While the two lunar landing personnel were busy preparing various supplies and equipment from the lunar module, not far away, a silver-white lunar rover slowly drove towards this side.
Soon, the lunar rover arrived in front of us, and an astronaut wearing a blue and white extravehicular activity suit stepped out of the vehicle and jumped towards this side.
At the same time, the man's voice also came from the communication channels of Jiang Xinlin and Xi Hongwen's headsets.
"Welcome, welcome both of you to the moon, I am Bu Qi from the lunar outpost scientific research station."
Bu Qi's smiling voice came from inside the spacesuit. The three of them met and shook each other's hands.
After exchanging pleasantries, Bu Qi smiled and said, "Let's go to the base of the scientific research station first. We'll have plenty of time to chat later."
Jiang Xinlin and Xi Hongwen nodded at the same time, and the three of them sent all the materials carried by the lunar module into the two lunar lander, and then boarded the vehicle.
On the lunar surface, moon dust was rolling, and the two lunar lander vehicles were heading towards the base of the lunar outpost scientific research station not far away.
Soon, an outpost consisting of residential cabins, life support units and scientific research platforms came into view.
On the lunar rover, Xi Hongwen looked at the scientific research base in front of him with curiosity and interest in his eyes.
In the vast Aitken Basin, on a flat land with almost no end in sight, silver-white buildings that resembled "yurts" first caught his eye.
If placed on the earth, these buildings in front of us would be nothing.
Each silver-white yurt building is not large, with a diameter of about twenty meters by visual inspection.
These buildings are composed of a cylinder and a semicircle as a whole, with the lower half being a cylinder and the upper half being a semicircle.
Of course, this only looks like it in general, in fact the details are quite different.
For example, the semicircle in the upper part is actually more like a "radio astronomy telescope", such as the "500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope" in Guizhou, which is composed of panel units, back frames, adjustment devices, connecting mechanisms, etc.
But this one is turned upside down, like a pot lid.
In addition to these, at the same time, he also saw two other lunar rovers driving slowly, and the direction of the other side seemed to be different from theirs.
Their goal seems to be those yurts not far away.
As for whether he is the same as them, Xi Hongwen, the scientific researcher who landed on the moon this time, is not sure.
"Is this a lunar scientific research outpost?"
Looking at the building in front of him, Xi Hongwen's eyes flashed with excitement.
On the lunar rover in front, Bu Qi, who was leading the team, also set his sights on the building not far away.
With pride in his eyes and a smile on his face, he explained: "Yes, but only part of it."
"Part of it?" Xi Hongwen asked curiously.
Bu Qi said with a smile: "Of course, we have built a lunar scientific research outpost for a whole year, how could it be just this small?"
"These facilities, which look like yurts, are more formally called 'lunar biological cultivation bases'."
"The group of lunar rovers you just saw passing by are the people specifically responsible for this part."
"The 'Lunar Biological Cultivation Base' is divided into a plant area and an animal area, where various lunar biological experiments can be conducted."
"In addition, and more importantly, it is one of the food sources of the lunar outpost scientific research station. We have picked some of the fruits and vegetables grown there for many rounds."
Hearing this, Xi Hongwen couldn't help but spit, and said in shock: "No, have you all started growing vegetables on the moon?"
Bu Qi laughed and said: "Otherwise, what do you think we are doing after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on moon landing activities in the past year?"
"Simply dig some lunar soil and go back to do research?"
After a pause, he continued to explain: "Of course, we mainly provide some fruits and vegetables through mature soilless cultivation technology."
"Protein and fat foods such as fish and meat still have to be transported from the earth by space shuttles."
"But it can solve about 20 to 25 percent of the vegetable, fruit and fiber food supply in our daily lives."
"Although it's not a lot, it's still very valuable. After all, these are fresh vegetables and fruits."
Looking at the 'Lunar Creature Cultivation Base' not far away, Bu Qi's eyes were full of pride.
About 20% to 25% of fresh vegetables and fruits are provided. Although it is not much, it is indeed quite precious food for them carrying out activities on the moon.
After all, if it is transported from the earth, even with the efficiency of the Xinghai space shuttle, it will take at least three days.
No matter how advanced the cold storage technology is, it is still not as fresh as freshly picked food.
Of course, whether it is fresh or not is secondary, the most important thing is the development of moon cultivation technology and the reduction of costs.
After all, when expanding to extraterrestrial planets, they cannot rely on the earth's replenishment of all resources, especially in terms of food. The more they develop, the greater the population will be, and the consumption of food and drink will also increase.
Then it is very important to achieve food self-sufficiency in the development of alien planets.
Looking at the large and small yurts, Xi Hongwen's eyes were full of shock.
He really didn't expect that the motherland's aerospace capabilities had developed to this point.
Grow vegetables on the moon!
This was simply something he had never thought of before.
Of course, he had never thought that he would be able to conduct research on the moon in his lifetime.
After recovering from the shock, Xi Hongwen couldn't help but ask: "What about technology? Although soilless cultivation is a mature technology, it is on the moon."
"Not to mention other things, how do you deal with things like temperature, humidity, oxygen, and water resources?"
While he was shocked by this 'lunar biological cultivation base', the desire to explore from a scholar also quickly filled his mind.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! You must know that growing vegetables on the moon requires more than one problem to be solved.
Not to mention anything else, the first thing is temperature.
You should know that the temperature difference between day and night on the moon is huge, and the temperature in areas exposed to sunlight during the day can reach over 120 degrees Celsius.
The lowest temperature at night can reach minus 180 degrees.
Under such a large temperature difference, it is quite difficult to stably maintain the temperature inside the lunar outpost scientific research station.
In addition, there are various issues such as oxygen, water resources, etc., which are also very troublesome issues.
But now that they have built this base, it naturally means that these problems have been solved.
At least it has been solved temporarily and can maintain the normal operation of their base.
And he couldn't wait to understand what was in front of him, even if he was a physicist.
Bu Qi thought for a while and replied: "I don't know much about technical things. If you are interested, you can go over and have a look later and ask the technicians over there to find out more."
"But I still know some simple things. The main bodies of these buildings are basically constructed of high-strength and low-weight aluminum alloys, and the outer edges are filled with insulation materials to maintain temperature."
"The top layer is a high-efficiency graphene solar power generation panel, which can convert the absorbed sunlight into electrical energy and provide part of the energy inside the cultivation base."
"As for air and water resources, some of them are transported from the earth and then reused through the air circulation system and water circulation system, so we still have to use these things as sparingly as possible."
"The other part comes from our feet."
"Underfoot?"
Xi Hongwen was stunned for a moment, unable to react.
Bu Qi smiled and said: "Yes, when we were exploring the base we built, we found several caves. Guess what we found in these caves?"
"What?"
Xi Hongwen asked smoothly, but he quickly reacted and looked at Bu Qi in surprise.
Bu Qi showed a smile on his face and replied: "Moon Ice!"
"Although the amount of lunar ice we have discovered so far is not very large, it has confirmed that water resources do exist on the moon, and it may not be just a little bit. There may be a certain amount of water resources in the caves under the lunar surface."
"We are already searching for it through satellites and detectors, but don't talk about it for now."
"You know the reason..."
Hearing this, Xi Hongwen nodded and quickly replied: "Of course, I signed a confidentiality agreement before coming here. I will definitely not say anything nonsense."
........
While chatting, the two lunar rovers dragged supplies and soon arrived at the core area of the lunar outpost scientific research station.
Sitting in the car, Xi Hongwen looked up and finally saw some traces of this mysterious lunar outpost scientific research station.
That's right, only some, not all.
Because most of the main core buildings of this lunar outpost scientific research station are not on the surface, but underground.
This is a scientific research base built on a medium-to-large cave in the Aitken Basin.
"Semi-underground scientific research base?"
Looking at the building in front of him, Xi Hongwen asked curiously.
The base in front of us doesn't look very big. The structure on the ground is a semi-elliptical building, with a diameter of only about fifty meters according to visual inspection.
