What is spatial resource (1)?

Perhaps when it comes to resources, people first think of water, oil, coal and various minerals, and few people suddenly think of space resources. In fact, space resources are inexhaustible. Just because of the limitation of science and technology, there has been no large-scale development. The following are some common space resources:

Space orbit resources

In fact, like sea and air routes, satellite orbit in space is also a kind of resource and an important resource.

For example, satellites in geostationary orbit can provide various services for fixed areas, such as communication, meteorology, environmental monitoring, power generation and lighting. All kinds of anterograde and retrograde orbits can meet the requirements of observation and information transmission at different latitudes of the earth. A network composed of multiple satellites can provide various services anytime and anywhere.

Earth resources exploration

The rational development and scientific management of the earth's resources is a major event related to the current and long-term interests of mankind.

We know that the earth's resources are distributed on the vast earth, and the surface area of the earth reaches 565.438+0 billion square kilometers, and most important mineral deposits are still buried deep underground. Such as coal, oil, natural gas and various precious metals. In order to exploit all kinds of resources needed, in addition to the surface resources such as wood, geologists have to wade through mountains and rivers, explore bit by bit, determine through geological analysis and judgment, and then drill. The degree of difficulty and slowness can be imagined. However, this is not all. At present, human beings can't or have no conditions to set foot in the deep sea, mountains, deep deserts and other fields for exploration. At the same time, field exploration is also affected by night and bad weather.

In addition, there are also problems in the management of ground resources. There are many farmland, forests, rivers, lakes, oceans and mined mines on the ground. These resources are very important. However, to manage all these resources effectively, it is necessary to establish a huge institution, which will cost a lot. Even so, it will waste money and have little effect. The investigation and management of earth resources in space orbit can save trouble and greatly improve efficiency.

When the ground receives an image sent back from space, researchers can draw geological and mineral maps based on this image. Because different underground mineral deposits have different surface characteristics, they have different effects on the growth of aboveground vegetation. In this way, the location of underground mineral deposits can be accurately detected, and even the products, types and reserves of this mineral deposit can be accurately estimated, which provides great convenience for prospecting.

Through the images sent back from space, researchers can also draw land use maps and distribution maps. Because spatial images distinguish objects by spectrum, the spectral characteristics of the same object in different States are different. For example, the spectral response of crops is different in health, low vitality or diseases and insect pests. In this way, we can know the growth of large-scale crops, pastures and forests in the air, monitor the prevention and control of pests and diseases and forest fires, and estimate the yield of large-scale crops and the accumulation of forests, of which the accuracy of crop yield estimation can reach more than 97%.

In addition, images sent back from space can also plan cities; Determine the location of railway lines, passages and bridges; Understand the change of river water level and forecast flood; Investigate water resources and find new water sources to guide and make irrigation plans; Conduct a comprehensive survey of the ocean to understand ocean currents, ice conditions and fishing conditions; You can also draw more accurate and useful charts and maps.

In a word, space images can let us see the panorama of the earth, facilitate our present life and help us plan and predict the future. Of course, the space images we are talking about are different from those we often see. These images are scanned by the spacecraft from high altitude with multi-spectral scanners, visible and infrared radiometers, microwave radiometers and other remote sensing equipment, and are imaged by remote sensing. Images sent back from space must be analyzed and judged by professionals on the ground in order to draw various charts reflecting the problems of the earth.

Space orbit communication

With the expansion of human life and the enhancement of understanding of the world, the communication between human beings is becoming more and more frequent, and the desire to contact people from farther places is becoming stronger and stronger. Because of the vast area of the whole earth, the communication between people living around the earth has become a big problem.

In ancient times when there were no means of transportation, human beings invented various ways to communicate with each other, such as the famous Great Wall in China. If there is an enemy attack, the wolf smoke will be lit during the day, and the smoke will send out a long or short signal with the pre-agreed signal. Beacon after beacon, the news was quickly passed on. If it is night, light a fire and use the light and darkness of the fire to convey the news.

