensure the air quality in the scientific research station.
Producing oxygen on the moon requires a large amount of water, and currently our water resources are relatively limited, so we can only transport and replenish it from the earth first.
When water resources are plentiful and electrolytic oxygen is sufficient in the future, there will be no need to replenish it."
"It feels so complicated, it sounds a bit overwhelming." Zhang Jun said, rubbing the headache caused by the solar system.
Hehehe, Wu Hao and the others couldn't help but laugh softly when they heard Zhang Jun's complaint.
This is a very complex super project, otherwise you think anyone would dare to get involved? Wu Hao joked with a smile, and then said to Zhou Xiangming: "Although the cost of our lunar cargo spacecraft is relatively cheap,
But seven lunar cargo spacecrafts, plus the launch costs, are not a small number.
So on the one hand, we must cherish resources, make sure they are put to their best use, and avoid extravagance and waste. On the other hand, we must also speed up the development of Moon Express."
Speaking of this, Wu Hao looked at Yu Chengwu and asked: "How is this project going?"
Seeing his immediate boss asking about this, Yu Chengwu immediately sat up straight and reported to Wu Haohui: "The project is progressing relatively smoothly at present. The preliminary plan and technical demonstration have been passed, and the development of the spacecraft has been transferred.
At present, the development work of Moon Express is progressing relatively quickly, and the overall structure has been basically completed."
As he spoke, Zhou Xiangming slid the transparent folding tablet in his hand, and several photos of the Lunar Express being developed appeared on the large screen, in which the outline of the entire Lunar Express Earth-Moon transfer spacecraft could be basically seen.
The entire Moon Express Earth-lunar transfer spacecraft is divided into three parts, namely the resource power module at the tail, the crew module in the middle, and the node module at the top.
From this structure, it is actually a bit similar to the basic structure of our space station, and can be regarded as a small space station.
However, there are also big differences in some parts.
For example, on the space station, these three are actually connected together. They have a common name, which is the core module. On the Moon Express Earth-lunar transfer spacecraft, it is divided into three independent parts.
From this point of view, its structure is more like a manned spacecraft, because a traditional manned spacecraft also has three parts, namely the resource power module, the manned return module, and the orbital module. And one of the functions of the orbital module is actually