The square colonial cabin was like an upside-down building. As the center of the entire colony, it was the main place for the colonists to live, work, socialize, and entertain. It was equipped with all kinds of facilities.
Around the colonial cabin, there were also four spherical buildings made of graphene material, connected to the colonial cabin by a pipeline as thick as a person's arm. These four spherical buildings were not to be underestimated. They were the lifelines of the entire colony.
As everyone knew, Mars was a planet covered with desert and volcanic ash. The intuitive impression it gave people was that it was an extremely arid planet.
However, the opposite was true. As early as a few years ago, NASA determined from the data returned by the "Curiosity" rover that not only did Mars not lack of water, but it was also quite abundant in water resources! It was just that most of the water was brine, and most of it was buried underground or seeped into the sand layer, making it impossible to drink directly.
However, for Celestial Trade, this was not a problem. As long as there was water, there must be a way to turn it into drinkable water. The four spherical buildings were equivalent to the water pumps of the colony, and they had their own filtration capabilities.
The site of the colony was originally on the lakebed where ancient sedimentary facies could be observed, so there was certainly no shortage of water. These four spherical pumps first pumped the underground brine into the spherical water storage cabin, then filtered it, and finally supplied it to the colonial cabin through pipelines.
Water was the source of life. The ability to achieve self-sufficiency in drinking water was the key to achieving self-sufficiency in the Mars colony.
After water, there was oxygen.
The oxygen content on Mars was appallingly low. Billions of years of oxygen had either run away or mixed with the iron on the ground. Fortunately, there was still an atmosphere here. There was no oxygen, but there was carbon dioxide. It was much easier to solve the oxygen problem than on the Moon. There was no need to waste electricity by electrolyzing water. After all, there was no helium-3 to be mined on Mars, and energy was still quite expensive.
The oxygen problem could be solved with food.
The main composition of the Mars atmosphere was carbon dioxide, followed by nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor were almost negligible. For animals, this was simply hell, but for plants, this was simply heaven!
Of course, this did not mean that plants could be planted directly on Mars. Not to mention how cold the surface of Mars was, a long time in a pure carbon dioxide environment would also cause plants to undergo "photosynthetic adaptation", which would hinder the growth of crops.
However, as long as nitrogen was used to control the concentration of carbon dioxide in the plantation, it was easy to maintain the crops in the plantation under the optimal concentration of carbon dioxide. Coupled with the right amount of water and ultraviolet light, the growth of the crops could not be faster!
The only drawback was that the initial investment was a little high. Just for the rations of these 20 people, the entire equipment cost hundreds of millions. If it was on Earth, 100 million Xin New Dollars was enough to cultivate hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land.
In the future, Jiang Chen still planned to position the Mars colony as an industrial base. Once Future Heavy Industries' shipbuilding technology improved, Celestial Trade would build a few more "Seagulls" to expand its capacity, and food could be transported directly from Earth. Leaving such a huge granary undeveloped and insisting on farming in the desert was simply asking for trouble.
Not to mention anything else, Guanghan City at least had the advantage of low electricity costs, so it was understandable to grow some food to alleviate the supply pressure. There was no helium-3 or pure water on Mars, so they would lose as much food as they produced.
Of course, Jiang Chen had thought about transforming Mars into a terrestrial planet before. Or rather, it wasn't just him. Someone had proposed a plan to terraform Mars a long time ago.
Among them, the most famous was Elon Musk, the CEO of Spacex, who had always been obsessed with Mars. He had to admit that this guy was a genius. He proposed the shocking method of continuously throwing nuclear bombs at the poles of Mars. Nuclear explosions would melt dry ice, thicken the atmosphere, cause the greenhouse effect, melt more dry ice, and continue to thicken the atmosphere … The central idea of the whole method was to use nuclear bombs to pry the lever of the greenhouse effect. Although it sounded evil, it made sense in theory, and it was simple and crude.
However, Jiang Chen only thought about it and then gave up the idea.
There was no other reason. It was too slow. It was easy to pry this "lever", but it would take at least a thousand years. The most important thing was that there were too many uncertainties in this plan, and Mars was the most important part of Celestial Trade's plan to build an "invincible fleet" in the future. If it was not fun, there would be no place to cry.
Of course, although Jiang Chen gave up the plan to change the landscape of Mars in the short term, it did not mean that he completely gave up the plan to transform Mars into a terrestrial planet.
To the north of the colonial cabin was a plantation. It was the largest building in the entire colony other than the colonial cabin. It was connected to the water storage cabin and the colonial cabin by pipelines.
In this plantation covering an area of about two acres, there was also a small biological laboratory. Among the twenty colonists accompanying him, there were two biologists. The research project Jiang Chen gave them included an arduous and great task.
That was to develop a bacterium that could survive in the Martian environment.
This bacterium must be anaerobic, must adapt to a low-gravity environment, and must be able to withstand the low temperature of minus 100 degrees. It was best if it could continuously heat up, and it must withstand the continuous exposure of ultraviolet rays … This kind of super bacterium seemed impossible, but Jiang Chen, who witnessed the "history" of Harmony, was quite optimistic about the future of biotechnology.
However, he probably wouldn't be able to see the day when Mars was full of grasslands. No matter how optimistic he was, it was still a thousand-year project. At most, he could make a good start. The specific implementation could only be completed by his descendants.
Before recreating the blue water and blue sky of Mars 4.3 billion years ago, he must first build factories on this desert and use steel and blood to carve a path for future generations.
…
After leaving the command center, Jiang Chen received a call from the Presidential Palace. Just half an hour ago, the Capitol called the Xin Presidential Palace and expressed their willingness to start the second round of negotiations. However, they put forward a seemingly reasonable additional condition.
Since it was a negotiation related to the fate of the earth, it should not be discussed behind closed doors by several countries. Instead, it should be discussed on the table with everyone participating in the discussion. All countries should discuss and formulate a strategy to fight against extraterrestrial civilization.
In short, we don't need to hold an Outer Space Security Summit. The issue should be discussed directly at the United Nations.
After the Capitol's call ended, the United Kingdom and France also called and expressed the same intention. They also added that this was the prerequisite for the next round of negotiations. The implication was that if this matter was not discussed at the United Nations, then they would not discuss it!
After hearing this news, a sneer appeared on Jiang Chen's face.
He was very clear about what these people were planning.
In terms of influence at the United Nations, there was no country in the world that could compare to the UA.
Among the P5, the United Kingdom was on the same side as the UA. Although France opposed the UA from time to time, the two sides still reached a consensus on key issues. Otherwise, Europe would have been independent in defense, and there would be no NATO.
The discussion at the United Nations seemed fair, but in fact, it was a trap.
Without a doubt, once this issue was discussed at the United Nations, it would be absolutely impossible to achieve any results. First of all, Xin didn't have the right to speak equivalent to its strength. Second, Celestial Trade was an enterprise that was not even qualified to appear at the United Nations.
The leader was not there, and a large group of small countries that didn't even know what aerospace was. What results could they come up with? Did the UA think that Jiang Chen would accept any resolution made by the United Nations?
If the United Nations was that powerful, North Korea would have given up nuclear weapons a long time ago!
Why was the space elevator built by me, the lunar colony was also built by me, and the entire aerospace industry of Celestial Trade with an output value of hundreds of billions was brought up by me, and even asteroid mining was brought up by me. Now I have to go to your house to discuss how to use my own things? You want to be the boss?
Do you really think your NASA is still the NASA of the Nixon era?
Thinking of this, Jiang Chen did not hesitate at all and immediately made a decision.
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