Lead
"3 billion US dollars a ton, isn't this a pit man, a ton of lunar soil is more than that!"
After the results of the research on the treasure trove of lunar samples brought back by Chang'e-5 were revealed, people exclaimed in the value of demons and spirits, and curiosity was increasingly emerging.
And how much is this batch of lunar samples worth?
The moon is a treasure trove valued by many countries, which can greatly contribute to human civilization, wealth and development, but what kind of energy does the 100-gram sample of Chang'e-5 bring?
1. The value of lunar samples.
On December 17, 2020, the Chang'e-5 simulated sample bank was officially unveiled in Beijing, unveiling this batch of valuable soil samples.
At present, the samples have been divided into two parts, which are stored in the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology and the National Space Science Center, but the specific number of these samples has not been disclosed.
There are two specifications of more than 10 grams and 100 grams of samples, and the samples of more than 100 grams are only used for instrument calibration, so we can see that the samples for research are only 100 grams of samples, although the scale is very small, but it is already a supreme treasure for international space researchers, let alone for us in China.
So far, there have been few surprises in the samples, but Bohan, an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, believes that the Chang'e-5 samples are important for studying the origin, evolution and structure of the moon.
He said in an interview a few days ago that our lunar soil is more than 3 billion years old, and usually large impact events will produce new lava, but new research shows that the time for impact to produce lava is very short, often less than a million years, and the soil samples brought back by Chang'e-5 show that the last major impact on the moon was 100 million years ago, which proves that the impact activity of the moon is very active, and at the same time, discussing the last major impact event on the moon can also provide a basis for the study of the earth's large impact event.
In addition, oxidation states that have not been found in the spectrum have also been found in lunar samples, which may be the result of the conversion of ferric iron in soil to ferric iron by the action of radiation, atomic oxygen and sunlight in the space environment, which is important for studying the solar radiation environment and can also provide a basis for calculating the relative abundance of iron and other materials in lunar samples.
Bohan also said that in the future, the priority of studying soil samples will also change, and that it will be prioritized to study lunar samples rich in fusible matter, so that the initial age and formation age of the moon can be obtained, and the tonic and geological processes of the moon can be better studied.
In addition, Chang'e-5 has brought back two kilograms of lunar rock samples, which may be transported directly back to research institutions on Earth, which will be more helpful for studying the formation of the moon and will deepen the understanding of the evolution of the moon.
2. "Gold" found in lunar samples.
In addition to containing important information for the study of the Moon, the Moon also contains valuable resources that can drive the development of all mankind, and researchers at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences have found that the helium-3 content in the samples brought back by Chang'e-5 may be higher than scientists had previously expected.
Helium-3 is a very rare isotope, and the amount of helium-3 on Earth is very rare, because most of the helium-3 in the solar wind has been blown back into space, so helium-3 on Earth mainly exists with helium.
On the Moon, helium-3 forms protons and neutrons in large quantities to form helium-3 isotopes, so the helium-3 content on the moon is very abundant.
The American Apollo 17 astronauts collected lunar samples during their sixth lunar walk, and the helium-3 content in the collected samples was only 22.4g, which provided a quantitative unit for helium-3 mining, and the total helium-3 currently in the world is less than 600g, and China's Chang'e-5 has successfully brought back two kilograms of samples, which means that Chang'e-5 has brought back a large number of helium-3.
The origin of helium-3 in the sample can prove that there is really a large amount of helium-3 on the moon, thanks to the fact that the moon has no atmosphere protection, so the surface of the moon will be constantly radiated by the sun, which will vaporize the material on the surface of the moon to form the lunar atmosphere, but because the escape speed of the moon is less than the speed of helium-3 molecules, the helium-3 molecules will also fly out of space from the surface of the moon, which is the process of forming helium-3 on the moon.
Helium-3 also has a huge energy value.
Helium-3 is an ideal material for human beings to control nuclear fusion for nuclear fusion reactions, in which helium-3 and tritium can be combined into helium and a helium neutron at very high temperatures through nuclear fusion reactions, and at the same time release very huge amounts of energy.
This requires a high-temperature environment that can carry out the reaction without taking all the heat away, so the reaction needs to be carried out in a plasma environment, and the temperature required is very high, more than 150 million degrees Celsius.
This kind of environment that can create 150 million degrees Celsius, except for nuclear weapons, is only the sun, so it is already very remarkable that human beings can carry out controlled nuclear fusion experiments on Earth.
In the future, if humans want to apply nuclear fusion technology to power generation, they will need to build a very large building in which helium-3 and tritium can be fused and energy can be obtained from the fusion reaction.
Through calculations, it is found that controlled nuclear fusion can obtain energy from the nuclear fusion of helium-3, and each gram of helium-3 can obtain 5×10^5 joules of energy, which is equivalent to one kilogram of helium-3 can obtain 50 billion joules of energy, which is enough to feed three people for hundreds of years, so that helium-3 on the lunar soil is thousands of times.
Calculated in this way from the shallow soil of the moon alone, there are as many as 1.1 million tons of helium-3 resources, and the use of these resources can provide greater impetus for the future development of human civilization.
3. The battle for lunar resources.
The moon is so rich in helium-3 resources, so why didn't astronauts land on the moon to collect helium-3 resources earlier?
At present, there are many countries in the world that study nuclear fusion, but there are not many countries with actual experimental devices for nuclear fusion, respectively, there are "Stargate" experimental devices in the United States, France's "International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor", and China also has the "Chinese Academy of Sciences" device, which has a high-temperature environment that can maintain nuclear fusion reactions and can conduct research.
The "Chinese Academy of Sciences" device was carried out by the Dalian Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University and other units participated in the research, the device was built in 2018, a total of 6 runs, but the operation time is very short, a total of 13.49 seconds, the longest run time is 5.75 seconds.
However, although the operation time is not very long, the performance of the "Chinese Academy of Sciences Grand Crossing" is also very strong, even stronger than the "C-2U" experimental device of the University of Washington, and in a research report published in 2019, this experimental device is second only to the performance of the K-STAR experimental device in South Korea, ranking second in the world.
The continent has invested a lot in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, and China is still building the "Chinese Academy of Sciences Big Super Ring" device undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has stronger performance, with a total length of about 160m and a maximum temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius, which will become the world's largest controllable nuclear fusion experimental device after completion.
The research of controlled nuclear fusion technology is in a very cutting-edge state in the world, although there is no controllable nuclear fusion experimental device that can carry out nuclear fusion power generation, but it is not impossible, the prospect of controlled nuclear fusion is very bright, and the lunar base will be able to convert helium-3 into energy through nuclear fusion technology, which will provide huge energy for the future of mankind.
With the gradual advancement of the exploration project, the United States is also planning to go to the moon in 2024 to establish a lunar base, and the establishment of the lunar base is mainly to obtain the helium-3 resources contained on the moon.
The United States had many plans to explore and develop the moon in the past few years, and many of them wanted to obtain lunar resources, but in the end, these plans were not realized because the implementation costs were too large and the benefits were not equal.
Now the United States has started a far-reaching plan again, this time the United States put forward the "Moon 2024 Plan", which may also be the United States is constantly adjusting its strategy and beginning to move towards the direction of sustainable development, so in the future, lunar resources may become a new hot spot in the field of space, and all countries will rush to explore and develop, which will also trigger a new round of competition for space resources in the future.
epilogue
The opening of the lunar samples brought back by Chang'e-5 as part of the opening is to enrich the mainland's space resource pool on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also to promote the pace of all mankind to understand the moon and explore space, which is also the mainland's attitude towards the development of lunar resources.