Chapter 50: Explosive Development
With efficiency pushed to the extreme and 700,000 Clones working at full capacity around the clock, the enormous space laboratory, located about 50 kilometers from the surface of Ceres, finally began to take shape.
Overall, it resembled a central rod passing through a dozen or so rings of varying sizes and diameters, with a total length of 1.6 kilometers.
The central axis had a diameter of about 50 meters, its interior entirely sectioned off into individual laboratories of various sizes.
All sorts of experimental equipment were housed within these laboratories.
The rings rotated at different speeds, generating varying levels of gravity.
The minimum gravity could be as low as one-thousandth of Earth’s—far weaker than even that of Ceres. The maximum gravity could reach twice that of Earth.
All gravity levels were easily adjustable to suit the requirements of different experiments.
The station also contained rest areas for several thousand people. After a long day, the Clones could rest there before heading back to their posts to relieve their colleagues.
The number of research Clones reached ten thousand, with at least that many engaged in research tasks at any given moment, studying technologies across various disciplines.
Powering this massive laboratory were five enormous generator units.
Their total installed capacity reached 300,000 kilowatts, generating an average of 7.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity daily. To do so, the station consumed approximately 2,500 tons of methane or Tolin and seven to eight hundred tons of oxygen each day.
Factoring in other experimental consumables, personnel supplies, and equipment replenishment, Li Qingsong had to ship nearly 4,000 tons of various materials to the station daily. This required a fleet of about 600 ships making round trips between the surface of Ceres and space, day and night.
The engineering effort required just to supply this station alone occupied a significant portion of Li Qingsong’s consciousness-link bandwidth.
All in all, though it was just a laboratory a little over a kilometer long, its total resource consumption exceeded that of all ten of Li Qingsong’s bases combined!
Yet despite the immense investment, Li Qingsong had built it without a moment’s hesitation.
Now, the construction of the space laboratory was finally complete. Its logistical supply chain had also been streamlined, requiring no further adjustments.
All the experimental equipment and instruments, along with the more than ten thousand Clones assigned to research, were now stationed inside.
It was finally time for it to begin operations.
And so, several thousand experiments and research projects, spanning a dozen or so major scientific disciplines, commenced simultaneously.
In just half a month, the first technological breakthrough emerged.
It was a formula for a special metallic material.
In a zero-gravity environment, various atoms could be arranged in a unique pattern, resulting in greatly increased hardness and toughness.
"This material is ideal for a ship’s hull. It can significantly reduce weight while still ensuring adequate protection."
Next came the second breakthrough.
A completely new photolithography and etching technique.
By adopting the corresponding photoresist and etching techniques, Li Qingsong could now manufacture chips on a 10-micrometer process. Compared to his existing chip technology, this boosted performance by at least 150% while reducing power consumption by over 30%!
Then came the third technological breakthrough.
A brand-new ship attitude control system!
This paved the way for Li Qingsong’s future development of combat ships. After all, a ship’s weapon systems generate immense recoil when fired. If its attitude control was poor, its weapons would be completely unable to maintain their accuracy.
And then there was the technology that Li Qingsong currently valued most.
A breakthrough in high-sensitivity space radar technology!
Thanks to the development of a new material and successful experiments with a new structural design, Li Qingsong had finally created a practical space radar!
Space radar could be considered the eyes of a ship.
Previously, Li Qingsong’s space radar systems were bulky and power-hungry, with such low sensitivity that they had even caused several accidents.
But that all changed now.
The new space radar scanned with incredible speed and high sensitivity. It could easily capture the reflected signal of a ship traveling at supersonic speeds.
Following this, breakthroughs were made in many other technologies.
To be sure, building the space laboratory had cost Li Qingsong immense resources and effort.
But now that it was built and operational, the payoff was unprecedentedly huge.
Almost every day brought new technological breakthroughs, ranging from as few as a dozen to as many as several hundred!
All sorts of new technologies gushed forth from the work of the ten thousand constantly-active research Clones, emerging at a rate that dazzled Li Qingsong.
Electronic control systems, sensor technology, high-temperature-resistant material formulas, voltage regulator systems, radiation-resistant materials, rapid engine-tuning techniques, high-reliability communications equipment...
And each new technology brought changes to all of Li Qingsong’s bases and factories.
Each new technology was mass-produced and implemented at top speed. It would then feed back data from practical application, which the research Clones used to make further adjustments and optimizations.
Li Qingsong’s technological progress had never been so rapid.
Under these conditions, the power plants’ generation efficiency grew ever higher, while the average fuel consumption per kilowatt-hour dropped lower and lower.
The trains ran faster and faster, yet their stability only increased.
The yields of the agricultural bases grew higher and higher, even as the number of Clones required to work them grew smaller and smaller.
The transport ships became lighter, yet their flight reliability grew higher. At the same time, their cargo capacity more than doubled, increasing from just two tons to five. Where 600 ships were once needed for daily supply missions, now just over 200 were sufficient.
The number of Clones in each factory decreased, yet their production capacity soared.
The most dramatic improvement was in the ship production chain. Previously, tens of thousands of Clones could only produce four outdated ships per day. Now, with the workforce reduced by a fifth, production had increased to six of the latest, most advanced models daily.
「Time passed quietly.」
One day, another technological breakthrough that Li Qingsong considered particularly important occurred.
The technology to manufacture low-expansion-coefficient, high-purity, high-uniformity glass!
With this special glass, Li Qingsong could at last build high-performance space telescopes, finally gaining the ability to proactively search the cosmos!