Chapter 1227: Atmospheric Modification Material?
A long time had pa.s.sed since the lunar scientific research station was built. The number of people who lived on the moon had almost doubled in a year. It had grown to more than 50 people.
However, this kind of population growth had limitations.
At the beginning of this year, the Lunar Orbit Committee announced that they would limit the short term increase in the number of permanent residents on the lunar surface. They would also require the management unit to maintain the current scientific research plan and the lunar resource development plan. The number of permanent personnel on the scientific research station should be maintained under 60.
The reason for such an arrangement was not because the costs of maintaining an astronaut in s.p.a.ce were too high, but because of the limitations of the conditions.
Similar to sanitation problems faced by many large cities, although the population size of the lunar scientific research station was far smaller than a city, because there was no ecosystem that could degrade material naturally, the sanitation problem from the population growth was magnified exponentially.
According to the needs of an average adult’s life, about 1 kg of garbage was produced per day. Of which metabolic waste accounted for more than 50%. The lunar scientific research station had almost no way to completely dispose of these metabolic wastes.
Even though the lunar plant growth unit could consume part of the feces and urine, which allowed organic matter to re-enter the life cycle, the efficiency of this cycle was not high enough.
Coupled with the contamination of bacteria and microorganisms, hygiene and safety had become a problem that couldn’t be ignored at the lunar scientific research station. Transporting the wastes back to Earth took up the transportation resources of an entire s.p.a.cecraft.
If the size of the population was allowed to increase, the Lunar Orbit Committee might have to plan a special route for the transportation of excrement and urine.
However, the existence of the Dr-111 active microorganisms was a turning point for everything.
No one knew where it came from. This project seemed to have mysteriously appeared in the database. Suddenly, people were a.s.signed to conduct research on Dr-111.
Even though some people wondered which expert was behind the collection of such amazing microbial samples, they were not privy to this knowledge due to the lack of literature.
Lu Zhou was drinking coffee and looked at the data fed back from the lunar scientific research station. He had a moment of realization on his face.
Like he had expected, the Dr-111 microbe was more complicated than he initially imagined.
In an oxygen-rich environment, it acc.u.mulated a ketone substance while catabolizing metabolites through respiration. In fact, even though this ketone substance was harmless to other organisms, it was harmful to itself.
Prolonged exposure to an oxygen environment would cause the entire microbial population to reproduce slowly and eventually destroy itself.
But on the other hand, if it was under a high nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and light environment, this microorganism possessed an amazing reproductive ability as well as feeding ability.
When it catabolized metabolites, it generated oxygen through photosynthesis. It also absorbed solar energy through a special amino acid molecular chain.
Even though the direct consumption taste was not ideal, this special amino acid molecular chain could be digested by most organisms. This meant that it could directly enter the ecosystem cycle.
Not only that, but this organism had extraordinary tolerance to low-gravity environments, as well as direct radiation from cosmic rays. It could maintain the stability of its overall traits by breaking down and engulfing its own cancer cells.
This microorganism was an amazing waste purification agent!
It was a terrible idea to use it on Earth; the s.p.a.ce station and other planets were where it should be applied to.
After Lu Zhou read the experiment report from beginning to end, he had a satisfied look on his face. Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind.
“Is this thing some kind of artificially made atmospheric modification substance?”
A level 2 Kardashev scale civilization might have created it, then planted it on planets to expand their colonies.
This microorganism multiplied wildly in an atmospheric environment with high carbon dioxide. It could grow exponentially, eventually covering the entire planet’s surface.
Then, after countless years, it would act both as a producer and a decomposer. It absorbed excess carbon dioxide and released oxygen, accelerating the process of atmospheric evolution. This allowed more carbon elements to be generated by photosynthesis. Organic matter used by organisms could enter the biosphere cycle.
In the final stage, as the oxygen concentration continued to rise, photosynthesis gradually became respiration. The ketones produced began to kill the microorganism and make it lose its ability to reproduce until it completely disappeared from the entire ecosystem.
After all of this, the chaotic planet covered by carbon dioxide could complete an atmospheric evolution process in just ten years.
Thoughts and ideas began to flow into Lu Zhou’s mind.
After all, there were very few atmospheric planets suitable for carbon-based organisms in the universe, and oxidation was the way most organisms obtained energy.
Under normal natural evolution conditions, it might take hundreds of millions of years to turn a planet filled with carbon dioxide and nitrogen into a relatively livable planet.
If this level 2 Kardashev scale civilization could extend its territory to an area of hundreds of light-years away by means faster than light travel, it was likely that they had mastered planetary atmospheric transformation technology.
Lu Zhou was certain that he was correct.
After all, the nature of civilization was to transform nature.
Only savages would choose chaos.
“I can’t believe I found such an incredible thing…”
Lu Zhou was shocked; his heart was filled with adrenaline.
If his idea was correct, then the microorganism was not only a “s.p.a.ce version of waste purifier”, but it was also a living fossil from an advanced civilization!
What was worth studying was not just the microorganism itself, but also the biological modification technology and genetic modification technology that it might contain.
It wasn’t clear how much reverse engineering could be done. But even if it was only a small gain, it could be of great help to human civilization.
Lu Zhou thought about Mars.
It was not realistic to directly modify the atmosphere of Mars. After all, the gravity of Mars was too small and there was no protection from magnetic fields. Even if an atmosphere similar to Earth was created on Mars, it would eventually disappear.
However, if they could build a relatively closed and large biosphere, it might be feasible to live on Mars.
With the help of this microorganism’s environmental modification ability, as long as the methods and modification schemes used were appropriate, creating a closed biosphere on Mars should not be a problem.
Lu Zhou suddenly thought of a sentence The Observer said to him. He had a scary thought in his mind.
Nothing is ever just a coincidence.
Maybe…
Someone “designed” our solar system…