Heading towards the east, we drove the Hongqi space vehicle for about five or six kilometers before arriving at the Huangtie No. 1 Mine. At this moment, the ground here is no different from other places. They are all covered by a thick layer of dark red tholin. There was no other way, so Zhao Changxing could only find a way to remove Tolin before further mining could begin.
Still using the electric heating method of cleaning, in just half an hour, Zhao Changxing had already cleared an open space of about dozens of square meters.
What is exposed on the surface now is not the yellow pyrite, but the same black-gray impurities as the rest. These things also need to be cleared away.
After cleaning up a thick layer of about ten centimeters, the yellow pyrite was finally exposed.
Zhao Changxing returned to the Hongqi space vehicle, first used a punch to punch holes in the ground, and then used a crusher - which uses a process of thermal expansion and contraction rather than direct violent crushing - and worked for a while. The largest piece was more than one meter long. Iron ore with a diameter as short as the size of a human head was mined.
Next is the secondary crushing of iron ore that is too large. They are so big that they can't even fit through the door of Base One. Besides, it's too big for the next step of smelting.
It wasn't until the truck bucket was filled, and the total mass was estimated to be about fifteen tons, that Zhao Changxing ended today's mining work and drove the space vehicle to Base No. 1.
If these fifteen tons of iron ore are refined into steel, it is estimated to be about five tons. The quality is pretty good.
After using manual transportation to transport it to the industrial zone, Zhao Changxing did not start smelting immediately.
The steel required to make a blast furnace obviously requires special steel, which requires adding various trace elements to the molten iron, such as titanium, manganese, aluminum, zinc, etc. These things also need to be mined. However, compared to iron ore, their usage is much less.
It took another busy day to collect all the required trace elements.
Under the operation of Zhao Changxing, the small multi-functional electric furnace first began to purify and refine trace elements. This process is nothing more than relying on chemical reactions between different substances to achieve the purpose of removing impurities from the ore. The principle is not complicated, and the equipment here in the industrial area can completely do it, but at this scale, if engineers from the Earth Age saw it, they would probably shed tears.
When the furnace was opened for the first time, Zhao Changxing refined a piece of about ten kilograms of ore and produced three kilograms of higher-purity zinc, which was no bigger than a brick.
The second time the furnace was opened, 2.6 kilograms of minerals were produced, which was a little larger than a fist.
And this has already taken a whole day, making Zhao Changxing sweating profusely from exhaustion.
After five days of busy work, Zhao Changxing prepared all the auxiliary materials needed for steelmaking. It was finally time to start steelmaking. Zhao Changxing controlled his excitement. After crushing a pile of pyrite, which was about the size of a bucket, he put it into the electric furnace. After a lot of work, he produced about 20 kilograms of special steel powder.
Yes, the output is steel powder instead of steel plate. The reason for this is that Zhao Changxing does not have any metal processing and casting abilities at the moment. It is impossible for him to make steel take on various shapes and turn it into various parts according to his own ideas.
The only way is to "print" it through 3D printing. And for this, we can only turn the steel into steel powder first.
It took Zhao Changxing about two months to completely refine the 15 tons of iron ore mined for the first time into 5 tons of steel powder that met the demand. This is because the subsequent operations are familiar and the speed is greatly accelerated.
Then there was the second mining, and the third mining. It took almost a full year of busy work to prepare all the metal materials needed to build the first blast furnace.
After that, Zhao Changxing had to be busy in the chemistry and chemical engineering laboratories.
To build a blast furnace, only metal materials are obviously not enough. Other materials such as cables, heat insulation, and insulation are also needed. The most important of these is rubber.
It is obvious that there cannot be rubber trees on Sedna and it is impossible to produce natural rubber. But fortunately, people in the Earth Age have developed a perfect synthetic route for artificial rubber. In the laboratory, Zhao Changxing can produce it himself through various chemical reactions.
Preparation for this took several more months. A year and a half after the completion of Base No. 1, Zhao Changxing finally had all the materials ready and put them all into the 3D printer. He retrieved the blast furnace drawings from the database, entered them, and then started printing.
There is nothing to say about this process, it is one-piece and fully automated. So three days later, Zhao Changxing obtained the first blast furnace that could be used on a larger scale - with an estimated maximum daily output of up to 2 tons, far exceeding the output of existing electric furnaces.
As a result, the demand for various ores immediately began to rise. Zhao Changxing had to work hard. Every few days, he would have to take a special day to go to the No. 1 Yellow Iron Mine, Manganese Mine No. 1, Rare Earth No. 1 and other places to mine minerals, and then bring them back to the No. 1 Base.
Although 3D printing is powerful, its efficiency is still too low. Zhao Changxing must have his own metal processing capabilities, such as cutting, casting, stamping, etc. Only in this way can he produce parts of various types and specifications on a large scale. The various metals he is smelting now are preparing for the manufacture of the first lathe.
The Spark spacecraft has industrial-grade chips and CNC modules in reserve. This thing is small in size and light in weight, but has high technical content. It is impossible to build the No. 1 Base in the short term. Therefore, it is obvious that the original implementation personnel of the Fire Project must have a large amount of these things stored in the Fire spacecraft.
Therefore, this first machine tool will be a CNC machine tool with very high technological content. It can produce a variety of precision parts under Xiao Xi's direct control.
The construction of the machine tool took another half a year. As a result, at this moment, Zhao Changxing finally had the ability to smelt and process metal, and his production efficiency was greatly improved.
But this is not enough. Obviously one machine tool cannot meet all needs, and some other metal processing machinery must be manufactured later.
In the busy life of Zhao Changxing day after day, more than four years have passed in the blink of an eye. Before we knew it, the 30 children of the second generation were starting school. Zhao Changxing took time out to return to the Fire spacecraft and gave them their first lesson, etching the terms "Earth" and "Humanity" into their minds.
As the second generation of children grow up, the pressure on the first generation of children is greatly reduced. But that doesn’t mean their overall stress level will be reduced. They are almost 18 years old now, almost adults. Once you reach adulthood, you have to move to Base No. 1 and officially start work.
This day will really come soon. In the classroom, Zhao Changxing was filled with emotion when facing ten young men and women whose faces were still a little immature but already full of heroic spirit.
At first, each of them was just that big. They ate, slept, ate, and cried all day long, but now they have grown to this size.
Zhao Changxing still clearly remembers the scene of them gathering around and calling him daddy.
"You have all grown up... Today is the day when you become adults. After you become adults, you will truly take on your responsibilities, fight for and contribute to the continuation of our human civilization."
The young men and women looked slightly nervous. The future is full of confusion for them. After all, they have spent their entire lives up to now in the Spark spacecraft, and have never really had contact with the outside world.
But seeing the calm and determined figure on the podium, my heart gradually calmed down.
"Let's go, I'll take you to Base No. 1 to have a look."
He led the teenagers to put on spacesuits, take the Falcon 1 spacecraft, and come to Base No. 1 again.
Base No. 1 is already very familiar to Zhao Changxing, but it is full of novelty for the teenagers.
For the first time, they saw the endless land, the undulating mountains, and Base No. 1 lying on the earth like a giant beast.
They saw the golden ears of wheat, the tall and straight corn, the soybeans, the rice, the chickens, ducks and geese, the pigs, cattle and sheep, and the numerous food reserves in the storage area, and for the first time they understood When it comes to how the food you eat is produced...
This brought great shock to the teenagers.
Zhao Changxing finally brought them to the living area.
"You will spend most of your time here."
Looking at the expressions on the children's faces, Zhao Changxing breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, it seems that they quite like it here."
After settling down, Zhao Changxing quickly divided the work.
Two of them will stay in the Spark spacecraft to take care of the children and take on other tasks, such as repairing the spacecraft and providing data support for people on the ground.
The other two were specifically responsible for mining and transportation work. There are two others who need to assist Zhao Changxing in the current stage of preliminary industrialization, and the other two are specifically responsible for chemistry and chemical engineering work.
The last two remaining people do not have fixed jobs. They will provide support to the remaining groups as needed.
Of course, these jobs are not static. Every month, these tasks will be rotated. And as time goes by, as Base 1 becomes more and more perfect, adjustments may be made at any time.
With the addition of this new force, Zhao Changxing's speed in promoting industrialization has been greatly accelerated. At the same time, just as the children had just grown up, Zhao Changxing received an urgent message from Xiaoxi.
"Captain, I just received a special signal. This signal has very similar characteristics to the one six years ago..."
