My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 543: Chapter 343: Star Sand at the Fingertips, Heaven and Earth in the Palm: Li Sheng’s Helium-3 Revolution and the Extraordinary Fire Seed

After Li Xiang finished setting up the ”Candle Dragon” radio telescope array, the live broadcast ended.

But the heated discussions around the world didn’t stop. Many people were speculating: what would Li Xiang do next?

It’s not like he would spend eight hours flying up there, finish the job in less than an hour, and then just head straight home, right?

He should at least have a cup of coffee and look at the stars, shouldn’t he?

It had to be said, there were plenty of experts, or at least smart people, on Earth.

And indeed, a confidential meeting was convened within NASA in the Beautiful Country to deduce Li Xiang’s next move.

During the meeting, a senior professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said, ”In the permanently shadowed regions of the Moon’s poles, there are large quantities of solid water ice, and the concentration of Helium-3 there is extremely high. Combined with China’s undisclosed ’Helium-3 Mining White Paper,’ I speculate that he will establish an isotope separation plant—Oh, God, he can’t be thinking of hand-crafting nuclear fusion fuel rods, can he?”

It had to be said, the man was exactly right.

Li Xiang was, in fact, going to hand-craft Helium-3 rods.

Of course, this was just the initial extraction. The specifics, such as industrialization and application-end research, would be handled by Jiang Cai’Er’s team once he brought the materials back to Earth.

Part of the reason he was on this official trip was that Jiang Cai’Er had asked him to come up and mine Helium-3.

Helium-3 is one of the main resources on the Moon that the world’s major powers have long coveted. It is an isotope that has been known since 1988 to be usable for nuclear fusion.

Its greatest advantage is that it is very stable, clean, and non-radioactive, making it the ideal fuel for controlled nuclear fusion.

Helium-3 reserves on Earth, however, are extremely scarce, mainly because Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere block most of the solar wind, which is the primary source of Helium-3 for a planet.

The Moon’s surface has no atmosphere, and its Helium-3 reserves are estimated to be in the millions of tons. The energy released from the fusion of just 25 kilograms of Helium-3 could meet the electricity needs of the United States for an entire year.

If all the Helium-3 on the Moon were mined for power generation, it could satisfy the electricity demands of all humanity for at least 2,000 years.

Of course, Helium-3 has other uses besides power generation.

But with Helium-3, even without sunlight, Earth Humans could survive for at least one or two thousand years without worrying about energy.

Plants need photosynthesis to grow, and modern agriculture long ago solved the problem of using artificial light sources to replace natural light. This is actually a very simple theory, and it has been proven feasible through countless practical applications.

In extreme environments like a Space Station, artificial light sources are a key technology for enabling plant growth and oxygen regeneration.

The basic principle is that during photosynthesis, plants absorb light to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic matter and oxygen. A plant’s light absorption is mainly concentrated in the blue (approx. 450nm) and red (approx. 650nm) light spectrums, while green light (approx. 550nm) is relatively unabsorbed.

Artificial light sources work by simulating these specific wavelengths of light, providing plants with the energy needed for photosynthesis.

Helium-3 is not buried deep underground but is mainly distributed in the surface layer of the Moon, at a depth of no more than a few meters. It is primarily concentrated in the lunar regolith that contains ilmenite.

The surface of the ilmenite particles in the regolith is covered by an amorphous glass layer, with helium bubbles 5-25 nanometers in diameter forming inside. The Helium-3 concentration is even higher in the permanently shadowed regions of the Moon’s poles (areas where water ice coexists).

Ilmenite is a weakly magnetic mineral that can be separated from the rest of the regolith through magnetic screening. Then, the glass layer can be shattered using high-pressure shockwaves or ultrasound to release the helium bubbles at room temperature. A nanoscale gas-capture membrane is then used to trap the Helium-3, achieving a purity of up to 99.9%.

This process is the mechanical crushing method proposed by China. Its energy consumption is only 1/20th of the traditional high-temperature method, making it suitable for in-situ mining on the Moon.

Alternatively, the United States has the Interlune plan, a low-temperature baking method, but it has only ever existed as a PowerPoint presentation. China, on the other hand, has already been to the Moon several times, collected regolith samples, and conducted small-scale experiments.

Li Xiang arrived at the South Pole of the Moon, in the Helium-3-rich zone. He activated his Earth Vein Perception Ability and surveyed the area with his eyes closed for a moment. Then, he unleashed his Earth Superpower. Amidst the grayish-white dust of the regolith’s surface—the deposition layer for solar wind particles—countless faint blue points of light began to appear...

Tens of thousands of nanoscale Spiritual Silk threads pierced through the regolith, precisely capturing the Helium-3 atoms.

With a thought, Li Xiang tried activating ”Star Meteor Flowing Sand!”

A massive amount of Helium-3 surged toward his fingertip like a roiling cloud. A few seconds later, a brilliant blue droplet, as dazzling as a diamond, appeared before his eyes.

Li Xiang stared blankly at this beautiful ”Liquid Diamond” for a moment. ’Holy crap, it actually worked?’

You have to understand, before he came, Jiang Cai’Er had explained to him that Helium-3 gas has a unique property: no matter how low the temperature gets, it always remains in a gaseous state.

But now, using the ”Star Meteor Flowing Sand” he had previously comprehended, Li Xiang had actually compressed Helium-3 into a liquid. And its density was extremely high.

His Star Meteor Flowing Sand could compress a hundred tons of yellow sand into the size of a sesame seed, so it wasn’t surprising that a small test of his skill could compress Helium-3 into a liquid. In fact, Li Xiang felt that if he was willing to spend a little more time, he could probably compress it into a solid crystal.

This kind of method was absolutely beyond the understanding of current Earth technology.

Furthermore, at extremely low temperatures, Helium-3 exhibits superfluidity, making it an important subject of research in condensed matter physics.

At the current level of Earth’s technology, large-scale mining of Helium-3 on the Moon would be incredibly difficult and prohibitively expensive. But for Li Xiang, it was as easy as lifting a finger.

His spirits high, he began mining in large quantities. He worked for seven days and seven nights, collecting about 36 tons of Helium-3, which, once compressed into a liquid, didn’t take up much space at all.