Vol 3 Chapter 202 metallurgy on the moon

The fine lunar soil powder continued to be conveyed in the equipment, and soon entered the heating stage.

Through the translucent heating chamber, you can see that the temperature inside is slowly rising. With the infrared observation method, you can clearly see that there is no place lower than 100 degrees in the lunar soil.

The pressure of the heating chamber has always been kept at a standard atmospheric pressure. During this process, the gas escaping from the lunar soil, whether it is hydrogen, helium, or nitrogen, is directly sent out, and is compressed by a pressurized pressure tank. Receive it, wait until the gas pressure inside exceeds 20 MPa, it will be sealed, separated, and then replaced with the next pressure tank.

During the gas delivery process, there is a cooling procedure, and the temperature of the mixed gas will be reduced to about zero degrees.

At this temperature, the moisture turned into water vapor will condense again into relatively pure water, which will be separated and filled in an insulated box.

These waters are also distilled water, but they cannot be used directly.

Because on the undefended planet of the moon, countless charged particles directly bombard the unobstructed land, and even many of them will pass through the deep lunar soil.

Although high-energy particles and cosmic rays will not change the molecular structure of water, they can change the hydrogen atoms in water from protium to deuterium, that is, from ordinary water to heavy water.

The heavy water in the natural water on the blue star is only about 0.02%, but on this moon, the water extracted from the ice crystal mixture may be tens or even hundreds of times higher.

Although water is the source of life, heavy water is not.

Humans and animals drink heavy water, which can even cause death in severe cases.

In heavy water, seeds cannot germinate, plants cannot grow, and fish and microorganisms will die within a few hours in heavy water. On the contrary, light water greatly promotes the cell division and growth of organisms.

Therefore, in order to make good use of the water resources on the moon, heavy water and light water still have to be separated.

The other is the oxygen in water. Although oxygen also has three relatively stable isotopes, it has little effect on the properties of water.

The efficiency of the distiller is very high. In a short while, it has been filled with more than a dozen pressure tanks weighing about 50 kilograms, and water containers of similar weight. They are loaded on a wheeled truck, and by the way He picked up a piece of distilled compressed product and rushed towards the base.

In a vacuum environment, the wheel of a wheeled truck will not be an organic substance such as rubber that is easily damaged, but a metal titanium alloy honeycomb structure, which is light in weight and has a good shock absorption effect. After adding a layer of coating on the surface , the wear resistance has also increased a lot, at least it is stronger than the ordinary tires on Blue Star.

This kind of tire, apart from being a bit more expensive, has no problems, especially suitable for the environment of the moon.

Tracked vehicles have better passing performance, but the speed is indeed a bit slow. This kind of wheeled vehicles, even if the load capacity is slightly lower, but has strong shock absorption ability, it is most suitable for transporting this kind of pressure tank.

Yang Qing looked at the robot below, working in silence, and came out of the still. The distilled impurities were compressed into a one-meter-square block, steaming, and piled up on the side of the yard.

These things are not waste, but raw materials for further processing.

The place where Yang Qing and the others chose to land had no obvious mineral deposits, or minerals that could be seen at a glance.

After all, even if you add the several landings in the United States, the number of times humans have landed on the moon is less than ten times. The long distance of 380,000 kilometers, the lunar satellites are multi-purpose, and it is impossible to specialize in the exploration of the moon’s mineral deposits. .

Moreover, the content of various minerals in the lunar soil is enough for human beings to develop for decades. If there is no freak like Yang Qing, I am afraid that it will take at least 20 years for mankind to build the first lunar base.

Soon, the square object next to it was piled up into a hill, and the curling heat rose from above, which should be the remaining water vapor inside, which was evaporating.

Under the normal pressure environment, after all, the water in the lunar soil cannot be completely squeezed out. Once it enters the vacuum, the water will automatically fly out of the uncooled surface of the cube.

Pressing the switch, Yang Qing’s task is over, and the equipment is almost completely automated, without the participation of outsiders at all.

The vulnerable part of the equipment is the part that crushes the lunar soil.

In the lunar soil, the iron content is very high, and even because of the environment of the moon, there is still a lot of elemental iron, which are difficult to crush.

Fortunately, these elemental metals will be sorted once before entering the shredder, and will be separated out in advance.

So in just a few minutes of effort, a pile of simple substance or iron ore with an iron content of more than 90% has been separated beside the machine.

It seems that it won’t be long before the furnace can be used to refine part of the iron.

Yang Qing took one last look at the single iron that was sent to one side by the conveyor belt, thinking to himself, and then chased after the car that was driving away.

In a vacuum environment, it becomes easier to smelt iron or other metal minerals.

Whether it is iron oxide, ferrous sulfide, or aluminum oxide, or titanium dioxide, as long as the temperature is raised by heating, the oxide can be decomposed to obtain elemental metal and oxygen.

The metal obtained in this way is extremely pure and sometimes even has to be doped.

Especially aluminum, elemental aluminum is very soft, generally used in a large number of aluminum alloys.

In fact, aluminum is also an easy-to-obtain metal. Among Blue Star’s geological reserves, aluminum ranks third, second only to oxygen and silicon, and is the most abundant metal element.

According to the same origin of the moon and the blue star, the content of aluminum on the moon will also be extremely high.

Especially in a vacuum environment ~www.readmtl.com~ there is no oxygen, and the active chemical properties of aluminum will not work, so it is the best casing material for various portable base equipment.

But it’s still too early to think about these. The base must study the composition of the lunar soil before deciding on the corresponding processing method.

If the iron content is high, then iron is the main material. In pure iron, the carbon content is increased to make it into various steel products.

The only shortcoming is that it is difficult for steel to work normally at too low a temperature, and it is prone to cold and brittle phenomenon.

And the temperature of the moon can even be as low as minus 200 degrees, so he still needs to find a suitable alloy formula so that the steel can still have most of its properties at low temperatures.

This temperature is also a severe test for aluminum alloys and titanium alloys. After all, there is no such ultra-low temperature application environment on Blue Star.

And on the moon, the temperature changes very quickly. One second it was a night of more than minus 200 degrees, and the next moment it will become a sunny day. The temperature can even directly soar to more than 100 degrees in a short period of time. Such a temperature Conversion, even if only once or twice a month, is a test that must be passed.