At this stage, Tom divided his total of 12 bodies into two shifts.
Two of his bodies were permanently kept inside the (Deep Space) Spaceship to prevent accidental annihilation on the surface of Loshen Star. At the same time, these two bodies also undertook learning tasks, constantly searching for information from the Deep Space Spaceship's database and studying without interruption.
These two bodies operated on an alternating rest schedule; whenever one body went to sleep, Tom consciousness would transfer to the other body, continuing to learn and maintaining his consciousness.
Among the ten Clones on the surface of Loshen Star, two were permanently assigned as stokers, specifically responsible for adding fuel to the steam engine.
Of course, they also rested in shifts; one Clone worked 12 hours a day, while the remaining 12 hours were used for sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom, temporary breaks, and so on.
The two Clones were just enough to manage the work.
The remaining eight Clones included four who took on the task of driving planetary vehicles to find and mine minerals, continuously bringing back oxygen ore and thorin ore for the steam engine. They also took on the responsibility of piloting the landing craft back and forth between space and the surface, transporting supplies and equipment.
Finally, only the last four Clones remained—if they worked in shifts, only two Clones would be responsible for constructing the internal facilities of Base 1 at any given time.
This made Tom sigh inwardly, "The number of Clones is still too small, simply not enough."
However, there was nothing he could do at this stage. Without sufficient food and energy supply, daring to increase the number of Clones would lead to everyone starving to death.
If the progress was slow, then it was slow. Tom could only calm down and take his time.
After half a month of busy work, the planting frames inside Base 1 were roughly completed. The fluorescent lights disassembled from the Deep Space Spaceship were also all installed on the frames.
There were a total of two hundred of them, each with a power of fifty watts, so the fluorescent lights alone consumed ten kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour.
Adding in the need to charge spacesuit batteries, planetary vehicles, and occasional other electricity demands, this instantly reached the steam engine's limit.
Even running at full power, this steam power generator had an installed capacity of only 13 kilowatt-hours.
"Let's take it slow."
Tom thought, "First, let's get Base 1 sorted out."
With the planting frames set up, the fluorescent lights shining, and the nutrient solution prepared from the powders ground by the grinder, everything was ready.
The waste products from preparing the nutrient solution, such as small stones, were not discarded. Instead, Tom evenly spread them onto the planting frames to serve as anchors for plant roots.
The nutrient solution, rich in nutrients required for plant growth, was carefully poured into the trays by one Clone, while another Clone carefully inserted sweet potato vines into the anchors.
This task took another day. It was not until the Clone's stomach was extremely hungry that Tom controlled him to simply grab something to eat.
Another Clone suffered from stomach cramps and had to go to the bathroom first.
As for the feces he produced, they certainly could not be discarded.
These feces were of great use to Tom.
They were rich in various organic matter and microorganisms necessary for plant growth and were an indispensable material for preparing nutrient solutions.
During this period, the feces of every Clone were carefully collected by Tom, never discarding a single bit.
After finishing all of this, Tom finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The next step was to routinely care for the sweet potatoes as they grew, and slowly wait for them to mature.
The total area inside Base 1 was 200 square meters. After deducting some essential functional facilities, such as the toilet, nutrient solution preparation room, and necessary passages, the remaining approximately 160 square meters were all designated as planting areas.
The planting frames were four-tiered, bringing the total planting area to 640 square meters, just under one mu of land.
Of these 640 square meters, Tom planted this specially cultivated sweet potato in 600 square meters.
This type of sweet potato only needed three months to mature and had a relatively high yield.
Experimental data from Earth indicated that, under ideal conditions, the maximum yield of this sweet potato could reach 6,500 kilograms per mu.
However, the conditions on Loshen Star were rudimentary, so Tom certainly could not expect such a high yield. He estimated that a yield of about 70% of the maximum, or approximately 4,500 kilograms per mu, would be sufficient.
Thus, for each harvest season, these 600 square meters of sweet potatoes were expected to yield about 4,000 kilograms of fruit.
Including his main body, the 12 bodies, in the current lack of meat supply, would need approximately 3 kilograms of raw sweet potatoes as a staple food per day to maintain their physical strength.
Of course, eating only sweet potatoes was definitely not enough. However, the Deep Space Spaceship still had some reserves of other foods and meat, which could be used as supplementary additions. Tom merely intended to use sweet potatoes as a staple food to reduce the consumption of other foods.
Thus, 36 kilograms of sweet potatoes would be consumed per day, which amounted to approximately 3,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes consumed over three months.
In this way, the output of Base 1 could not only fully cover the current consumption but also leave some surplus.
Moreover, sweet potato leaves could also be used to feed pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese, and even humans could eat them as vegetables, thus providing another source of food.
For the remaining 40 square meters of planting area, Tom planted some oil crops like peanuts and rapeseed. However, due to the extremely small planting area, they would not yield much, serving only as an extra supplement.
"Once this batch of sweet potatoes is harvested, my food reserves will be much more abundant, and I can proceed with a new batch of Clone cultivation."
Tom silently pondered, "At that time, I will build more bases to produce more food and support more Clones.
Once the number of Clones is sufficient, I can try to develop industry, slowly starting from scratch, and promoting industrial and technological development."
Looking at the planting frames that had not yet grown crops, Tom's 12 minds were filled with visions for the future.
Time passed as the Clones continuously learned, mined, transported, cared for plants, and added fuel to the steam engine. Three months flew by in an instant.
During this period, Tom personally witnessed every step of these sweet potatoes' growth, watching them sprout branches and leaves from tender shoots, then seeing the sparse sweet potato vines gradually cover the planting frames, and the sweet potato fruits gradually growing at the roots, becoming larger and larger.
Today was a good day. On this day, every Tom was beaming with joy, walking with a spring in his step.
Because three months had passed, today was the day to harvest the sweet potatoes!