Chapter 1231 Large Moon Base

"Yes, that's a good idea!" The atmosphere at the scene became tense, and another scientist spoke up: "In this way, we can use our current nuclear-powered rocket engines as the power for this spacecraft. This will give our lunar spacecraft enough energy to complete multiple round-trip flights!"

Landing on the moon is quite difficult. The American lunar module was divided into a descent stage and an ascent stage. When taking off, the lower half remained on the moon, and the upper half flew into space and merged with the command module in lunar orbit.

Now, if we use nuclear-powered engines, it won't be so complicated! Moreover, outer space and the surface of the moon are both vacuum, so the radiation problem of nuclear-powered engines is no longer a problem. After all, if astronauts want to move on the surface of the moon, they must wear a full set of space suits!

"I suggest that our lunar spacecraft be entrusted to the Lightning Design Bureau," Chelomen said. "In the early stage, it can be launched by the Buran, and then it will go back and forth between the Mir space station and the lunar surface. As for the base on the moon, we will be responsible for it. General Secretary Andrei, how big should our base be?"

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The idea of ​​building a base on the moon sounds crazy! Now, how big does this base need to be? This is what everyone is most concerned about.

"Then let me talk about the long-term plan first." Andre said: "Within ten years, we plan to build a city on the surface of the moon that can accommodate about a thousand people. This plan plans to invest about 100 billion rubles."

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Return to the moon and build a large base on the moon! In fact, in later generations, many countries are planning, of course, just plans.

The United States, Russia, China, and even India are planning to colonize the moon.

However, these plans are always just plans, because, in order to carry out such plans, first of all, you need a strong country! Even in the future, when the United States is strong enough to dominate the world, there is no practical action.

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Because it requires a lot of initial investment. Except when the United States was competing with the Soviet Union, it could invest enough money. Later, the capitalist-controlled United States no longer had any need to continue to explore deep space. Even after the retirement of the space shuttle, NASA did not even have the means of transportation to deep space. What's even funnier is that the Americans planned to rely on commercial companies to help them build spacecraft.

Now, the Soviet Union has everything. As a huge country, it can easily accumulate huge amounts of funds. At the same time, the Soviet Union also has a leader who attaches great importance to space!

Leaders are very important. For example, Khrushchev was very fond of nuclear bombs. Therefore, during Khrushchev's era, nuclear bombs were greatly developed. However, the navy was so depressed that it didn't even dare to mention an aircraft carrier. All it built were cruisers. The Moscow-class aircraft carrier was only built to escort nuclear submarines.

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Now, Andrei is quite interested in space, so Andrei has always strongly supported space technology! Therefore, the Soviet space technology has been able to develop to such an abnormal level.

If Andre says he wants to build a lunar base, then he can definitely do it!

The European Union of later generations was constantly arguing over just to build the Galileo satellite navigation system, and they were unable to come up with the investment of billions of euros. This shows how important a strong country is!

It’s a great plan to eventually build a lunar base that can accommodate a thousand people!

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The same plan exists in the world.

For example, after the end of the Cold War, the United States, with increased confidence, decided to return to the moon. They formulated a huge plan to build a temporary lunar space city at a cost of $100 billion.

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This plan will be implemented in stages. Initially, a temporary base will be established, with the number of people gradually increasing from a dozen to dozens. They will conduct mineral mining and smelting experiments on the moon and prepare for the construction of a permanent base. After that, a small and medium-sized permanent base will be built around 2007, with the number of people increasing to more than a hundred, and a complete production system from mining, smelting to transportation will be gradually formed. Finally, a lunar city that can accommodate a thousand people will be built on the moon, with various types of production, living and entertainment facilities becoming increasingly complete, and materials will be self-sufficient and can also be "exported" to the earth.

This is a grand blueprint. The lunar base is planned to cover an area of ​​8,000 square meters. It is a circular three-story building with a diameter of 64 meters and a height of 4.5 meters per floor. The roof is made of concrete and covered with lunar soil, 0.7 to 2.5 meters thick. The wall is divided into two parts, the outer wall has 6 layers and is 1.4 meters thick, and the inner wall is 2.5 meters thick. There is 0.7 meters of lunar soil in between the inner and outer walls, which is mainly used to protect against cosmic rays, solar wind, and meteorite impacts. In addition, there is a circular air-raid shelter in the middle of the building. Once the building is damaged and the atmosphere leaks, people can hide in it for refuge.

This plan can be said to be quite large, but unfortunately, not to mention 2007, even in 2017, it is still nowhere to be seen.

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Even the island countries are not willing to lag behind and have established the "Moon Base and Moon Resource Development Research Association". They decided to build a base with a diameter of 6 meters and a length of 11 meters that can accommodate 6 to 8 people starting in 2004. People can work here irregularly for a few days to a few weeks. After 2030, the base will be expanded to several hundred people, becoming the first real space settlement established by humans outside the earth and completely self-sufficient.

Unfortunately, these are just plans. Only the Soviet Union has the power to turn them into reality!

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What are the benefits of developing the moon? If we look at it from a short-term perspective, the investment is huge but the gains are small.

The most important thing on the moon is helium-3, which is a clean nuclear material. However, its reserves on the earth are very small, but on the moon, its reserves are huge.

At present, the nuclear materials that humans can use are uranium and fission reactors, while fusion is still under research. Among the fuels for fusion, helium is quite suitable, especially helium-3. 100 tons of helium-3 can provide the total energy used by the world for one year. However, on Earth, only about 500 kilograms of helium-3 can be mined worldwide.

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However, on the moon, there are millions of tons of helium-3 in just the shallow layer. Such abundant nuclear fuel is enough for the earthlings to use for tens of thousands of years!

It can be said that the lunar base can first be built into a mining area to extract helium-3 from the moon and transport it back to Earth for use. The nuclear reaction of helium-3 is not radioactive and will not bring any environmental threats. It is a completely clean energy.