Chapter 713 The Tinder Project

As early as the 1990s, the United States tried to build a miniature artificial ecological cycle system in the desert north of Tucson, Arizona, aiming to conduct ecological and environmental research in a closed state and help humans understand how the earth works , and study the conditions in the simulation of the earth's ecological environment.

This plan was originally initiated by a football player and received investment from several consortiums including Rockefeller. It cost 150 million US dollars and caused quite a stir at the time.

However, unfortunately, the final experimental results were not as sensational as when this idea was proposed. The experimental team stationed in Biosphere 2 declared the failure of the plan after only a year of persistence, and had to withdraw from Biosphere 2. Withdraw on the 2nd.

The only conclusion drawn from the experiment is that the earth may be the only home suitable for human life.

Overall, the plan was undoubtedly a failure. Not only did Biosphere 2 fail to form a stable and independent ecosystem, it was even almost transformed into an eco-hotel after the project ended.

However, under the background of the times at that time, this idea was quite groundbreaking, and some technologies born from it have also regained their brilliance in many other fields.

Judging from the tasks arranged by the system, the third stage of the task chain has a probability of more than 90% to establish a permanent or semi-permanent settlement on the moon, or a scientific research station. Although the first phase of the manned moon landing has not yet been completed, it does not prevent Lu Zhou from preparing for the future.

What's more, even in the first phase of the mission, there are side missions such as "farming on the moon" waiting for him.

Therefore, after several detailed exchanges with experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Space Administration, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the "Tinder" artificial biosphere project came into being.

Compared with the Biosphere 2 in the United States, the goal of the "Tinder" project is more clear, which is to pave the way for space colonization activities.

Taking into account a series of factors such as climate and environment, the location of Biosphere A for the "Tinder" project was selected in the Gurbantunggut Desert in the center of the Jungar Basin. It is completely isolated from the outside world through a hemispherical building structure. .

Of course, considering practical factors, Lu Zhou did not overly stick to providing a comfortable living environment for the "colonists" by establishing a complete ecosystem like Arizona's Biosphere 2. Instead, it allowed "Limited input of minerals, fresh water, and biological resources", with the experimental goal of reducing the amount of input of resources as much as possible, to implement this plan.

Regarding this project, although Lu Zhou formulated a specific implementation plan, he did not take charge of it himself. Instead, he chose to cooperate with several universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Huaguo Agricultural University, and selected a researcher from Huaguo Agricultural University As the main person in charge...

Stayed in the camp set up by the 4th Battalion of the 150th Regiment for one night. The next day, after meeting the researchers who came from Jinling, Lu Zhou briefly explained the work on the site, and then received the Huaguo Agricultural University. The phone call over there informed that the researcher had arrived in Urumqi.

There is still a long distance from Wushi to the center of the Zhungeer Basin. Lu Zhou was not in a hurry. After lunch, he asked Wang Peng to drive himself and a guide in the army to drive around the desert. Check out the surrounding area.

It was almost evening, and a desert-colored military jeep and a water truck appeared together on the horizon of the desert, slowly heading towards the checkpoint at the entrance of the camp.

It happened that he also came back from the outside at this moment, so Lu Zhou got out of the car directly at the door and walked towards the desert-colored jeep. When he walked to the door of the car, a tall and thin middle-aged man wearing glasses and a windbreaker coat opened the door and came down with a rucksack that looked very old.

Lu Zhou was recognized at a glance. The middle-aged man threw his backpack on his shoulder and stretched out his right hand with a smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Lu, hello! I have heard of your name for a long time!"

"You don't need to be so polite," Lu Zhou shook his hand, and after letting go, he smiled and made a gesture of invitation, "This is not a place to talk, please come inside."

In addition to the guys carrying daily necessities and meals, there were also two dusty doctors in the same clothes sitting in the car. Their complexions didn't look good, as if they didn't sleep well during the journey.

Due to the strong wind and sand outside, the group was very tired after bumping all the way, so Lu Zhou invited them into a movable iron room. Just when he was going to look for tea sets, Yan Yan, who was wearing army green casual clothes, came in from outside with a teapot and cups.

"The water has just boiled, you go and sit down, I'll come."

Seeing Yan Yan nodded, Lu Zhou said.

"sorry to bother you."

"No trouble."

Stretching out her hand to brush the hair from her sideburns behind her ears, Yan Yan poured a cup of tea for each of the four people sitting in the room, then left the teapot on the table, turned around and walked out the door, closing the door behind her .

Sitting in front of the desk, Lu Zhou took out a resume from the drawer, compared the resume and looked at the middle-aged professor who was sitting on the sofa very primly, especially compared the photo to see if he was similar to himself.

Feeling a little embarrassed by Lu Zhou's sizing up, the professor coughed lightly and asked in a cautious tone.

"Is there any problem?"

"Nothing, just to confirm," Lu Zhou smiled lightly, put down the resume in his hand, looked at the professor and said, "Welcome to the Gurbantunggut Desert."

The professor from the Agricultural University sitting in front of Lu Zhou is named Hu Yang. His name is homonymous to a plant that is not uncommon in the Gobi Desert, and his down-to-earth and diligent personality is also very similar.

Before that, Lu Zhou had never met him, but only saw his photo from the resume given by Huaguo Agricultural University, and briefly learned about his research direction and academic background.

In general, his resume is relatively ordinary in all aspects. Like most scholars who are engaged in unpopular research, he has never been rated as a Changjiang scholar, and he has no chance of being an academician... But these things are not what Lu Zhou is looking for.

After all, the research direction is so unpopular, if there are still a lot of results, then it will be called Nima's problem.

Lu Zhou simply glanced at his resume, then made a decision and handed over the project to him.

There are no other reasons. On the one hand, it is a professional counterpart. On the other hand, there is no certain persistence or perseverance. Few people will stick to an unpopular and hard-to-achieve direction for so many years.

Another thing is that this job is very hard, and you have to stay in the Gobi Desert all year round, which can be said to be a waste of youth and life.

Except for him, basically no one volunteered to come here.

In a sense, Lu Zhou didn't have many choices.

After exchanging pleasantries for about two minutes, Lu Zhou didn't have to be polite for too long. After putting down his tea cup, he quickly got to the point.

"I won't say more to be polite. I believe that someone from the Agricultural University has already told you about the specific situation of the 'Tinder' project."

"Yes," Hu Yang nodded, and said in a serious tone, "I received the project proposal the day before yesterday, and I rushed here almost immediately."

"It's been hard work along the way."

"Where's the matter?" Hu Yang smiled cautiously, "In our line of work, we always have to go to the experimental field, whether it's in the desert or on the edge of the city, it's the same for me! "

Lu Zhou nodded and continued.

"It's really admirable that you can think like this. It's not easy to make such a brave decision. You must have thought about it for a long time and made a certain degree of awareness, but I still have to say something again. This project is of great significance , is related to the future of our country's aerospace industry, and also related to the layout of our country's future development of external space resources, the task is very difficult and hard!"

After a pause, Lu Zhou continued.

"Before taking over this scientific research project, I hope you have thought it through carefully. This means that in the next few years, or even more than ten years, you will have to live a life away from human habitation. I am afraid that you will only have the opportunity to return to China during the holidays." Family."

The two doctoral students sitting next to Hu Yang held their breath, but soon relaxed.

Although following the wrong boss and choosing the wrong direction is inevitable, hard work is inevitable, but they don't need to be as conscious as their professors.

After all, they can survive for a few years at most, graduate after posting two articles, and stay here for two years if they die.

As for Hu Yang, his expression didn't change from beginning to end.

After Lu Zhou's voice fell, he just nodded and said something without hesitation in a serious tone.

"I've thought it through."

With an awe-inspiring expression, Lu Zhou looked at him and said solemnly.

"Then I'm counting on you here."