Beneath Deep Space

The term biosphere is not unfamiliar to all the scientists present here.

The earth is a huge biosphere, ranging from 10,000 meters above sea level to 11,000 meters deep in the ocean, all of which belong to the category of ecosystem. The earth's biosphere is mainly composed of three parts: life substances, biogenic substances and bioinert substances. Among them, life substances can be divided into three categories, namely producers, consumers and decomposers.

Producers, that is, green plants, convert carbon dioxide into organic matter through photosynthesis and release oxygen, while producers and consumers breathe in oxygen and convert organic matter back into carbon dioxide, which is the carbon cycle.

The earth's biosphere is large in size, has high biodiversity, complex nutritional structure, and strong self-regulation ability, so the concentration of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the earth's atmosphere has always maintained a balanced state.

It sounds simple, just need to maintain the balance of carbon and oxygen. But in the complex and huge system association, every breeze may be indispensable to life. Humans have done many experiments with artificial ecosystems, but without exception, all ended in failure!

In the 1990s, the United States built an artificial closed ecosystem called "Biosphere 2", in which eight researchers conducted experiments for 21 months.

They conducted ecological and environmental research in a closed state to help humans understand how the earth works and study the conditions of simulating the earth's ecological environment.

However, after 21 months, the experiment failed because the atmospheric composition ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide in Biosphere 2 could not reach a balance on its own, and most plants and animals could not grow or reproduce normally, and their extinction rate was faster than expected. However, cockroaches and ants have many offspring, and what's worse is that their oxygen content has dropped from 21% to 14%, which may cause life-threatening situations if humans live in it.

Scientists thought they had found the reason for the failure, and then Biosphere 2 welcomed the second batch of residents, but the experiment failed again after only half a month because of the excessive accumulation of laughing gas.

Since then, people have known that the earth is still the only home for humans.

The existence of the lunar base depends on the continuous supply from the earth, and it cannot survive alone.

"Now, we must build a real ecosystem!" Dr. Roman shouted, "Maybe it can be simpler, just achieve carbon balance."

He frowned. With the technology that humans have, can we really build a completely balanced biosphere? Moreover, once this experiment starts, it must succeed. Once it fails, it will be the extinction of the entire race.

"No, no, Roman, you think too much, it's too complicated!" A female scientist stood up and said loudly, "We don't have so much time to think about this at the moment."

"Regarding the carbon dioxide problem you mentioned, we can completely use the methane and carbonates on the moon to produce carbon dioxide. The top priority is to solve this food crisis, not anything else!\

,""Don't consider oxygen and water for the time being. We still have inventory now."

A group of scientists quarreled like this. They began to calculate the feasibility of various plans and wanted to get the best result.

Yu Yifeng listened and sorted out relevant ideas. Slowly, his heart began to heat up. Hope, there is still hope!

After all, they are 50,000 people carefully selected from the earth, among whom are the best scientists, the most skilled technicians, and the most experienced engineers... The productivity of the lunar base is comparable to that of a small country.

The mineral resources here are also much richer than imagined. The address of the lunar base was chosen here not only because there are alien spacecraft here, but more importantly, there are nearly 220 million tons of ice deep underground!

Don't think there is no water on the moon, they are just hidden deep in the earth's crust in the form of ice. 220 million tons of ice, compared with the water resources on the earth, is not much, but it can be regarded as a rich treasure.

Human survival is inseparable from water, but water cannot be compressed, and transportation is very troublesome. It is almost impossible to transport such a large number of hundreds of millions of tons from the earth. You must know that the carrying capacity of the Victory is only 500 tons! Therefore, these ice mines have become the best resources.

Due to the ice mines underground, water resources are not short for the time being. Although nearly half of the ice has been mined in recent years, there are at least 100 million tons of reserves! Use it sparingly, it is enough for humans to use for decades. Even if it is used up, humans can still use the mineral rocks underground to decompose crystal water, but it is a bit more troublesome.

As for oxygen, some of it is transported from the earth, and some of it is obtained through photosynthesis of plants, but most of the oxygen is obtained by electrolysis of minerals. For example, electrolysis of metal oxides or electrolysis of water can get oxygen.

The amount of oxygen required by the entire base is about 15,000 tons a year, which is not a high number. It only needs to electrolyze 17,000 tons of water. So the problem of oxygen is also solved.

As for carbon dioxide, it can be decomposed into carbonates or obtained by burning methane. There is abundant solid methane in the polar regions of the moon, and there is it near the base. However, carbonates near the surface are very scarce, and can only be excavated deep underground, which is a large amount of engineering. If methane is burned, some new problems will arise. The combustion of methane requires an oxidant, that is, oxygen!

However, producing oxygen requires a lot of energy, so energy output must be increased... Solar energy alone is no longer enough. The easiest way is to increase the development of uranium resources and build nuclear power plants!

In the end, the stall got bigger and bigger, involving more and more aspects. It felt like nothing was enough and everything needed to be rebuilt. Yu Yifeng was already a little confused.

After all, he was not an orthodox scientist. He just wrote down some numbers and considered whether they were feasible. As for other details, these scientists could only consider them.

"You are overdrawing the future!" Roman roared, putting his hands behind his head and rubbing his hair deeply. The main consideration now is food production, and the plan to build an ecosystem has been put on hold for the time being.

"Our water resources are also limited..." He wanted to say something more, but he was grabbed by someone, his adopted daughter Yuriko.

Yuriko said softly, "Father, we always have to get over the immediate difficulties before we can think about further things, right?"

"Yes, alas... You are right, a complete ecosystem cannot be completed overnight." Roman said with a wry smile.

At this time, Yu Yifeng suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of an odd idea. He jumped up from his seat and said, "Everyone, everyone! Listen to me, why don't we move to an alien spacecraft?"

"Originally, there was no vigorous development of alien spacecraft because the government wanted to keep the spacecraft and its perfection secret. Now that this secret is known to everyone, why should they abandon it and ignore it?"

“Whether it’s safety or other considerations, it’s a very good choice!”

Everyone suddenly became quiet, whispering to each other and discussing the feasibility of this plan in low voices.

"I agree!" A male voice came from behind, it was Chief Physicist Felix, "If everyone moves into the alien spacecraft, we can plant all the vacant areas on the earth's surface with plants, which can save money. lot of time!"