Chapter 13 Biosphere

The term biosphere is not new to all the scientists here.

The Earth is a huge biosphere, from 10,000 meters above sea level down to 11,000 meters deep in the ocean, all belong to the ecosphere. The Earth's biosphere is mainly composed of three parts: living matter, biogenic matter and biologically inert matter. Among them, living matter can be divided into three categories, namely producers, consumers and decomposers.

Producers, or green plants, convert carbon dioxide into organic matter and release oxygen through photosynthesis, while producers and consumers exhale oxygen and convert organic matter back into carbon dioxide, which is the carbon cycle.

The Earth's biosphere is large, has a high biodiversity, a complex nutrient structure, and a strong self-regulation ability, so the concentration of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere is always kept in a balanced state.

It sounds simple, just keep the amount of carbon and oxygen in balance. But the complex and huge system association, may be every light breeze is indispensable for life, humans have done many experiments with artificial ecosphere as the object, but without exception, all ended in failure!

In the 1990s, the United States had built an artificial closed ecosystem, called "Biosphere 2", eight researchers in the middle of 21 months of experiments.

They conducted ecological and environmental research in confinement to help humans understand how the Earth works and to study the conditions in the simulated Earth's ecological environment.

However, after 21 months, the experiment failed because the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Biosphere 2 could not reach a balance by itself, and most plants and animals could not grow or reproduce normally, and their extinction was faster than expected. While cockroaches and ants are full of children and grandchildren, what's worse is that its oxygen content dropped from 21% to 14%, which could trigger life-threatening conditions if humans live in it.

Scientists thought they had found the reason for the failure. Immediately after, Biosphere 2 welcomed a second group of inhabitants, but after only half a month the experiment failed again, the reason being because of the excessive amount of accumulated laughing gas.

Since then, it has been known that the Earth remains the only home for humans.

The moon base exists on a constant supply of Earth and cannot survive on its own.

"Now, we must establish a true ecosphere!" Dr. Roman shouted, "Perhaps it can be simpler, just to reach carbon balance."

He frowned, with the technology humans already had, could they really establish a fully balanced biosphere? Moreover, once this experiment begins, it must succeed, and if it fails, it is the demise of the entire race.

"No, no, Roman, you are thinking too much, too complicated!" A female scientist stood up and said loudly, "We don't have that much time to think about this at the moment."

"About the carbon dioxide problem you mentioned, we can completely use the methane on the moon as well as carbonates to make carbon dioxide. The first priority is to solve this food crisis, not anything else!" ,.

"Oxygen and water, don't think about it for now. We have stockpiles of them now."

A group of scientists thus argued, they began to calculate the feasibility of various options, want to come up with an optimal result.

Oliver listened while organizing relevant thoughts, slowly, his heart began to fire up, hope, there is hope!

After all, 50,000 people were carefully selected from the Earth, including the best scientists, the most skilled mechanics, the most experienced engineers ... moon base productivity, just like a small country.

The mineral resources here are also much richer than imagined. When the original location of the moon base was chosen here, not only because there are alien ships here, but more importantly, deep underground, there are nearly 220 million tons of ice!

Don't think that there is no water on the moon, they are just in the form of ice hidden deep in the earth's crust. 220 million tons of ice, compared to the water resources on earth, is not much, but can already be considered a rich treasure.

Water is indispensable for human survival, but it cannot be compressed and is very troublesome to transport. Several hundred million tons of such a large number, want to transport from the Earth is almost impossible, you know Atlantis capacity of only 500 tons ah! Therefore, these ice mines become the best resource.

Thanks to the ice mines under the earth, there is no shortage of water resources for the time being. Although nearly half of the ice has been mined over the years, there is still at least 100 million tons of reserves! Save it, enough for humans to use for decades. Even if used up, humans can still use the mineral rocks under the ground, decomposition of crystalline water, just a little more trouble.

As for oxygen, some of it is transported from the Earth, and some of it is derived from plant photosynthesis, but most oxygen is still obtained by electrolysis of minerals. For example, electrolysis of metal oxides or electrolysis of water can get oxygen.

The amount of oxygen needed for the whole base is about 15,000 tons a year, which is not a high number, and only 17,000 tons of water need to be electrolyzed. So the problem of oxygen is also solved.

As for carbon dioxide, it can be obtained by decomposing carbonates or by burning methane, and there is abundant solid methane in the lunar poles, near the base. However, carbonates near the surface are very scarce, and can only be excavated deep underground, which is a big project. Burning methane creates some new problems, and the burning of methane requires an oxidizer, that is, oxygen!

However, the manufacture of oxygen and need a lot of energy, so we must increase the energy output ... solar energy alone is not enough, the easiest way is to increase the development of uranium resources, the construction of nuclear power plants!

In the end, the bigger the spread, more and more aspects involved, feeling that nothing is enough, everything needs to be rebuilt, Oliver has some confusion.

After all, he was not an orthodox scientist, he just wrote down some numbers and considered whether it was feasible, as for other details, he could only leave it to these scientists to consider.

"You are overdrawing the future!" Roman growled while putting his hands behind his head and rubbing his hair deeply. The main issue under consideration now was food production, while the program of building an ecosystem was temporarily shelved.

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

Yuriko said softly, "Father, we always have to get over the immediate difficulties first before we can think about further things, don't we?"

"Yes, alas ... you're right, a complete ecosystem can't be completed overnight." Roman laughed bitterly.

At this time, Oliver suddenly had a flash of light and thought of an odd second idea. He jumped up from his position and said out loud, "Guys, guys! Listen to me for a second, why don't we move to the alien ship?"

"Originally, there was no vigorous development of the alien ship because the government wanted to keep the secret of the ship as well as the Perfectin. Now that the secret is known to everyone, why abandon it and ignore it?"

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

The crowd suddenly quieted down, exchanging words among themselves and whispering about the feasibility of this option.

"I agree!" A male voice came out from the back, it was Felix, the chief physicist, "If everyone moves into the alien ship, we can plant all the empty space on the ground as plants, which will save a lot of time!"