The major discovery of Chang'e 5 is coming! Lunar soil can be used as a catalyst to convert CO2 and water into spacecraft fuel

Chang'e 5 lunar probe on the moon to take soil for more than a year, has become a Good Story of Chinese space, the lunar soil has been divided into several parts, divided into three batches distributed to a number of important scientific research departments on the mainland, this is not over, the distribution work is still continuing, in 2022 there will be more research departments to obtain lunar soil.

Mainland scientists' research on lunar soil has long begun, and has published articles on lunar soil research in a number of top scientific journals, which has attracted the attention of the scientific community, and recently, a scientific paper from the journal Joule revealed that mainland scientists have made another major discovery in the study of the lunar soil of Chang'e 5.

Another major discovery, the Chang'e-5 lunar soil can be used as a catalyst

A team of scientists from Nanjing University in mainland China analyzed the Chang'e 5 lunar soil and found that the chang'e 5 lunar soil extraction site is relatively young basalt, rich in active compounds, which are the most commonly used catalyst components in artificial light synthesis such as iron and titanium, so the Chang'e 5 lunar soil can be used as a catalyst.

With the help of sunlight, the catalyst in the Chang'e-5 lunar soil can directly convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen, hydrogen and methane, which are the best combustion aids in the world, and hydrogen and methane are very good flammable gases, which are one of the best fuels for spacecraft and rockets.

People who have had common sense in chemistry know that the molecular formula of water is H2O, the molecular formula of carbon dioxide is CO2, the molecular formula of oxygen is O2, the molecular formula of hydrogen is H2, and the molecular formula of methane is CH4.

As we all know, the catalyst itself does not have a chemical reaction, is a "zero loss" substance, so ah, we only need to provide three material conditions for the lunar soil, light, water and carbon dioxide, then the lunar soil will continue to produce oxygen, hydrogen and methane, which is really a million profits.

Previous studies have found that the lunar surface looks barren and barren, full of dry lunar soil, but in fact many areas still contain a lot of water, which exists in a solid way, but this does not affect our extraction and use, and a few years ago, American luminologists also made a water map about the moon.

Carbon dioxide is a substance closely related to humans, we have to inhale a lot of oxygen every day, and then exhale a lot of carbon dioxide, as long as someone on the moon stays for a long time, there is a steady stream of carbon dioxide, so it is not difficult to make spacecraft fuel and oxygen on the moon.

The Moon is the closest exoplanet to Earth and the only exoplanet that humans have ever set foot on, in the middle of the last century. Nasa's Apollo spacecraft successfully landed on the moon six times, sending 12 astronauts to the lunar surface, who bounced on the lunar surface, planted the American flag, and installed multiple scientific equipment.

12 astronauts left the moon and did not forget to collect the moon and lunar rock, and finally shipped back a total of 382 kilograms of lunar samples, in 1978, the United States donated 1 gram of lunar samples to the mainland, 0.5 grams for research, 0.5 grams sealed and placed in the museum, mainland scientists on the study of 0.5 grams of lunar samples have made a number of discoveries.

However, 0.5 grams of lunar samples are too few to divide it into several equal parts for all scientific research departments to study it in depth, which is why the mainland is trying to build the Chang'e 5 retrievable lunar probe, and the 1731 grams of lunar soil obtained by Chang'e 5 is enough for the mainland to conduct scientific research.

The future energy source helium-3 was discovered in the Chang'e 5 lunar soil

"Discovery that lunar soil can make spacecraft fuel", this is already the third major discovery of mainland scientists on the Chang'e 5 lunar soil, the first research discovery is in the Chang'e 5 lunar soil found the material that humans dream of - helium-3, some scientists predicted that in the near future, helium-3 will become one of the most important green energy sources for mankind.

Helium-3 is a nuclear fusion reaction material, can replace the current deuterium, tritium, the most important thing is that helium-3 in the nuclear fusion reaction, does not produce radioactive neutrons, but also can release higher thermal energy, which means that the use of helium-3 nuclear fusion reaction, will not release harmful rays, does not affect life.

Do you know how much energy is released by the nuclear fusion reaction in which helium-3 is involved? 100 tons of helium-3 can meet the global human energy demand for a year, and the lunar surface is estimated to have 5 million tons of helium-3, enough for humans to continue to use for 50,000 years, more than the earth's coal, stone and oil reserves.

The Chang'e 5 lunar soil was found to be 1 billion years younger than the US lunar soil

In the last century, the American Apollo spacecraft landed in 6 different regions on the front of the moon, the total number of times American astronauts took the lunar soil must have exceeded a thousand times, through the radiation dating technology measurement method, scientists found that all the lunar soil they collected is relatively old, about 3 billion to 4.5 billion years old, directly indicating that the lunar crust age is very old.

But in fact, this is not true, mainland scientists have studied the CE5-B1 and CE5-B2 fragments of the Chang'e 5 lunar soil and found that the actual age of these two fragments is only 1.963 billion years, which is much younger than the age of the US lunar soil, at least 10 years younger, which means that the age of the lunar crust is 1 billion years younger.

At last

The continent plans to build a long-term lunar station on the moon, and the moon is 384,000 kilometers away from us, much farther than the space station, which requires in-situ materials, turning the lunar soil into building materials, and obtaining energy and living materials through the lunar soil, and this major discovery is now more conducive to the experiment of the "lunar construction station" program. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration