Chapter 13 Biosphere

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, including 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 is not much compared to the water resources on the earth, 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 lacking 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! If you use it sparingly, it will be enough for humans to use for decades. Even if it runs out, 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 it is obtained by electrolyzing minerals. For example, electrolyzing metal oxides or electrolyzing water can get oxygen.

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

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

However, it takes a lot of energy to produce oxygen, so energy output must be increased... Solar energy alone is not enough. The simplest way is to increase the development of uranium resources and build nuclear power plants!

In the end, the stalls are getting bigger and bigger, and more and more aspects are involved. It feels that nothing is enough and everything needs to be rebuilt. Yu Yifeng is already a little confused.

After all, he is not an orthodox scientist. He just writes down some numbers and considers whether it is feasible. As for other details, these scientists can only consider them.

"You are overdrawing the future!" Roman roared, with his hands behind his head, rubbing his hair deeply. The main consideration now is food production, and the plan to build an ecosystem has been temporarily shelved.

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

Yuriko said softly, "Father, we have to overcome the difficulties in front of us before we can think about the future, right?"

"Yes, alas... you are right, a complete ecosystem cannot be completed overnight." Roman smiled bitterly.

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

"Originally, the alien spaceship was not vigorously developed because the government wanted to keep the secret of the spaceship and the perfect element. Now that this secret is known to everyone, why should it be abandoned?"

"Whether it is safety or any other considerations, it is a very good choice!"

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

"I agree!" A male voice came from the back. It was the chief physicist Felix. "If everyone moves into the alien spaceship, we can plant plants on the vacant surface. This will save a lot of time!"