Chapter 415

"Yes, it's really troublesome." The mechanical expert discussed: "many scientific and technological advances are essentially advances in materials science."

"If there is a lack of rare earth, it will be difficult to make progress in materials science, and naturally there will be no powerful engine. Even some composite ceramics need rare earth. "

How important are rare earths?

In materials science, it is as important as oil!

Take the engine for example: in the era of turbojet engine, the gap between turbine blade and gearbox is wide, the temperature in front of turbine is low, the deformation of turbine blade is within a controllable range, and conventional materials can make do with it.

In the era of turbofan engine, the front temperature of high-pressure turbine is higher and the tip clearance is smaller, so the problem of turbine blade deformation is particularly prominent. Rhenium is the main element to solve this problem. Adding rhenium to nickel alloy can significantly improve the creep strength of the alloy and resist deformation under long-time work.

Without this element, the taps will never develop into turbojet engines. Even if they are smart, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice.

Most of the light rare earths can be used on mobile phones, and the reserve is still careless, but there are few heavy rare earths such as rhenium.

"The recoverable rhenium resource on earth is only 2500 tons, and the planet may be less, perhaps only... 100 tons? Such a big planet is useless at all. "

Zhang Yuan couldn't help asking, "have composite ceramics and nano materials been widely used in our current material technology? Many materials do not have rhenium. Is it possible for them to jump technology? "

"It's impossible. Many materials still have to use rare earth elements. It's because we have developed for hundreds of years... No, thousands of years. Sir, we are already a class III civilization. " The scientist said, "we should eat every mouthful of food and go step by step. Without the previous achievements, it is impossible to have funds to study the follow-up achievements. "

"If we can't even study ordinary propeller aircraft and jet engines, how can we make our ramjet engine step by step?"

This is also one of the important reasons why the TEP civilization has not produced aerial vehicles so far. It is not only because the money is not in place, but also because of the lack of materials.

Of course, the TEP civilization also faces the fourth difficulty, that is, the atmosphere is too thick and it is difficult to launch rockets.

The friction coefficient of the atmosphere is directly proportional to the air density. High speed Rockets will suffer greater resistance. At the same time, the high temperature of the rocket surface also puts forward more requirements for materials science.

"If this civilization wants to launch rockets, it must have higher performance materials. However, this difficulty is the simplest point. We can overcome it reluctantly. "

"The above is the objective environment that TEP people are facing at present. It's all difficult points."

Hearing this, Zhang Yuan frowned, "compared with human beings, TEP people are really a very unlucky civilization... So ah, if I am the leader of TEP civilization and launch some satellites with the help of human hands, it is really a very cost-effective thing."

Li Zhendong then said, "as for the scrapping of this batch of satellites in the next few decades, it doesn't matter whether there is the next batch of satellites. Anyway, I'm no longer in office. I'm probably retired. The people will only read me well. "

"You are very politically conscious."

So, if the enlightened civilization really came to this planet 150000 years ago, they should be able to foresee these difficulties after investigating the whole planet. How can they help them? In particular, this help may occur hundreds of thousands of years later.

This problem is very complex. The enlightenment civilization has always disliked direct gifts.

"If it's human, it's really difficult to help without giving technology directly. In particular, the other party was a group of primitive people 150000 years ago... High gravity, high pressure and lack of rare earth elements. How to solve it? They can't understand what primitive people said about rare earths. "

The expert said excitedly: "... So we study what happened 150000 years ago, whether natural or man-made disasters, according to the idea of archaeology. If this matter has enough influence, it is bound to find some clues in history. "

"Sure enough!"

"150000 years ago, a super earthquake broke out from the ocean!"

"Conservatively, the magnitude reached at least 13."

A magnitude 13 earthquake!

For every magnitude difference of 1.0, the energy difference is about 32 times. In other words, a magnitude 6 earthquake is equivalent to 32 magnitude 5 earthquakes, while a magnitude 7 earthquake is equivalent to more than 1000 magnitude 5 earthquakes.

So, a magnitude 13 earthquake is equivalent to 32000 magnitude 10 earthquakes!

Such a super earthquake can cause the displacement of crustal plates.

At that moment, a huge tsunami occurred!

A large number of volcanoes erupted at the same time, and the earth's dust blocked the global sun. Then, the sharp drop in temperature brought global heavy precipitation, and a small ice age caused by earthquake was born.

This little ice age didn't last too long. It lasted more than two years. A lot of precipitation made the dust in the sky fall again, revealing the bright sunshine.

In two years, it will not lead to mass extinction.

However, so far, the TEP people have not investigated the specific cause of this earthquake, which can only be vaguely attributed to crustal plate movement.

Zhang Yuan couldn't help asking, "so, is this earthquake related to the enlightenment civilization? Can it be said that rare earth elements appear in large quantities in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes? It's a little possible... But it's too rough... Explosion? "

This is the intuitive idea of many people, so that everyone will be a little speechless in surprise for a moment and a half.

The scientists on the stage couldn't help smiling bitterly, and then said: "we first investigated the earthquake zone, which is already a deep-sea area, and the deepest trench can reach 30000 meters. I think, even if the deep sea contains huge mineral resources, the TEP civilization can't develop it. "

"Even we can't develop 30000 meters of sea water."

The ocean is indeed a huge treasure house. Deep seabed manganese nodules are famous deep-sea minerals, containing more than 20 elements such as manganese, iron, nickel and cobalt, which are of great economic value. However, these mineral sources will naturally occur even if there is no earthquake.

Most seabed mineral mining bases are established in shallow water. Human deep-water drilling generally refers to offshore operation with a water depth of more than 900 meters, and extreme water depth refers to a water depth of more than 1500 meters.

The deeper the water is, the greater the difficulty will be. In the 30000 meter deep water area, even human submarines seem a little difficult, not to mention large-scale development.

"It is not possible to confirm whether the earthquake has an impact on the amount of seabed minerals in the world. According to computer simulation, after a major earthquake, there is a certain probability. Because of the eruption of submarine volcanoes, there are more submarine mineral resources in the world... We can't measure the specific figures. "

"However, this earthquake also brought a series of subsequent chain reactions..."