The terrain where the astronauts are now is very flat, and there are not many terrain undulations around them. They will not encounter any obstacles if they want to develop around.
Moreover, the geological structure here is also very good and can withstand the construction of various buildings.
The most important thing is that there is a high-quality shallow iron ore vein not far from here.
This iron ore is basically located on the surface. Mining is very simple and you can see the veins without digging too deep.
Moreover, the iron content of iron ore is also very high, even exceeding the highest quality iron ore on earth.
This ultra-high-quality iron ore is very simple to smelt and process, and it is easy to obtain finished steel.
You must know that steel is the most basic industrial raw material. As long as steel is available, many things can be processed on Mars without having to be transported from the distant earth.
Jiang Cheng finally chose this place as the location of the Mars base because of this high-quality shallow iron ore vein.
This iron ore vein is simply too rare, and it is so easy to mine and smelt.
If this library vein was on the earth, I don’t know how many companies would rob it.
It's a pity that there are not such good iron ore veins on the earth, so those companies can only look at it jealously on the earth.
This is the benefit of developing outer space. This is only Mars, which is the closest to the earth, and it already has great mineral resources.
And there is more than just this mineral vein on Mars, there are many excellent minerals waiting to be developed there.
Things like iron ore are only in high demand for building bases, but their value is real. More is not very high.
At the very least, the iron ore mined from Mars cannot be transported back to Earth to be sold for money. Transporting a worthless thing like iron ore back over such a long distance is simply a stupid act.
Just transporting love is countless times more expensive than iron ore, and it is simply not worth transporting back to Earth.
But this does not mean that there is no point in developing Mars. Iron ore is not valuable, but there are valuable things on Mars.
The last time he conducted a detailed exploration of Mars, Jiang Cheng found several platinum veins on Mars.
The gold reserves of these platinum veins on Mars far exceed that of the largest platinum mines on Earth, and the mining difficulty is lower than that of veins on Earth.
If Jiang Cheng establishes a base on Mars, he can start mining platinum on Mars.
Platinum is a very precious metal. The reserves on the earth are very low, so the price has always remained high.
The platinum reserves on Mars have been detected to be dozens of times that of the Earth, so mining platinum on Mars is still very promising.
Although judging from the current transportation costs from Mars to Earth, transporting platinum back is still a bit of a loss.
But technology is constantly improving, and the cost of space transportation will definitely continue to decrease in the future.
Jiang Cheng's new rocket has been under development. Once this kind of rocket is developed, the cost of space transportation will drop again.
It is estimated that by the time platinum can be mined on Mars, transportation costs will be reduced to a profitable level.
By then Jiang Cheng will be able to make money from this, and a steady stream of platinum will flood the earth's market.
Maybe the price of platinum will drop due to mining on Mars, but transporting platinum back from Mars is still of great significance.
Platinum has very high stability and is very suitable for use as an industrial raw material.
Therefore, platinum, a precious metal, can not only be used as jewelry, but it also has great practical value.
Jiang Cheng knew that many space vehicles in the future would need to use a large amount of platinum.
If you just rely on the earth to buy it, even Jiang Cheng's wealth will not be enough to meet the demand for platinum.
The platinum on Mars also solved this problem, which was one of Jiang Cheng's purposes for developing Mars.
From here we can see how barren the earth is. Compared to the Liao universe, the few resources on the earth are not worth mentioning at all.
Therefore, going to space is the only way out for mankind. There are countless resources waiting for mankind in the solar system alone.
The astronauts are busy making preliminary preparations on Mars, and the technical staff here on Earth are not idle either.
The entire aerospace technology team is now in a tense and busy state, except for the space mission center who needs people to monitor the situation on Mars.
The R&D team is also busy with their own work, and they are doing the final technical research and development.
The establishment of a Mars base requires a lot of new technologies, and these technicians are now making preparations.
While the astronauts are working hard on Mars, there is also a busy scene inside the Umbrella Aerospace Technology Company.
Now that humans have completely set foot on Mars, the first step of the Mars development plan has been successfully completed.
The next step is to initially establish a permanent base on Mars to serve as a base camp for developing Mars.
This is the second step of the entire Mars development plan and the most important step in the entire plan.
If you want to carry out development work on Mars and even implement Mars immigration in the future, you will need a permanent Mars base.
This Mars base must first be able to protect humans living on Mars. At the very least, it must be hard enough to withstand accidents encountered on Mars.
The Mars base must have enough life support systems to ensure the basic needs of humans on Mars.
Oxygen production equipment is a must. Human beings cannot live for ten minutes without oxygen. This is the first element of survival. It is best to be able to store some simple things in the base, which can also reduce the trouble of transportation.
In particular, the problem of food can best be solved in the base. If everything that humans on Mars eat has to be transported from the earth, then developing Mars will be just a pipe dream.
Only if this Mars base can achieve basic self-sufficiency can it provide guarantee for the development of Mars.
It is not an easy task to do this, and the entire R&D team is busy with it now.
The matter of construction materials has been solved. Now many mining robots have been produced. As long as they are transported to Mars, they can continuously mine various ores.
The matching integrated melting and forging equipment and maintenance robots have also been manufactured.
It can be said that after the efforts made some time ago, the materials needed to build a Mars base have basically been solved.
But construction materials are only a small problem, and other problems are the most troublesome.
The most troublesome thing is the life support system of the base. This system is related to the safety of human life on Mars, but you can't joke about it.
(End of chapter)