Chapter 16: Discovery of Uranium

A few days later, a large pit was dug out, according to the engineers' plan, in order to be residential areas, laboratories, industrial areas, power plants ... after pouring good cement walls, and then covered with radiation-proof glass, a small base has taken shape.

While the Mars base was being built smoothly, the people on the Noah were not idle. They kept mounting heavy objects on the outside of the ship, so that the weight of the ship increased, and the flight altitude of the Noah dropped a little ...

Now, the most important thing is the geological exploration team, if the exploration of good mining areas as well as terrain, the Noah can completely land down ...

In all kinds of gravelly, desolate and silent Martian surface, there are mountains, plains and canyons. The terrain in the northern hemisphere of Mars is fairly flat, and a bus-sized Mars rover can drive smoothly.

The landscape of Mars is much more spectacular than that of Earth, with vast stretches of desert and ice fields as far as the eye can see. Everywhere you look, there is dry ice and a polar cap of water ice, with red rocks forming a unique geological landscape.

From time to time, strong winds blew through the sky, the wind speed was fast, but because of the air pressure, the force was not strong, only to roll up some dust. Even the sky was infected with this orange-red color, a reddish patch.

However, the more spectacular scenery, a few days to see it will be no longer interested. After three days, even the reporters were too lazy to talk, turned off the camera and rested on the Mars rover.

In three days, they walked almost a hundred and fifty kilometers, can give exhausted.

Such an expedition, not that it is good to drive all the way through, but also to dig rocks, examine various specimens, geological mapping, etc., consuming a lot of energy.

The journalist was Sawyer's girlfriend, Victoria, and she and Sawyer were lucky enough to be selected by the government at the same time. Even luckier, they were in a team.

But the trip to Mars was exhausting and not at all romantic. But they have no complaints, scientific expeditions, is boring and tiring. They came to Mars has been mentally prepared.

Because there was nothing special to discover, Victoria did not seem to be interested. Every day to see the same scenery, a dead air, there is interest is strange.

The party of about twenty people, consisting of scientists, journalists, doctors, soldiers and mechanical repairers, a variety of professional perfect, and also before coming to do professional training.

"It's time, let's take a break!" The one who spoke was a female scientist in her thirties named Clark, who was also the leader of this group.

A group of twenty people got on the bus in groups, disinfected with sterilized water, took off their space helmets, and enjoyed food and water.

The entire Mars rover is the size of a bus, and twenty people are still a bit crowded.

Sawyer, a geologist and mechanical engineer, was responsible for the supervision of the entire rover.

He first checked the power system and energy system, there is no big problem. Checking the car's power again, he came forward and reported, "Ms. Clark, we have about two-thirds of the car's electricity left, and we still have enough living supplies, so we have to return to the ship after another 50 kilometers for insurance purposes."

The Mars rover was all they had for life. If the car ran out of power, twenty people might not last long in Mars. Hearing this news, Clark nodded with a frown and said, "Okay, I understand."

"Guys, our cars can only go another fifty kilometers because of the power. We must save the electricity for the return journey. If nothing more is found, we will have to go back ..."

Alas ... the crowd listened, all a little downhearted and a little helpless.

"I hope we can make a good discovery in the last fifty kilometers!" The female scientist also wanted to encourage up everyone's morale, but found how could not encourage up.

In fact, ... did not go all the way without any discoveries, they found a huge ice mine, and an iron mine.

However, this discovery can only be described as average level, Mars itself is a planet rich in iron, its red surface is because of the large amount of iron trioxide. So the discovery of one iron ore simply does not satisfy everyone ah.

"We have excavated rock specimens from thirty-two areas ... where no bacteria can be seen from an ordinary microscope."

"Maybe Martian life doesn't need oxygen and all are anaerobic bacteria too ... Maybe we didn't look in the right places and they only survive in some specific places. It's even possible that it's not carbonyl life ...," the two biologists were discussing with each other in the car.

"But I don't think the odds are good ..."

No one knows if there is life on Mars or not, maybe these tiny dust particles are non-carbonyl life? If non-carbonyl beings, such as silica-based life or sulfur-based life, maybe they don't need water or oxygen to survive on Mars.

People know so little about the universe, who knows if this is possible or not ...

Humans are speculating about extraterrestrial life with samples of creatures on Earth. Earth life, all carbonyl, because the amino acids that make up carbonyl life, connecting the amino and carboxyl groups is the element carbon, so called carbonyl organisms.

However, mankind has never found non-carbonyl life life. Until now, people can only speculate in science fiction or movies, there may be a variety of forms of life, like what silicon based, sulfur-based, and what electromagnetic wave creatures, energy creatures and so on.

Of course, these are just the baseless imagination of human beings. Scientists do not blindly believe in these things, and after checking so many places without finding anything, they still think the probability of Mars having life is not high.

"Quickly, look at the pointer, we are subjected to radiation indicators rose by 1 percentage point." Sawyer said suddenly, keenly aware that the instrument shifted for a moment, then stabilized again.

"The atmosphere of Mars does not completely block cosmic radiation. Maybe one solar wind scrapes the atmosphere away a little and cosmic radiation goes up ..."

Clark, the female team leader, was halfway through, and suddenly couldn't go on, when she saw a gray-black rock! A black rock was too conspicuous in this full-eyed background.

She took a few more steps forward and saw more such stones, and her heart immediately beat wildly, "Quick, Jo, check the composition of this stone!" She picked up the stone and handed it to Sawyer.

Sawyer immediately broke, ground, and dissolved it in the machine for various chemical experiments.

"66% molybdenum, 8.3% silicon, 1.2% calcium, 0.2% lead... Oh my God, this is a good quality molybdenite! I also detected a small amount of uranium!" Sawyer screamed furiously from inside the Mars rover.

His girlfriend, Victoria, came alive immediately, grabbed the camera and snapped furiously at the ore, saying into the microphone, "This is Victoria, the reporter, and guess what we found ..."

"Clark, molybdenum is a companion ore to uranium! We could still find uranium! If we do, we'll be rich!" Sawyer yelled, impatiently putting on his helmet and running from the car.

"Everyone look for any exposed uranium, we'll split up in groups of 4 and use the walkie-talkies to contact each other, the idea is not to go too far!" Clark, the female team leader, immediately snapped.

"The earthy uranium ore has little luster, while the lumpy ones have a bitumen luster and are generally brilliantly colored ... Everyone split up and look for it, and send me pictures if you're not sure!"

The woman scientist spoke while her whole body trembled with excitement, if we really find uranium ore, it will be really lucky!

It must be found!