Chapter 208 Mining Problems

Mars.

Inside the Mars City conference room.

A white-haired academician and professor sat upright around the conference table.

Directly in front of the conference table, a huge holographic image unfolded.

On it, there are several large Chinese characters.

"Space Mining Technology"

Lu Yongchang was sitting at the head of the table, his eyes slowly sweeping over the people in front of him, and a hint of emotion flashed in his eyes.

Different from previous projects, this space mining project involves many disciplines, so there are many new faces in the conference room.

"Professor Lu?"

A voice with a somewhat strange pronunciation sounded.

Lu Yongchang turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound.

An old man with white hair and typical Western features sat on a chair and looked at him quietly.

That was Professor Leonard from the original United States.

If he remembered correctly, Professor Leonard should specialize in space mining projects.

"Professor Leonard?" Lu Yongchang smiled friendly and asked softly, "Do you have anything to say?"

Professor Leonard nodded seriously, picked up the microphone on the side, and coughed lightly.

The originally noisy conference room became quiet.

Everyone's eyes turned towards Professor Leonard.

"Professor Lu, according to my previous research, there are many difficulties in space mining projects." Leonard said word by word in less standard Mandarin.

After speaking, he looked at Lu Yongchang with some anxiety.

This is his first time working with Professor Lu.

Leonard was a little worried that if he said this, he would offend the chief scientist of the People's Federation.

Lu Yongchang chuckled, nodded and said, "Go on."

Seeing Lu Yongchang's reaction, the look on Leonard's face suddenly relaxed a lot.

"Professor, although we have experience in lunar mining, there is a huge difference between the two." Professor Leonard said seriously.

"The three largest asteroids in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are over 400 kilometers in diameter."

"In comparison, the diameter of the moon is 3,476 kilometers."

"Everyone, this is the largest asteroid. Most of the other asteroids are within a hundred kilometers in diameter."

"There are even many asteroids that are only hundreds of meters or several meters in diameter."

"And this has caused a more serious problem."

"Its gravity is extremely weak, and our mining ship must have a reliable enough fixation method to mine on it." Speaking of this, Leonard shrugged, "Otherwise, our drill bit will The top of the mining ship flew out."

Lu Yongchang frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, he turned to look at Academician Kong Xingbang who was responsible for developing lunar mining equipment.

"Mr. Kong, this shouldn't be difficult for us now, right?"

The white-haired Kong Xingbang frowned and thought for a while before nodding: "Professor, this technology is not difficult to solve."

"Okay." Leonard spread his hands and said again: "Then, the most important question."

"Professor Lu, what method do you want to use to mine asteroids?"

"Drill mining? Or explosive mining?"

"With drills, the mining efficiency is extremely low, and explosives are difficult to control. Those micrometeoroids in space are no joke."

Hearing this, Lu Yongchang frowned immediately.

Well said.

This is also a problem that has troubled Lu Yongchang for a long time.

There is a huge gap between each asteroid.

For Pallas, Juno and Vesta, the three largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, mining is not very difficult.

Even now, Xuannv 2 and mining robots can be directly dispatched to carry out mining missions on these three asteroids with a diameter of more than 400 kilometers.

But for smaller asteroids, it is undoubtedly a huge problem to carry out efficient large-scale mining.

Mined using traditional drilling methods, these asteroids are too small for even Xuannv 2 to stay on their surface.

As for using explosives to blast... it's even more idiotic.

The impact generated by the explosive is enough to send those tiny rock fragments to extremely high speeds.

By then, let alone mining, it is estimated that it will be difficult for mining ships to operate in the asteroid belt filled with a large number of "hidden weapons".

Thinking of this, Lu Yongchang frowned deeply.

This is not just a drawback of explosive mining. Even when mining through traditional drilling methods, the debris problem is difficult to solve.

500,000 asteroids are scattered in an area of ​​2.17-3.64 astronomical units from the sun.

It seems like a lot, but in fact, the entire asteroid belt is very empty.

However, once the above two methods are used for mining, countless micrometeoroids will inevitably be formed.

For a starship flying at high speed, a large number of micrometeoroids are tantamount to a deadly blade!

This is undoubtedly extremely bad news.

"Can't these asteroids be dragged to the orbit of Mars for mining?" Fang Xu's voice sounded from the side, "If you are lucky, these rock fragments may be able to form a 'Mars ring'."

Lu Yongchang's eyes lit up slightly, but then he shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's difficult to do." Lu Yongchang sighed slightly, "The resources consumed by dragging those asteroids are completely out of proportion to the benefits."

"What a waste."

For a moment, there was a sigh in the conference room.

"...Professor Lu, I have a proposal."

A somewhat familiar voice came from the corner of the conference room.

Lu Yongchang quickly raised his head and looked towards the corner of the conference room.

The moment he saw the speaker, Lu Yongchang couldn't help but be stunned.

Tao Yuda?

Lu Yongchang's eyes moved slightly, and the plan of the spherical starship designed by him emerged in his mind.

Perhaps, at this time, an unusual mining method is needed!

Thinking of this, he nodded quickly and looked at Tao Yuda with expectant eyes: "Say!"

The professors instantly turned their heads and looked towards the corners of the conference room.

Obviously, Tao Yuda couldn't stand the scrutiny of the big guys.

He opened his mouth, a hint of embarrassment flashed in his eyes.

"Professor, why not forget it? I think this plan is a bit..."

"Yuda!" Cao Liangcai interrupted him softly, "Be bold and say it! Believe in yourself!"

Hearing his mentor's voice, Tao Yuda swallowed slightly, and the look in his eyes became a little firmer.

"Professor, now that we have medical nanorobot technology, why not develop a nanorobot for mining?" Tao Yuda said anxiously, "I also thought of scenes from some previous science fiction movies and came up with this idea."

"Use a large number of nanorobots to 'eat' the ore veins in the asteroid directly, and then let these nanorobots spit out the ore and then smelt it. This can take into account both efficiency and safety."