With the original 12 Clones maintaining their existing work, these five newly added Clones also became busy.
Based on previous experience, Tom once again manipulated two Clones to start manufacturing the second steam turbine using existing parts.
The other three Clones repeated the construction process of Base 1, first using electric heating equipment to clear the frozen gas from the parts of the cave outside of Base 1.
The total area of this cave is about 600 square meters, but currently only 200 square meters are occupied. Now that there is sufficient manpower, Tom plans to utilize the remaining space as well.
Electric heating equipment requires a large amount of electricity, but the power supply is limited at this moment. To avoid affecting the power supply for the fluorescent lights and the growth of crops, the frozen gas removal work could only be maintained at a lower efficiency, taking almost ten days to complete.
Afterward, several Clones busied themselves again, knocking off and smoothing all the sharper protrusions on the cave's rock walls to prevent piercing the membrane.
Following that, Tom brought over eighty percent of the special membranes stored in the Shenkong (Deep Space) Spaceship and laid them along the rock walls into this cave.
The original Base 1 was directly incorporated into the new planting base.
After completing this series of tasks, including the splicing, laying, and securing of the membranes, checking the airtightness, and installing temporary lighting fixtures, Tom looked at the vast, empty hall, envisioned the future, and then busied himself again, transporting all the remaining planting racks, usable pipes, etc., from the Deep Space Spaceship down.
By the time the planting racks were assembled, the pipes laid, and the fluorescent lights installed, the second steam turbine had also been built, and a new generator was removed from the Deep Space Spaceship and connected to this steam turbine.
The installed capacity of this new steam turbine reached 30 kilowatt-hours; it was insufficient to supply the entire planting base's electricity needs on its own, but combined with the first one, it was more than enough.
"Start up!"
Following Tom's command, the Clone acting as the stoker immediately threw the pre-prepared frozen tolin ore and oxygen ore into the thawing chamber.
Heat from the first generator extended here, slowly thawing it. Mixed with oxygen, it immediately began to burn intensely.
Ice melted, turned into liquid, and then into water vapor. The heavy rotor began to turn, making the ground seem to tremble slightly.
Rolling electricity flowed out from within, into the fluorescent lights, and bright light was instantly released.
At the same time, the water vapor, still at a very high temperature after doing work, also flowed through the pipes to the base's underground, and after cooling, flowed back into the steam turbine.
The temperature of Base 1 immediately began to rise.
Once the temperature had risen sufficiently and the atmospheric pressure was consistent, several Clones stepped forward and directly removed the membrane of the original Base 1.
The large and small bases truly merged into one at this moment.
Pre-prepared fixtures, nutrient solutions, sweet potato vines, etc., were systematically planted on the new planting racks.
From this moment on, they will grow alongside the original sweet potatoes.
This new planting base now has a total area of 600 square meters and a height of 2.3 meters. Of this, 400 square meters are still used for planting sweet potatoes, and the remaining 200 square meters have other uses.
The newly added planting racks for sweet potatoes are still four-layered. Thus, the original 400 square meters for sweet potato cultivation directly quadrupled, reaching 1600 square meters.
This 1600 square meters of planting area is expected to yield approximately 10,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes per quarter.
Calculating that each Clone consumes 3 kilograms per day, or 270 kilograms per quarter, Base 1 can now support about 37 Clones with just sweet potatoes!
Aside from the sweet potato planting area, of the remaining 200 square meters, 80 square meters are used for the nutrient solution preparation room, temporary storage, lounge, kitchen, and so on.
For another 80 square meters, accounting for the increased area from two, three, or four layers, totaling about 200 square meters of planting area, Tom planted some wheat, soybeans, peanuts, rapeseed, oilseed rape, spinach, and other crops.
Each type was planted in small quantities, and the yield would not be much; it was for seed reserves and occasional dietary adjustments.
The last 40 square meters were consumed by internal passages and similar areas.
The total 600 square meters of Base 1 were fully arranged by Tom, with space utilization reaching almost its extreme.
As the planting area expanded, electricity demand increased, and more manpower was needed.
The addition of these five new Clones was almost just enough to maintain the operation of the entire base, leaving Tom with almost no one to spare for other tasks.
The two steam turbines roared continuously all day, like two eternally hungry beasts, consuming all the tolin ore and oxygen ore the Clones brought in within a short time, no matter how much.
This forced Tom to add one Clone to the mining team, bringing it to five people.
The stoker team also increased from two to three people; the three rotated shifts, with each person working over 12 hours a day, barely managing to keep up with the steam engine's consumption.
The two bodies remaining on the Deep Space Spaceship could not be moved lightly; besides the crucial reason of avoiding total annihilation, they also had to be responsible for learning and cultivating new Clones.
The remaining 7 Clones were all put into the planting base, constantly repairing faulty circuits, preparing nutrient solutions, and caring for crops, among other things.
A total of 17 Clones were busy all day long.
Time quietly passed under these circumstances, and in the blink of an eye, another three months had gone by.
This time, the Clones once again gathered in Base 1 and worked together to harvest all the mature crops.
After one day, looking at the over 10,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes piled in the temporary warehouse, as well as the variety of wheat, grains, beans, peanuts, vegetables, etc., Tom's face showed a smile.
"The survival crisis is finally temporarily resolved. With so many sweet potatoes, I no longer have to worry about starving to death.
However…"
Feeling the current busyness, the expression on Tom's face gradually turned serious.
"My current agricultural foundation is still too fragile. If there is any accident that causes significant damage to the membrane, the air will escape instantly, and all crops will die immediately.
There is no industrial system at all.
Fortunately, there are now some food reserves, and agricultural production temporarily has enough manpower. Once new Clones
are supplemented, I can finally move away from agricultural production and do other things."