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Chapter 128 Chlorella ellipsoides

The distance between the blue star and the moon is basically constant.

The distance between Mars and the blue star is completely different. When Mars is the closest to the blue star, it is only 5500 million kilometers, and when it is the farthest, it is 4 million kilometers.

This cycle is 26 months, which is 2 years and 2 months.

So unlike lunar exploration, there is a window period for fire detection, that is, when Mars is closest to the blue star, of course, it will actually be set in advance, let the probe fly for a while, and wait for the arrival of Mars...

Every Mars window period, countries capable of launching Mars probes will take some actions, otherwise, you will have to wait for more than 2 years.

The most recent fire detection window period was early 2029. At that time, the drastic changes on Mars had not yet occurred, so countries such as the United States, Dongguo, Lucia, Nanyin Federation, and the Western Continent Space Agency did not make any major moves. They just launched some ordinary orbiting missions. Of the lunar probes, only Hawke Island quietly launched a cargo spacecraft.

After a long journey, by September, these newly launched detectors were all in place. Except for the detectors of the South Yin Federation that lost contact, the other detectors were normal.

Hawke Island’s cargo spacecraft also successfully landed on Mars. This cargo spacecraft carried a 1.2-ton Mars rover Duke VII and five Mars Duke VIII rover with its own propeller weighing only 220 kilograms.

There are also 472 types of plants or plant seeds, some bacteria and fungi, and some chemical fertilizers!
It landed on an island on the southern edge of Mars Abyss Sea, captured a set of misty and rainy images and sent them back to Blue Star.

The island was originally a platform, but due to the continuous expansion of the deep sea, it became an island with an area of ​​about 1800 square kilometers.

This area will shrink, because the sea level of Yuanhai is still rising, and eventually its area will be only about 800 square kilometers, which is about the same as Xingpo country. At least in the early stage, this area is completely enough.

This island was named New Hawk Island by Hawke Island.

They intend to use this island as the beginning of the Mars base. On the one hand, it is because this place is located in the deep sea, the largest ocean in the future on Mars. The climate is mild and humid, and the temperature difference will be relatively small, which is very suitable for the survival of blue star creatures.

On the other hand, the island is not far from the mainland, and it can be connected to the mainland through a bridge in the future.

First of all, what they have to do is to look at the current situation on Mars and see what crops they can grow.

In fact, Bluestar scientists have long simulated planting in lunar soil, but failed. "Moon soil" doesn't seem to be suitable for crops - it's extremely small, sharp abrasive rocks that puncture the roots of crops.

Because the moon has no atmosphere and no water flow, there is no possibility of weathering of the lunar soil.

But Mars is different. Mars has an atmosphere, and there used to be liquid water and even rivers. On the soil that simulates Mars, crops have been successfully grown.These soils are made of volcanic rock gravel on the blue star-dividing the gravel particles into different sizes and mixing them in the same proportion as Martian soil (Martian soil data comes from data analysis of Mars probes from various countries).They used the "Martian soil" to grow 10 crops, including soybeans, quinoa, cress, sesame and tomatoes.

Of course, this is only a simulated "Martian soil", which is still different from the real "Martian soil".

Moreover, the current composition of the atmosphere on Mars is completely different from that of Blue Star.

Now the surface of Mars already has 0.3 standard atmospheric pressure, and it is still rising slowly. The content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere accounts for more than 98%, and there are a small amount of oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor...

Under the operation of the Duke 0.8 rover, the first arable land on Mars appeared on New Hawk Island, with an area of ​​only 0.8 mu. On this 48 mu arable land, the first batch of [-] blue star crops were planted, including Corn, wheat, upland rice, highland barley, tomatoes, carrots, soybeans, mung beans, red beans, peanuts, etc...

In addition, the Duke VII put 28 kinds of algae and other aquatic plants into a puddle of about 5 mu on the island.

After a few days, the corn germinated and died.

The wheat sprouted and died,

Upland rice sprouted and died,

The highland barley has not germinated,
Tomatoes sprouted, died,
None of the beans germinated,

……

Anyway, either it didn't germinate, or after it germinated, it died soon...

Of the 28 species of aquatic plants, none seemed to be spared.

However, when the Duke VII further tested the water samples of the puddle, a major discovery was made!
Significant amounts of Chlorella ellipsoides have been detected in water samples!
Further testing found: it is still alive!Even bred!

Chlorella is a general unicellular green algae belonging to the Chlorella phylum Chlorella. It is a spherical single-celled freshwater algae with a diameter of 3 to 8 microns. It is one of the earliest life on the blue star and appeared more than 20 billion years ago. , is a high-efficiency photosynthetic plant, grows and reproduces with photosynthetic autotrophy, and is widely distributed.

It reproduces asexually, and each cell can produce 2, 4, 8 or 16 spore-like spores. When mature, the mother cell ruptures and the spores escape, and they become new individuals when they grow up.It is distributed all over the world, and mostly lives in small shallow water, and there are also seafood species.

At present, there are about 10 species of Chlorella known on Blue Star, and hundreds of variants.Chlorella is widely distributed in nature, with the most species in freshwater waters; it is easy to cultivate, not only can use light energy for autotrophy, but also can use organic carbon sources for growth and reproduction under heterotrophic conditions.

In short, it reproduces extremely fast and has extremely tenacious vitality!

This result is not unexpected. Blue Star's creatures have always been more complex creatures with poorer adaptability, and simpler creatures with stronger adaptability. There are many micro-organisms that can survive in extreme environments such as high temperature and high pressure...

Therefore, it is not surprising that Chlorella ellipsoides became the only one among the first batch of blue star organisms that could survive and reproduce.

Next, the Duke [-] carried out the second batch of experiments. This time, three kinds of algae, Chromococcus pseudococcus, Nostoc and Chlorella, successfully survived and reproduced in the water of Mars!
At the same time, two kinds of lichen organisms were successfully cultivated on the land of Mars.

The so-called lichen is also a low-level plant. Strictly speaking, it is actually a symbiotic complex of algae and fungi.

Due to the long-term close combination of bacteria and algae, a single fixed organism is formed in terms of morphology, structure, physiology and genetics. It has strong cold and drought resistance and can grow on rocks, deserts or bark. In alpine belts, tundra zones and north and south poles, other plants cannot survive, but lichens can grow and reproduce alone, forming a vast lichen community that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Although no higher plant has been found to survive on the current Mars, the current discovery is enough to be gratifying.

There are so many low-level plants that can survive and reproduce on Mars, which shows that the environment of Mars is getting closer and closer to the blue star, and these low-level plants have a particularly strong reproductive ability. In fact, the transformation of Mars may be better than higher plants. .

They're also foodable, though cost and taste are a bit of an issue, but in the early days of Mars colonization, that probably wasn't an issue.No matter how high the cost is, it is still countless times cheaper than transporting it from Blue Star, and the taste can also be resolved through finer cooking.

(End of this chapter)