Mars.

Inside the Mars City conference room.

Academicians and professors with graying temples sat upright around the conference table.

A huge holographic image unfolds directly in front of the conference table.

Several large Chinese characters are prominently displayed on it.

Space Mining Technology

Lu Yongchang sat at the head of the table, his gaze slowly sweeping over the people in front of him, a hint of emotion flashing in his eyes.

Unlike previous projects, this space mining project involves many disciplines, so there were many unfamiliar faces in the conference room.

"Professor Lü?"

A strangely pronounced voice rang out.

Lü Yongchang turned his head to look in the direction from which the sound came.

An elderly man with a full head of white hair and typical Western features sat quietly in a chair, watching him.

That was Professor Leonard from the United States.

If he remembers correctly, this Professor Leonard is supposed to specialize in space mining projects.

“Professor Leonard?” Lu Yongchang smiled warmly and asked softly, “Is there anything you would like to say?”

Professor Leonard nodded solemnly, picked up the microphone beside him, and coughed lightly.

The previously noisy conference room quieted down.

All eyes turned to Professor Leonard.

“Professor Lü, based on my previous research, space mining projects have many difficulties,” Leonard said, enunciating each word clearly in his somewhat broken Mandarin.

After he finished speaking, he looked at Lü Yongchang with some trepidation.

This was his first time collaborating with Professor Lü.

Leonard was somewhat worried that his words might offend the chief scientist of the Human Rights Foundation.

Lu Yongchang chuckled and nodded, saying, "Please continue."

Upon seeing Lü Yongchang's reaction, Leonard's expression immediately relaxed considerably.

“Professor, although we have experience in lunar mining, there are huge differences between the two,” Professor Leonard said seriously.

"The three largest asteroids in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter have diameters exceeding 400 kilometers."

"In comparison, the moon's diameter reaches 3,476 kilometers."

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the largest asteroid. A large portion of the other asteroids are less than 100 kilometers in diameter."

"There are even a number of asteroids that are only a few hundred meters or a few meters in diameter."

"And this has created a rather serious problem."

“Its gravity is extremely weak, so our mining ships must have sufficiently reliable means of securing themselves to mine on it.” Leonard shrugged as he said this. “Otherwise, our drills will blow the mining ships off the ship while drilling.”

Lu Yongchang frowned slightly, and after a moment of contemplation, he turned to look at Academician Kong Xingbang, who was in charge of developing lunar mining equipment.

"Master Kong, this shouldn't be too difficult for us now, right?"

Kong Xingbang, with a full head of white hair, frowned and thought for a while before nodding: "Professor, this technology is not difficult to solve."

“Okay.” Leonard spread his hands and spoke again, “Then, the most important question.”

"Professor Lü, what method do you want to use to mine on asteroids?"

"Drilling? Or explosives?"

“Using a drill bit would be extremely inefficient, and explosives are difficult to control. Those micrometeoroids in space are no joke.”

Upon hearing this, Lü Yongchang immediately frowned.

That's right.

This was a problem that had troubled Lü Yongchang for a long time.

There are huge differences between each asteroid.

For the three largest asteroids in the asteroid belt—Panasonic, Juno, and Vesta—mining is not particularly difficult.

Even now, deploying Xuan Nu II and mining robots directly could be used to carry out mining missions on these three asteroids with diameters exceeding 400 kilometers.

However, for smaller asteroids, efficient large-scale mining is undoubtedly a huge challenge.

These asteroids are too small to be mined using traditional drilling methods; even the Xuan Nu II asteroid could not remain on their surface.

As for using explosives for blasting... that's just wishful thinking.

The impact force generated by the explosives is enough to send those tiny rock fragments to extremely high speeds.

At that time, let alone mining, it is estimated that even mining ships will have difficulty operating in the asteroid belt, which is full of "hidden weapons".

Thinking of this, Lü Yongchang frowned deeply.

This is not just a drawback of explosive mining; even when mining using traditional drilling methods, the problem of debris is difficult to solve.

500,000 asteroids are scattered in a region 2.17–3.64 astronomical units from the Sun.

Although it may seem like a lot, the entire asteroid belt is actually quite empty.

However, if the above two methods are used for mining, countless micrometeoroids will inevitably be formed.

For a starship traveling at high speed, a large number of micrometeoroids are like sharp blades that can kill!

This is undoubtedly extremely bad news.

"Can't we drag these asteroids into Mars orbit for mining?" Fang Xu's voice rang out from the side. "If we're lucky, these rock fragments might form a 'Mars ring'."

Lu Yongchang's eyes lit up slightly, but he immediately shook his head.

"I'm afraid it will be very difficult to do." Lü Yongchang sighed slightly. "The resources consumed in dragging those asteroids are completely disproportionate to the benefits."

"That's such a waste."

For a moment, the meeting room was filled with sighs and lamentations.

"...Professor Lü, I have a suggestion."

A somewhat familiar voice came from the corner of the conference room.

Lü Yongchang quickly looked up and glanced at the corner of the conference room.

Upon seeing the speaker, Lü Yongchang was momentarily stunned.

Tao Yuda?

Lu Yongchang's eyes flickered slightly as the spherical starship design he had created came to mind.

Perhaps, at times like these, an unusual mining method is needed!

Thinking of this, he quickly nodded and looked at Tao Yuda with expectant eyes: "Go on!"

The professors immediately turned to look at the corner of the conference room.

Clearly, Tao Yuda was finding it hard to withstand the scrutinizing gazes of the bigwigs.

He opened his mouth, a hint of embarrassment flashing in his eyes.

"Professor, perhaps we should just forget about it. I think this plan is a bit..."

"Yu Da!" Cao Liangcai interrupted him softly, "Be bold, say it! Believe in yourself!"

Upon hearing his mentor's voice, Tao Yuda swallowed hard, and the look in his eyes hardened slightly.

"Professor, now that we have medical nanorobot technology, why not develop a nanorobot for mining?" Tao Yuda said nervously. "I came up with this idea because I thought of scenes from some science fiction movies."

"Using a large number of nanorobots to directly 'eat' the mineral veins in the asteroid, and then having these nanorobots spit out the ore for smelting, this can balance efficiency and safety."