Technology: breaking the hegemony that monopolizes the world

Chapter 1222 Helium-3

Helium-3 is one of the isotopes of helium, the element symbol is 3He.

A researcher said: "After getting this piece of lunar soil, we are trying to extract as much as possible what we need to verify.

We heated the processed lunar soil to more than 700 degrees Celsius and extracted helium-3.

In research reports in related fields, these experts speculate that the content of helium-3 on the moon is estimated to be more than 1 million tons. It is speculated that the moon, at least for now, has a total of no less than three million tons of helium-3 in the soil and shallow rocks on the lunar surface! "

A professor next to him also said: "We didn't expect that the authorities would provide me with specimens such as lunar soil and lunar rocks, which are not just one gram, which is better than nothing, so we can choose such a profligate inspection method.

Moreover, helium-3, as an isotope of helium, contains two protons and one neutron. According to the dilution refrigeration theory, when helium-3 and helium-4 are mixed in a certain ratio, the temperature can be reduced to infinitely close to absolute zero. When the temperature reaches below 2.6mK, the liquid state of helium-3 will also show the phenomenon of 'superfluidity'.

That is to say, even if it is placed on a smooth vessel without any stickiness, it can even 'crawl' out of this smooth vessel. It plays an extremely important role in many material fields.

In addition, superfluids also have extremely peculiar applications in astrophysics.

We can use the helium-3 superfluid produced by the phase transition to test theories about how so-called cosmic strings form, and to advance research in condensed matter physics, like the nuclear magnetic resonance method that was discovered while studying helium-3. "

Hearing what the professor said, Gu Qing nodded.

Now nuclear magnetic resonance tomography has become one of the important technologies for medical diagnosis in large hospitals. He knew that the professor wanted to carry out multiple developments in these fields so that he could invest more resources.

It's just that as the founder of Kyushu Science and Technology, who can decide huge research resources with one word, there is more than one professor beside Gu Qing?

A professor next to him snorted coldly and said, "There are no neutrons in the helium-3 thermonuclear reactor, so when we use helium-3 as energy, we don't need to worry about radiation. This is the most important thing. Its energy potential!"

Then, the professor pointed to the material on the test bench, and said in a longing tone with Gu Qing, "Helium-3 can undergo nuclear fusion reactions with other isotopes of hydrogen, and unlike other nuclear fusion reactions, helium-3 -3 does not produce neutrons during the fusion process, so the radioactivity is small, and this brings another advantage, that is, the reaction process is easy to control, environmentally friendly and safe.

It’s just that this thing looks very beautiful, and we have actually verified and speculated that there are more than three million tons of helium-3 on the surface of the moon, but you may not know, Mr. Gu, that helium-3 is basically a gas form, scattered and hidden in the pores of lunar soil, and its concentration is only between 1.4 and 15ppb.

We made a conversion. To obtain 10 grams of helium-3 gas, we need to crush and filter at least 1,500 tons of lunar rocks and soil, and then heat them to over 700°C in special equipment, and then pass a series of Only technical means can get 10 grams of helium-3 gas.

Assuming that the energy conversion efficiency of helium-3 is 100%, which is impossible, then this 10 grams of helium-3 can only make a million-kilowatt nuclear power plant generate electricity for a few hours. "

"Um?"

Seeing the strange expression on Gu Qing, the professor spoke more seriously.

"They are all talking about the mining of moon soil and rocks, as if they regard the moon as the vegetable field next door, and they can get it with their hands.

But in reality, if we want to retrieve helium-3 from the moon, we must not only consider the cost of mining, exhausting, isotope separation and transportation back to the earth, but also the technology we need to master.

After all, it is infinitely more difficult than simply sending people up to explore the moon.

But what is meaningful is that according to the ratio of our extraction of helium-3, if we can extract helium-3 directly from the moon, then if we extract 1 ton of helium-3 from the lunar soil, we can get about 6,300 tons of hydrogen, 70 Tons of nitrogen and 1600 tons of carbon, these secondary resources can provide an extremely loose supply of materials for our lunar base.

For example, hydrogen can be combined with nitrogen to generate ammonia, reduce metal ores, produce hydrochloric acid, and can also be used to convert unsaturated fats into saturated oils and fats. Hydrogen can be used to produce hydrogenated vegetable oils, which can meet food demand. Margarine and butter.

There is also atomic hydrogen welding, a process of arc welding between two metal tungsten electrodes in a protective atmosphere of hydrogen, which can be used to weld refractory metals and tungsten, which is extremely important in the maintenance of aviation equipment.

Some of our generators can also use hydrogen as the rotor coolant, with low density, high thermal conductivity, and high specific heat capacity.

Due to the large scale of production, it is also possible to produce hydrogen peroxide, which is a routine bactericide commonly used in clinics and hospitals, and is especially suitable for cleaning wounds, incisions and other damaged tissue parts, and can also be used to purify water in special cases.

These by-products are also extremely necessary to maintain a permanent base on the moon. And the examples I am giving now are only a very small part. Once we achieve self-sufficiency in the permanent base on the moon, with the engineering technology we now have, we can build a complete industrial base city on the moon in a short time.

And you may know that there is no substantive confirmation of the outer space resources other than the blue star. We can build cities on the moon and achieve true independence. "

Gu Qing looked at the excited professor in front of him with serious eyes. On the display interface of SR1, this professor has an excellent resume. He is a twenty-five-year-old Ph. At the age of ten, that is, five years ago, his temperament suddenly changed.

The reason why he was able to enter this research base relied on his extremely solid research strength, and also because the Titan Star Department cured the illness of the professor's family.

But this description...

The young boss Gu said to the professor with some concern: "Professor Zhao, although the rights to the moon are not confirmed, we, the project participants, have identities, and we are all Daxia people.

Our Kyushu Science and Technology, as a Daxia enterprise, participates in the production and investment projects, and other resources and products obtained through lunar resources also need to confirm the rights, so as to realize the interoperability with other businesses of Bluestar. "