The last human in the universe

Chapter 19 Adulthood
Facing the east direction, after driving the Hongqi space car for about five or six kilometers, they came to the Huangtie No. [-] mine.At this moment, the land here is no different from other places, all covered by a thick layer of dark red Thorin.There is no other way, Zhao Changxing can only find a way to clear Thorin first, and then start further mining.

The method of electric heating was still used to clear, but in just half an hour, Zhao Changxing had already cleared an open space of about tens of square meters.

What is exposed on the surface at this moment is not the yellow pyrite, but the same black-gray impurities as the rest of the place.These things also need to be removed.

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 punched holes in the ground with a puncher, and then used a crusher—using a process of thermal expansion and contraction instead of direct violent crushing—for a while, and the largest piece was more than one meter. diameter, the shortest iron ore the size of a human head was mined.

The next step is the secondary crushing of iron ore that is too large.They're too big to even get through the doors of Base One.Besides, it is too big to be suitable for the next step of smelting.

Zhao Changxing didn't finish today's mining work until the tank was full, and the total mass was estimated to be about [-] tons. Zhao Changxing then drove the space vehicle to the No. [-] base.

If the fifteen tons of iron ore are refined into steel, it is estimated that there will be about five tons.The quality is pretty good.

Zhao Changxing did not start smelting it immediately after moving it to the industrial area by manpower.

The steel required for manufacturing blast furnaces obviously needs special steel, which requires adding various trace elements to molten iron, such as titanium, manganese, aluminum, zinc and the like.Some of these things also need to be mined.However, compared with iron ore, their usage is much less.

It took another busy day to collect all the trace elements needed.

Under the operation of Zhao Changxing, the small multifunctional electric furnace first began to purify and refine trace elements.This process is nothing more than relying on the chemical reactions between some different substances to achieve the purpose of removing impurities in the ore.The principle is not complicated, and the equipment here in the industrial area can also do it, but at this scale, if the engineers of the Earth Age saw it, they would probably burst into tears.

The first time he opened the furnace, Zhao Changxing refined a piece of ore about ten kilograms, and produced three kilograms of relatively high-purity zinc, which is not as big as a brick.

The furnace was turned on for the second time, and 2.6 kilograms of minerals were produced, which was a little bigger than a fist.

And this has already taken a whole day, making Zhao Changxing sweat profusely.

After five full days of busy work, Zhao Changxing prepared all kinds of auxiliary materials needed for steelmaking.It was finally possible 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 the slightest metal processing and casting ability at the moment.It is impossible for him to make the steel show various postures and turn it into various parts according to his own ideas.

The only way is to "print" it through 3D printing.And this, you 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 due to the familiarity of the subsequent operations and the greatly accelerated speed.

Then came the second mining and the third mining. It took almost a full year of busy work before all the metal materials needed to build the first blast furnace were prepared.

After that, Zhao Changxing needed to be busy in the chemistry and chemical laboratory.

It is obviously not enough to build a blast furnace with only metal materials, and other materials such as cables, heat insulation, and insulation are also needed.The most important of these is the rubber.

It is obviously impossible to have 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 by himself through various chemical reactions.

Preparations for this took several months.One and a half years after the completion of Base No. 3, Zhao Changxing finally got all the materials and put them into the [-]D printer. He retrieved the blueprint of the blast furnace from the database, input it, and then started printing.

There is nothing to say about this process, it is integrated and fully automated.So three days later, Zhao Changxing obtained the first blast furnace that could be used on a larger scale—the maximum daily output is estimated to be as high as 2 tons, far exceeding the output of the existing electric furnace.

So the demand for various ores immediately began to rise.Zhao Changxing had to be exhausted. Every few days, he needed to set aside a special day to go to the No. [-] Pyrite Lode, or the No. [-] Manganese Mine, No. [-] Rare Earth and other places to mine minerals, and then pulled back to the No. [-] Base.

Although the function of 3D printing is powerful, the 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 models and specifications on a large scale.The various metals he has smelted now are preparing for the manufacture of the first lathe.

There are industrial-grade chips and numerical control modules in the Tinder spacecraft.This thing is small in size and light in weight, but it has a high technical content, and it is impossible to build the No. [-] base in the short term.Therefore, it is obvious that the executives of the original Pyro plan must store a large amount of these things in the Pyro spacecraft.

Therefore, this first machine tool will be a very high-tech CNC machine tool.It can produce all kinds of precision parts under Xiaoxi's direct control.

The construction of the machine tool took another half a year.Therefore, at this moment, Zhao Changxing finally has the ability to smelt and process metals, and his production efficiency has been greatly improved.

But that's not enough.One machine tool obviously cannot meet all needs, and some remaining metalworking machinery will have to be manufactured later.

In Zhao Changxing's busy day after day, more than four years passed in the blink of an eye.Before I knew it, the 30 children of the second generation also went to school.Zhao Changxing took time out to return to the Huozhi spacecraft, and taught them the first lesson, engraving the two terms "earth" and "human beings" in their minds.

As the second-generation children grow up, the pressure on the first-generation children is greatly reduced.But that doesn't mean their overall stress will be lower.At this moment they are almost 18 years old, and they are almost adults.And once they become adults, they will move to base No. [-] to live and start working officially.

That day will really come soon.In the classroom, Zhao Changxing was filled with emotion in the face of ten young men and women whose faces were still a little immature, but who were already bursting with heroism.

At the beginning, each of them was only that big, and they ate and slept all day long, or they would cry loudly, but now, they have grown to such a big size.

Until now, Zhao Changxing still clearly remembers the scene of them surrounding him and calling him his father.

"You have all grown up... Today is the day when you become adults. After you become adults, you will truly take on your responsibilities and contribute to the continuation of our human civilization."

The expressions of the boys and girls were slightly nervous.The future is full of uncertainty for them.After all, they have spent their whole life up to now in the Tinder spaceship, and have never really come into contact with the outside world.

But seeing the calm and resolute figure on the podium, my heart gradually settled down.

"Let's go, I'll take you to Base No. [-] to have a look."

He led the teenagers to put on the space suits, took the Falcon [-] spacecraft, and came to the No. [-] base again.

Base No. [-] is very familiar to Zhao Changxing, but it is full of novelty to the teenagers.

For the first time, they saw the endless land, the undulating mountains, and the No. [-] base crouching on the land like a giant beast.

They saw golden ears of wheat, tall and straight corn, soybeans, rice, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep, and the many food reserves in the storage area. When it came to how the food I ate was 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 in the future."

Looking at the expressions on the children's faces, Zhao Changxing was slightly relieved.

"Fortunately, it seems that they still prefer this place."

After settling down, Zhao Changxing quickly made a division of labor.

Two of them will stay in the Tinder spacecraft, take care of the children, and undertake some other tasks, such as repairing the spacecraft and providing data support for people on the ground.

The other two specifically took on the mining and transportation work.There are two other people who need to assist Zhao Changxing in the current stage of initial industrialization, and the other two are responsible for the work of chemistry and chemical engineering.

The last remaining two people do not have fixed jobs, and they will provide support to the rest of the group as needed.

Of course, these jobs are not static.These jobs will be rotated every month.And as time goes by, as the No. [-] base becomes more and more perfect, adjustments may be made at any time.

With the addition of this group of fresh troops, Zhao Changxing's speed of industrialization has been greatly accelerated.At the same time, just when 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..."

　Ask for various tickets every day! ~~~~~~ Please collect, recommend, ask for a monthly ticket~~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)