The metal content of Mercury is as high as 70%, which can be mined by humans for a long time. Why has no action been taken so far?
For a civilization to develop, having abundant resources is a prerequisite. Without resources, nothing can be done. It is with the support of resources on the earth that human civilization and technology can develop rapidly. In more than two hundred years, human beings have opened the way to explore the universe.
01
The importance of elements
There are many elements in the universe, and the most abundant element is hydrogen , but only under the condition that various elements cooperate with each other can the universe evolve and form various galaxies and planets. If life wants to be born and evolve, it cannot do without abundant elements.
The formation of heavy elements in the universe is inseparable from the changes of stars . Only after nuclear fusion reactions occur in stars can hydrogen be transformed into helium, iron and other substances. The heavier elements are brought about by supernova explosions that occur at the end of stars. After the supernova explosion, the elements in the star can become many metal heavy elements. With the existence of these heavy elements, new galaxies will be born in the universe. For example, the solar system is formed in this way, and the metal resources on the earth are also formed in this way.
The development of human science and technology is inseparable from various metal resources . The high-tech products we usually use are all created using metal resources. The faster human science and technology develops, the greater the human demand for metal resources will be. However, the metal resources possessed by the earth are limited after all.
02
What if the earth's resources are exhausted?
If human beings exhaust the metal resources on the earth, then if human beings want to continue to develop, they must find metal resources on other planets. We all know that there are abundant metal resources on rocky planets. Therefore, these rocky planets we have explored may become mining sites for metal resources in the future.
Currently in the solar system, the rocky planets detected by humans include the Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury . Everyone should be familiar with Mars, because it is the most explored planet by humans. As a rocky planet, Mars naturally has a lot of metal resources. However, humans prefer to turn Mars into a second living planet . Therefore, in order not to damage the ecological environment of Mars, humans will not turn Mars into a place for mining metal resources.
03
Mercury's value
The temperature of Venus is extremely high . Although there are abundant metal resources, it is still very difficult to mine it. Mercury is a planet that is very similar to the moon. Many people think that Mercury has no exploration value, and humans don’t need to spend their time studying it. Is this really the case?
In terms of mass and volume, Mercury is indeed similar to the moon, but the exploration value of Mercury is much higher than that of the moon, because it is a real metal planet in the solar system . Among the eight planets, Mercury is the closest to the sun . Mercury, which has endured the high temperature of the sun for a long time, has stripped off the impurity elements on the surface, leaving only those high-density metal elements on Mercury.
After preliminary detection, scientists found that the metal elements in Mercury are very high , reaching 70% of the entire planet. It is actually a metal planet. For humans, the metal resources on Mercury can be used for about 200 billion years.
Of course, this time is only judged according to the current development of human science and technology. If human science and technology continue to develop at a high speed, more metal resources will be needed, and the supply time of Mercury will not be as long as 200 billion years. But even if the resource supply time is not long enough, for humans, Mercury is still a rare metal planet.
04
Why haven't humans exploited the resources of Mercury yet?
Seeing this, some people may think, since Mercury has so many resources, why don't humans rush to mine it . The idea is of course very good, but it will take time for human beings to realize it. At present, humans have explored Mars, Venus and the moon many times. But there is only one detection of Mercury. What is the reason?
From a theoretical point of view, the distance between Mercury and the Earth is very close, and the farthest is only 208 million kilometers. After the probe is launched, it should be able to reach Mercury soon. But in 2004, it took almost seven years for the "Messenger" probe launched by humans to reach the orbit of Mercury.
In seven years, the Mercury probe traveled about 7.9 billion kilometers . Why does Mercury, which seems to be very close, travel such a long distance? The reason lies in the distance between Mercury and the sun. Mercury is very close to the sun. In order to keep moving around the sun, Mercury's revolution speed will be very fast.
The revolution speed of Mercury is about 48 kilometers per second . At such a fast speed, it is difficult for the probe to keep up with it. Moreover, the mass of Mercury is very small, and its gravitational force is not strong. Therefore, in order to be able to revolve around Mercury, human probes need to get closer to it. But if it is too close, the possibility of the detector crashing will increase again.
In order to safely reach the orbit of Mercury, the probe can only choose to go around a long way, and it needs to rely on the gravity of the sun, the earth and Venus to constantly adjust its flight position to slowly approach Mercury. It is so difficult for the probe to get close to Mercury, let alone the mining of resources on Mercury.