Time is still passing by in Zhao Changxing's busy schedule. The children are growing up day by day, which can also be seen from the increase in their appetite. Fortunately, the soilless cultivation workshop is now in full operation, and the grain output is fully sufficient, so it does not put any pressure on Zhao Changxing.
Otherwise, the problem of feeding the children alone would be enough to give him a headache.
Humanity Base No. 1 is also showing its appearance bit by bit.
At this moment, in addition to the five completed buildings - soilless cultivation workshop, livestock breeding workshop, life support area, fully automatic nutrient solution preparation workshop, and warehouse area, the sixth building is about to be completed.
The sixth building is called the Recycling and Recycling Center. After the completion of Base No. 1, waste from all other areas, such as chicken manure and pig manure produced in the livestock breeding workshop, crops grown in the soilless cultivation workshop, abandoned plants after harvesting fruits, and domestic waste produced in the living area , bones, human feces and other things will all be transported here for further processing.
The reason for building a garbage recycling and processing center is not that Zhao Changxing wants to do some environmental protection on Sedna, but that there will be many recyclable things in these discarded garbage. At this stage of shortage of materials, , it is very necessary to recycle them to achieve a "closed loop of energy and materials" within the base.
For example, chicken manure, pig manure, fish manure and other things can be used as nutrient solution for plants after treatment, human food waste can be used as livestock feed after treatment, and crop plants can also be used as feed after treatment.
A portion of nutrients is collected from the planet Sedna and is first used by various crops after preparation. Their output is consumed by livestock, aquatic products and humans, and the excrement of livestock, aquatic products and humans can be returned and used again for crop growth. This forms a "closed loop of energy and materials" effect, which can greatly improve the utilization rate of materials. , greatly reducing Zhao Changxing’s workload.
Before the garbage recycling and processing center was built, Base No. 1 also operated according to this logic, but it only required Zhao Changxing's in-depth participation to complete it. After the garbage recycling and processing center is built, he will be freed from this process and leave everything to Xiao Xi.
The construction of this sixth building took Zhao Changxing more than three months. After it is completed, Zhao Changxing can finally start the construction of the livestock and aquaculture workshop.
Livestock and aquaculture workshops will produce a large amount of feces, bones, inedible body structures such as lymphatic viscera, feathers, sewage rich in organic matter, etc. The amount is so large that Zhao Changxing cannot complete the processing work with manpower. This is also one of the reasons why Zhao Changxing must complete the garbage recycling and processing center before officially starting to breed animals.
Zhao Changxing plans to divide the livestock and aquaculture workshop into eight parts. Chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep each occupy one part, the four major fishes occupy one part, and aquatic plants occupy one part. Among these eight parts, chickens play a more important role, occupying only 200 square meters of area, while ducks and geese occupy 50 square meters. In this area, about 800 chickens, 100 ducks, and 50 geese can be raised. look. Some of them produce meat and some produce eggs, so there are both meat and eggs.
Excluding unexpected situations such as illness, under ideal circumstances, Zhao Changxing can obtain approximately 60,000 eggs, 2 tons of chicken, 1,000 duck eggs, 0.5 tons of duck meat, 1,000 goose eggs, and 0.3 tons of goose meat every year.
Pork is undoubtedly one of the most important food types. Zhao Changxing plans to allocate an area of 400 square meters for the pig breeding area. After adopting the double-layer breeding method, he will also set aside the area required for the installation of breeding pigs, sows, and various equipment. , this area can build about 80 pig houses and keep 80 pigs at the same time. Calculated based on the seven-month slaughter time, and assuming that all piglets grow up successfully, Zhao Changxing can obtain approximately 8.5 tons of pork every year.
Excluding the four types of animals, chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs, there is still an area of 300 square meters in the livestock and aquaculture area. Among them, Zhao Changxing plans to allocate 100 square meters for cattle and raise four of them, including two dairy cows and two beef cows.
Considering various factors, if beef cattle are slaughtered in one year, two beef cattle can produce 0.5 tons of beef in one year.
The sheep breeding area is also 100 square meters. This area can raise about 30 sheep. Based on the calculation of slaughtering in half a year, the output of mutton in a year is about 0.6 tons.
There are still 100 square meters left, of which 50 square meters are allocated to fish. Zhao Changxing plans to build a fish pond that can produce hundreds of fish every year. We also built a pond on the remaining 50 square meters to cultivate some kelp, lotus root, algae and other miscellaneous things.
Taken together, the livestock and aquaculture area can produce about 13 tons of various meats annually. But this is under the premise of full power operation, and food needs to be adequately supplied.
At this stage, Base No. 1 obviously does not have such sufficient food. You know, even if all kinds of vegetables are included, the total annual food output of the soilless cultivation workshop is just over 10 tons, which is not even enough to be made into feed.
"At this stage, calculations include all crop plants, such as corn stalks, rice stalks, soybean stalks, wheat straw, etc., and supplementing some grain can support about 30% of the total production efficiency of the livestock breeding workshop. Any more, it will be It will have an impact on food reserves. This efficiency is a bit low."
In the original base planning, the livestock and aquaculture area was originally unable to reach full power production. This requires Zhao Changxing to lead a new generation of humans to build more and larger soilless cultivation workshops on their own, and this can only be achieved after sufficient food output is achieved. But now, Zhao Changxing is not satisfied with this situation.
As long as he thinks about the 30 babies that will be born in a few years, he is extremely eager to store more meat and more food in the warehouse.
After all, if you have food in your hands, you won’t panic in your heart.
"I'll think about it again, think about it again... Well, the only way now is to use a starch reactor to directly synthesize starch to use as feed."
However, this technology is not mature, and there was no technology for large-scale synthesis of starch on Earth. Otherwise, there must be relevant equipment in the Spark spacecraft.
"I only have two reactors now, and I can only synthesize a few kilograms of starch every day, which won't do much good. It's not realistic to build more reactors. Alas."
After much thought, Zhao Changxing had to regretfully accept the reality that the livestock and aquaculture area could only operate at 30% power at the current stage. Calculated in this way, the annual output becomes about 20,000 eggs and 3.5 tons of meat.
Due to the decrease in output, Zhao Changxing does not need to build the entire livestock and aquaculture area now. He only needs to build a part of it, which is enough for current use. This saved a lot of time, and it only took about half a year to complete the construction. So a new batch of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep were put in and began to grow slowly under the supervision of the fully automatic breeding system.
After initially completing the "energy and material closed loop", the construction of Base No. 1 has once again entered a new level. Next, Zhao Changxing began the construction of another extremely important area in Base No. 1.
Living Area.
The population is still relatively small now, and the children are still too young, so living in the Spark spacecraft is still manageable. But when the population increases in the future, living in Sedna Base No. 1 will become inevitable.
In Zhao Changxing's plan, the new generation of humans will live in the Spark spacecraft when they are under 18 years old, and when they turn 18, they will move here. The reason for this is mainly to prevent the low gravity environment of Sedna from affecting the growth and development of children.
The maximum supply of materials produced by Base No. 1 can support a population of about 200 people, including about 40 adults, and more than 100 babies, toddlers and teenagers. If there are any more, there will be famine.
Taken together, 40 people will live in the living area of Base No. 1. According to a room of 20 square meters and two people living there, 40 people will need at least 400 square meters of living area. In addition to this, it is also necessary to plan people's entertainment areas, canteens, leisure areas and other places. Taking into account the area of corridors and other areas, as well as the area occupied by buildings, in total, the total area of the living area is as high as 3,000 square meters. , larger than the soilless cultivation workshop.
But there is no way. We cannot let people live in small pigeon cages. This will cause psychological problems over time.
At this moment, including the six previously completed buildings and the current living area, the total area has reached about 8,000 square meters.
After the livestock and aquaculture area was put into operation, Zhao Changxing had no time to rest and once again devoted himself non-stop to the construction of the living area.
This is the largest building in Human Base No. 1 so far. Zhao Changxing knew that this project would definitely consume a huge amount of time, so he was not in any hurry during the construction process and just followed the steps.
As time goes by, the built-up area of the living area is getting larger and larger. In this process, because various crops, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle, sheep, etc. have different growth cycles, every not so long period of time, there will always be a crop or animal that is ready for harvest.
This is the happiest time for Zhao Changxing, as if his body, exhausted from a busy day, is bursting with strength again. Every time at this time, Zhao Changxing would always take some time out and would not stop until he saw the food or meat being put into the warehouse for storage.
Today is the time for corn harvest. The harvest time is set at five o'clock in the afternoon. And the time was only 4:45, and Zhao Changxing had already arrived here.
Looking at the tall and straight corns with huge and plump fruits, Zhao Changxing couldn't help but smile on his face.
