In this remote corner of the solar system, on this small, cold planet, Zhao Changxing's life seems to have been fixed on a fixed track, year after year, day after day.
The construction of Humanity Base No. 1 is progressing steadily, and the children are slowly growing up. Zhao Changxing witnessed with his own eyes that the babies had the ability to turn over for the first time - this honor was won by Sun Caiyun, and he also witnessed that the babies had the ability to sit stably for the first time. This honor was won by the eldest brother of all babies, Zhao Ye obtained it.
As for the first one who can crawl on the ground, it is their second sister, Qian Yue. At this time, the other babies were just lying there with their bellies on the ground, kicking and slapping their hands and feet.
When Qian Yue crawled toward Zhao Changxing from a few meters away with an unknown sound in her mouth, and laughed after Zhao Changxing picked her up, Zhao Changxing was greatly relieved.
At this time, they can no longer stay in the nursery and are moved to another room. Babies who have just crawled are when their curiosity is strongest. No matter what, they want to grab it in their hands, hold it in their mouths and explore it. In addition, they do not have enough control over their bodies, so it is easy to happen. It is dangerous, so the hygiene standards in this room are extremely high, and there is not a single hard or angular thing.
There are ten mobile robot aunties waiting for them here around the clock. No matter they are hungry, have a bowel movement, pee, or are sleepy, they will always come forward to deal with it. Normally, let them play freely here, or play with each other, or play with toys.
They grow up here slowly, receiving early childhood education courses developed by earth experts and implemented through robot aunties. Sometimes Zhao Changxing would come in and play with them after disinfection. This was when Zhao Changxing was happiest and most relaxed.
Slowly, they learned to walk and talk. When Qian Yue, representing all the children, called Zhao Changxing "Daddy" for the first time, Zhao Changxing hugged her excitedly and kissed her more than a dozen times, making her giggle.
By this time, considerable progress had been made in the construction of Humanity Base No. 1. The laying of the main frame has been completed for a third and is almost half way. And Zhao Changxing has decided to build a new soilless cultivation workshop and livestock breeding workshop here when the halfway point is reached. After that, the five rooms of the first phase of the building will be demolished and all the building materials will be integrated into the official Human One. in the base.
This will result in no food production for about three months, but Zhao Changxing is not worried. In the past two years or so, he has accumulated enough food to eat.
After Feng Yu, who was the slowest to speak, was able to call him daddy, Zhao Changxing officially started the construction process of a new soilless cultivation workshop.
The soilless cultivation workshop is an important part of Humanity Base No. 1. In the future, a large part of people's food will be obtained from here. No matter how important it is, it cannot be overemphasized.
The new soilless cultivation workshop is located in the northeast corner of Humanity Base No. 1, occupying nearly one-fifth of the total available area of the entire base, approximately 2,300 square meters. Compared with the two pitiful soilless cultivation workshops with a total area of 200 square meters in the first phase of the project, this is undoubtedly a huge leap forward.
Even if converted into the commonly used unit of cultivated land area on earth, mu, there are nearly four acres of land.
Among the 2,300 square meters, Zhao Changxing plans to divide it into ten areas. Each area has an independent environment and can grow ten types of crops with similar environmental requirements.
Among these areas, the rice planting area is as high as 300 square meters. After adopting the double-layer planting method, the area is doubled to 600 square meters. They mature in three months and can be planted four seasons a year, with a total harvest of almost three tons of rice.
The wheat planting area is 200 square meters. Using the same double-layer planting method, the area is doubled to 400 square meters. The genetically modified wheat varieties have a growth cycle of about three months and four seasons a year. It is estimated that the total annual output can reach about 1.5 tons.
Of course, Zhao Changxing does not yet have 400 square meters of wheat seeds to plant, but that doesn't matter. He has already used those limited seeds to plant in the current soilless cultivation workshop. After the new workshop is built, Seeds are completely sufficient.
You know, in order to save enough seeds, he was not even willing to make a bowl of noodles or a steamed bun to eat, and kept all the wheat harvested before as seeds.
The remaining extremely important crop is soybeans. Its planting area will also be increased to 600 square meters. After double-layer planting method is doubled, it will be 1,200 square meters, with an annual output of up to 2.5 tons.
After that comes corn. Corn is also very important, but its importance is not reflected as food, but as animal feed. With corn, the rearing of cattle and sheep can be put on the agenda.
Zhao Changxing also allocated 500 square meters of its planting area. Of course, this thing is too tall to use the double-layer planting method, so it is actually 500 square meters. The annual output is about 0.7 tons. But considering the weight of the corncobs and plants, it should be enough. Besides, the animals don’t just eat this, there are other feeds as supplements.
This consumes a total area of 1,600 square meters, and the remaining 700 square meters are more complicated to divide. All kinds of vegetables, such as eggplants, beans, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, peppers, etc., as well as rapeseed, sunflowers, peanuts, cotton, etc., and fruits, such as pineapples, strawberries, etc.
Zhao Changxing even plans to plant some more trees. Of course, these trees have been dwarfed and will not grow too tall to break the ceiling.
There are apple trees, pear trees, and the most important rubber tree.
Trees have a long growth cycle and must be planted in advance.
These trees cannot be planted using soilless cultivation. They must use soil and then water and fertilize them regularly. Naturally, there is no soil on the Spark spacecraft, but the so-called soil can be made from sand plus various humus, organic matter, etc. The sand can be collected directly from Sedna, which is not difficult.
Outside the soilless cultivation workshop is the livestock and aquaculture area. Due to the limited area, of course Zhao Changxing cannot adopt free-range breeding methods and can only raise them in captivity.
Raising chickens, ducks and geese is, of course, a method of raising chickens, ducks and geese in which they stay in cages all their lives and never see the light of day, maximizing area savings and improving breeding efficiency. As for the taste - humans have reached this point, do they have the right to pursue taste?
You need to raise more chickens. The feed-to-meat ratio of these chickens is amazing, they grow very fast, and they can also lay eggs. They are really the only way to quickly improve your living standards. As for ducks and geese, you can raise less of them and occasionally use them to adjust the taste. Just eat them as a rare treat.
Another important breed is the pig. Regardless of whether you are an adult or a child, you must eat more meat to stay healthy. Vegetarianism is a no go here.
A group of cattle must also be raised. Not only can this thing eat meat, but it can also produce milk. There is not much milk powder reserve in the Huozhi spaceship, and Zhao Changxing does not want the next generation of children to have to grow up relying on rice cereal. Even if you don't have the equipment at hand to make milk powder, drinking fresh milk after sterilization is still much better than rice cereal.
In addition to pigs and cattle, some sheep should also be raised appropriately. As for the donkey, forget it, there is no such condition for the time being.
In addition to livestock, there are aquatic products. As for fish, the first choice is of course the four major species of fish, which have high yields and mature breeding techniques. As for all kinds of fresh seafood, we can only postpone it temporarily.
By the way, we need to open up a place to cultivate some aquatic plants, such as kelp.
All in all, the livestock and aquaculture area would occupy thousands of square meters. Including the soilless cultivation workshop, the total area is more than 3,000 square meters.
For such a large area, even if it is just a modular installation, the workload is unimaginably huge. Especially since Zhao Changxing still needs to wear a space suit to perform these operations, it is really inconvenient.
But there is nothing we can do about it. He could only work and be busy day after day.
It took him more than half a year to build the framework of these two areas. Next, it was time to install various internal equipment. But before that, he needed to get the life support area ready.
With the support of the life-sustaining area, by then, the environment inside the soilless cultivation workshop and livestock and aquaculture workshop will be able to directly support human survival. He will be able to take off his space suit and directly operate and install those components.
The life support area is also an extremely important part of Humanity Base No. 1. All energy in the future Humanity Base No. 1 will come from here. All water sources will be purified and circulated here, as will all air. This took him several more months.
In the blink of an eye, more than a year has passed, and the planned new soilless cultivation workshop and livestock and aquaculture workshop have still not been put into operation. This situation made him only smile bitterly.
Now, the children are over two years old and full of energy. Even if there are ten robot aunts taking care of them, the children's room is always a mess.
On this day, after a day's work, Zhao Changxing once again dragged his tired body back to the Fire spacecraft.
As soon as I opened the door to the children's room, a chaotic atmosphere hit my face. I saw toys scattered everywhere on the ground, a few children were shouting and running, a few children were sitting on the ground crying, a few children were waving toys to play monsters and heroes, and ten robot aunties were busy running around. Almost crashing.
Seeing Zhao Changxing coming back, the children looked at him at the same time, and then they cheered and ran over, surrounding Zhao Changxing.
Facing the words "Dad" and looking at the mess in the children's room, Zhao Changxing thought to himself: "Maybe... it's time to let the children go to school."