Campfires and wolf smoke do convey information quickly, but they also have many shortcomings. For example, it must be used in places with the Great Wall, and generally it can only convey short and monotonous information, otherwise it is easy to make mistakes. This method was ingenious in ancient times, but it was inefficient and restricted by various factors. With the development of human life, it does not meet the requirements of human beings. It was not until 1837 that Moore invented the telegraph that the information transmission mode of human beings made a qualitative leap. At this time, people can quickly transmit information by radio. However, because radio waves are blocked by tall buildings and mountains, it is necessary to erect tall transmission towers, and radio waves are also affected by the spherical surface of the earth, so a transfer station should be set up every 60 kilometers. To realize long-distance information transmission, radio communication must be interfered by many conditions, which is costly and time-consuming. 1876, Bell invented the telephone, and people can communicate with people far away through telephone lines. But the longer the telephone line, the worse the signal will weaken, so it is very unclear to make long-distance calls.

However, using space orbit communication will not have these troubles. Satellites are radio relay stations suspended in the air. It is condescending, not blocked by buildings and mountains, and the influence of the surface of the earth on it is much smaller. Therefore, the number of satellites needed to realize global communication is far less than the number of transfer stations needed on the ground. Above the equator of the earth, the orbit of the satellite, which is 35,786 kilometers away from the earth, is stationary relative to the ground. This synchronous orbit is called geostationary orbit. By placing three satellites at the same distance in the geostationary orbit, radio signals from the ground can be sent to any corner of the earth except a few areas in the north and south.

Space environmental resources

The special microgravity, high radiation, high vacuum, high and low temperature, aseptic and high clean environment in space are important resources. In this special environment, human beings can carry out industrial processing, biological experiments, space pharmacy and so on.

Space industrial processing

When it comes to space industrial processing, we have to talk about the most important special environment in space-microgravity environment.

Speaking of weightlessness, everyone is familiar with it. Maybe everyone has this experience. For example, when we fall from a height, people will temporarily be in weightlessness. The most prominent example is the roller coaster, which uses acceleration to make people feel weightless, because the huge acceleration temporarily balances the gravity of the earth. But this is only temporary, because of the attraction of the earth, people will eventually return to the ground.

In space, both astronauts and various objects are in weightlessness for a long time. The weightlessness in space is different from that on the ground. To be exact, when the spacecraft runs along the orbit of space, the centrifugal force and gravity generated by its rotation around the earth reach a balance, so there is weightlessness.

Practice has proved that spacecraft such as the space station cannot form a completely real zero-gravity environment in space, and there will always be some interference factors. For example, the pressure of sunlight, the moment of reaction, the resistance of rare gases, the force of the earth's magnetic field and the influence of gravity gradient will all form tiny gravity. There are many factors that may also cause interference, such as people walking in the spacecraft, the vibration when the machine is running, the work of the engine of the directional system, the replacement of parts, the impact of meteorites and so on. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve complete weightlessness in the spacecraft. Specifically, the spacecraft is in a microgravity environment.

In space, all objects are in microgravity environment, and this weightlessness environment becomes a resource, which can help human beings do many things that cannot be done on the ground.

First of all, we can easily manufacture 100% roundness ball bearings. Maybe everyone is puzzled: why go to space to produce things that can be produced on the ground? Ball bearing is a very important industrial part and an indispensable part of many machines. Without it, many large precision instruments can't run. Some high-precision instruments have very high requirements on the manufacturing process of ball bearings, which are not used by ordinary bicycle bearings. These balls with special precision requirements are difficult to manufacture.

In ancient times, people knew how to make metal balls through weightlessness. The method is to filter the molten metal on the high tower with a sieve, and let the metal droplets cool and form under the weightless state when falling, so that the made metal balls are close to the ideal spherical state.

Modern industry needs a large number of bearings, and the balls contained in them are produced on the ground, which usually go through forging, rolling mill, stamping die, cutting and grinding, so it is generally difficult to ensure high quality, thus affecting the use and life of bearings.

In the microgravity environment of space, there would be no such troubles. Because the molten metal under microgravity has great surface tension, it can automatically shrink into an ideal sphere without the common self-weight deformation on the ground.

If hollow spheres are needed, gas is injected into the freely evaporated droplets under pressure to make them expand like soap bubbles, and the liquid naturally forms hollow spheres after condensation. Hollow balls are more durable than solid balls. After testing, the life of hollow ball bearing is 4 ~ 7 times that of solid ball bearing.