Agriculture is the foundation of all industries. After all, people need to fill their stomachs and have enough food before they can think about other things.
At this stage, Tom has initially solved the agricultural problem, producing enough food to supply some Clones, allowing them to have sufficient food even without engaging in agricultural production.
Therefore, developing industry became a necessity.
Without industry, the scale of agriculture would also be limited, remaining confined to manual labor with low efficiency, making population expansion a luxury.
After a quick review of his current population and agricultural scale, combined with future development plans, Tom quickly formulated a solution.
"Steel is the foundation for all future development.
To continue expanding the population and developing industry, steel is indispensable.
Even if only agriculture is developed and not industry, steel is still essential.
At this stage, the planting racks, pipelines, and detachable components in the Deep Space Spaceship have all been used up.
Without sufficient steel supply, I can't even build a new planting base now.
The output of the No. 1 planting base currently barely supplies 37 Clones; how is that enough?
Then... I'll build a steel-making blast furnace! Anyway, the preliminary survey showed that Loshen Star also has iron ore. Although the reserves are not large, they are completely sufficient for me."
The technical knowledge base did not contain information on building a blast furnace, but with basic principles, Tom could design it himself, which was not a problem.
In addition to technical data, the Deep Space Spaceship also contained two pieces of equipment that could support the steel requirements for manufacturing the steel-making blast furnace itself.
One of these two pieces of equipment was a multi-functional intelligent ore refining device, which could smelt and purify various minerals according to the parameters set by Tom.
Of course, since it was multi-functional, its size was necessarily small, and its efficiency was much lower than specialized equipment. However, it was sufficient as initial startup equipment.
The other piece of equipment was a multi-functional metal processing device.
It could process various types of metals into different shapes according to set parameters.
These two machines were specially prepared for Tom by the Earth team back then. This way, in certain extreme situations, Tom could process some parts himself.
Although self-processed parts would definitely not match the performance of professional equipment, they could still be used as a makeshift solution.
Now, Tom planned to use these two pieces of equipment to gradually produce steel, process parts, and eventually "assemble" a steel-making blast furnace.
The Deep Space Spaceship's knowledge base did not contain the construction technology for steel-making blast furnaces.
After all, it was inconceivable that Tom, as an astronaut, would ever need this technology.
But fortunately, the knowledge base contained corresponding basic scientific principles.
So, the two Clones in the Deep Space Spaceship once again began to study day and night, while also awaiting the birth of the latest five Clones.
After some time, the new five Clones were finally born, and the total population under Tom's command reached 22. His design drawings for the steel-making blast furnace were also finally completed.
Afterward, he carefully transported the two crucial pieces of equipment from the Deep Space Spaceship to Loshen Star, meticulously assembled them, and connected them to the No. 2 generator's power supply.
When manufacturing the No. 2 generator, Tom had already considered the subsequent power demands of these two pieces of equipment and left a surplus, so the additional power demand at this moment would not affect crop growth.
After self-inspection was complete and working parameters were set, some iron ore that had been brought back earlier while collecting oxygen ore and thorin ore was crushed into small pieces and placed into the smelting furnace.
Electrical energy was converted into heat, melting these ores. Then, through a series of processes, iron elements were purified, and a certain proportion of carbon, chromium, nickel, and other elements were added, finally transforming into low-temperature steel that could maintain its performance in Loshen Star's low-temperature environment.
This piece of low-temperature steel, with a total mass of 30KG, was placed by Tom into the metal processing equipment.
According to the previously set parameters, this low-temperature steel was processed into various shapes of components.
These parts varied in size, lightness, and weight.
Following the blueprints he had designed, these parts were slowly pieced together and welded by the Clones, eventually forming something resembling a large tank.
This large tank reached a height of three meters and had a diameter of one and a half meters. It used electricity as its energy source, and all other aspects were manually controlled.
Whether it was temperature control, feeding, discharging, monitoring, etc., everything needed to be completed manually by the Clones. After all, Tom currently had no automation technology.
According to the design standards, this blast furnace, when operating at full capacity, could produce approximately 200 kilograms of steel per day on average, with an annual output of 73 tons.
This output, if placed on Earth—if there were still humans on Earth at this moment—would probably be scorned even by the smallest steel workshop in the countryside. But for Tom at this moment, it was a divine artifact.
A divine artifact sufficient to kickstart his industrialization.
Looking at this crude blast furnace, full of rough marks, Tom's heart was filled with joy.
He seemed to see continuous streams of molten steel flowing out of this blast furnace, transforming into planting racks, into various components, into huge machines...
But... unfortunately, this blast furnace currently cannot be put into use.
The reason is simple: it consumes too much electricity.
Its power reached 80 kilowatts. At this stage, the two generators he owned combined had a total power of only over 40 kilowatts, which was not enough to power it fully.
Furthermore, steelmaking also requires a sufficient supply of ore.
Given the quality of iron ore on Loshen Star, producing 200 kilograms of iron per day would require at least 600 kilograms of iron ore daily.
Currently, the entire mining team of five miners brings back a total mass of only 400 kilograms of tolin ore and oxygen ore per day on average, which wouldn't even be enough if it were all iron ore.
There was nothing he could do. Although the blast furnace was built, Tom could only temporarily leave it idle and turn to manufacturing something else.
A steam generator with sufficient installed capacity.
The principle of a generator is also simple: it's merely about making the rotor continuously rotate around the stator.
Tom did not want to build two separate machines—a steam turbine and a generator—at this moment.
He planned to combine the two machines into one, directly creating a steam generator.
This would reduce the amount of work and increase efficiency.
The multi-functional ore refining equipment once again began to produce standard steel plates, while the processing equipment shaped them into parts.
Then, a total of eight Clones worked together to assemble and fix these components.
After more than another
month of busy work, this steam generator with an installed capacity of 150 kilowatts was finally completed.