Of course, he judged that this was not very big after comparing it in his mind. After all, the biological cultivation units not far away were about twenty meters in diameter.
The core base in front of us, with a diameter of about fifty meters, obviously does not meet the scale of this outpost scientific research station.
And before coming here, he also knew that there are currently about fifty staff members in this lunar outpost base.
Obviously, if there is only this oval building on the surface, it cannot meet the daily life and scientific research needs of so many people.
Bu Qi nodded and said, "Yes, a semi-underground base."
After a slight pause, he continued: "Do you still remember the crack in the ground that happened to get stuck in the lunar module of the American Artemis last year?"
"Remember, what happened?" Xi Hongwen asked curiously.
Last year's manned moon landing project can be said to have caused a sensation all over the world, and he naturally knew that.
Bu Qi smiled and said: "After detection, we found that walking along the crack in the ground for a distance to the east, there is a large cave."
"After the inspection, we found that this cave met the requirements for a construction base in all aspects. So we reported it. In the end, after discussions between the Xinghai Research Institute and the Space Administration, we immediately decided to use this cave as the basis for construction.
We built a semi-underground lunar base.”
Hearing this answer, Xi Hongwen couldn't help but laugh.
"So, this is a 'blessing in disguise' for us?"
Bu Qi smiled and said: "That's right."
A blessing in disguise, this adjective is quite interesting. It is just a disaster for the United States and a blessing for them.
The construction of a lunar base is something that countries with aerospace capabilities and the ability to carry out moon landings will consider.
Based on current technology, there are two main categories of solutions.
Lunar surface bases and lunar underground bases.
The former can be divided into three types: steel structure lunar base, flexible structure lunar base, and mobile lunar base.
At the beginning, the Xinghai Research Institute and the space agency considered a steel structure base on the lunar surface.
Because the moon has no atmosphere and is exposed to the universe in a complete vacuum, it not only has to receive all kinds of rays from the universe, but there is also a temperature difference of more than 200 degrees between day and night.
In addition, there are various issues such as meteorite impacts, solar wind, cosmic rays, particle radiation, etc.
The biggest advantage of the steel structure is its long service life and easy later maintenance. It can be built using special metal materials or composite materials, or it can also be built with lunar concrete using local materials.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Relatively speaking, it is more suitable for long-term residence and can better protect astronauts and scientific researchers.
However, the steel structure requires the use of a large amount of metal materials, composite materials, lunar concrete and other materials to build. The construction is difficult and the investment is high. The pressure on space transportation resources is also huge.
However, with the discovery of the cave in the Aitken Basin, the steel structure base on the lunar surface was quickly rejected, and then consideration was given to an underground lunar base.
Quite simply, the lunar cave underground base has more advantages.
First of all, lunar caves can provide natural shelter and protection, protecting the lunar base from external environmental factors such as cosmic rays, meteor crater impacts, and extreme temperatures.
Such protective structures help reduce risks in base construction and operations.
Secondly, compared with the lunar surface, the temperature and pressure in the cave change less. This stability can reduce the impact on the base system and equipment, improve the reliability of the base and the stability of the living environment.
In addition, relying on caves to build bases can also save a lot of steel materials and building materials, greatly reducing costs and related aerospace pressure.
Therefore, after careful exploration and discussion, we finally decided on this semi-underground lunar outpost scientific research station.
If we say that the space shuttle represented by Xinghai is the crystallization of human wisdom in aerospace technology.
So the lunar outpost scientific research station base in front of us is undoubtedly the crown jewel of the highest technology in the history of human architecture.
In front of it, whether it is the Burj Khalifa, the Tokyo Skytree, or other towering buildings, everyone must kneel down in front of it.
Because this is the first large-scale alien base in human history!
Not only is it difficult to build, but also because it means that it is the bridgehead for mankind to stride into deep space.
Of course, it also has a nice name.
【Yuehuatai!】
Originally, Xu Chuan planned to name it Guanghan Palace, but this overlapped with the name of the landing site of Chang'e 3, so it was changed to Yuehua Terrace!
It means that this lunar base will become a platform for human exploration of the new world under the illumination of the moonlight.