Chapter 45: Flying Craft
To this day, Li Qingsong still only had two landing craft capable of traveling between Ceres and the Deep Space Spaceship.
Originally, there had only been one. However, as development progressed, the parts from the first dismantled landing craft were no longer needed. It was reassembled, bringing the total to two.
To ensure he didn’t lose his only two spacefaring vehicles, Li Qingsong had minimized their flight frequency, using them only when absolutely necessary to extend their operational lifespan.
But even so, they were now on their last legs, barely able to fly.
For a long time, Li Qingsong had planned to develop his own aerospace capabilities, but a lack of foundational technology and industrial power had always held him back. Now, with the base’s scale and technological foundation having grown significantly, he could finally begin.
On a pre-selected plot of open land, a large number of Clones were deployed. Before long, an aerospace technology research base had been constructed.
The first propulsion test soon began.
Due to Ceres’s environment being so drastically different from Earth’s, any aerospace technology developed there was bound to be different from that of Earth.
On Earth, launching a spaceship or satellite into orbit is impossible without rockets.
Since rockets cannot be built beyond a certain size, the spaceships and satellites they carry are similarly limited.
Here, however, Li Qingsong could skip the rocket stage entirely. He could build a vehicle capable of taking off directly from the planet’s surface into space and then returning for a direct landing.
On Earth, airplanes and spaceships are two completely different things. One can only fly within the atmosphere, while the other is designed for the vacuum of space.
But on Ceres, the distinction between an airplane and a spaceship was not so clear.
The two could almost be considered the same type of vehicle. Both relied on burning fuel to generate high-pressure gas, which was then expelled to produce forward thrust.
If the thrust was high enough to escape Ceres’s Gravity, it was a spaceship. If the thrust was lower and it couldn’t escape, it was an airplane.
Fundamentally, they were the same.
And so, inside a massive workshop at the aerospace base, large quantities of methane and liquid oxygen were fed into an engine. Upon ignition, searing hot gas blasted from the rear, and its immense kinetic energy was immediately exerted upon the test stand.
The technology for this engine originated from the internal combustion engine principles Li Qingsong had mastered long ago. There was only one difference: an internal combustion engine uses the burning of methane and liquid oxygen to drive pistons, whereas here, the resulting high-pressure gas was ejected directly.
Though the method of power delivery was different, the combustion process was identical.
The powerful jet of flame lasted for several minutes. Watching the readouts on the screen, Li Qingsong frowned.
’The thrust is too low.’ It wasn’t nearly enough to push a spaceship out of the planet’s gravitational field. It couldn’t even get an airplane off the ground.
’I have to increase the combustion efficiency and scale.’
Li Qingsong thought to himself. ’But that would make the temperature too high. I doubt my current heat-resistant materials can withstand it.’
This was a rather tricky problem.
The Human World certainly had formulas for advanced heat-resistant materials, but they weren’t in the Deep Space Spaceship’s knowledge base.
The Deep Space Spaceship did have high-performance heat-resistant materials on board, but Li Qingsong had already examined them. The technology required to produce them was far too advanced for him to replicate.
’I need to find a material that’s less technologically demanding—something I can produce now that still meets my requirements.’
The idea struck Li Qingsong, and one thousand Clones were immediately added to the materials science building at the research base.
Without any prior training or study, these one thousand new Clones instantly adapted to the research base’s workflow, seamlessly integrating into the existing R&D efforts.
In addition to these one thousand Clones performing hands-on work, Li Qingsong also allocated the brainpower equivalent of an additional 3,000 people to analyze the existing experimental data and contemplate future approaches.
Many tasks required a physical body but were not mentally taxing.
For example, how much mental capacity did it take for a Clone to operate an excavator?
This left a vast amount of brainpower idle.
Rather than let it go to waste, it was better to put it toward solving materials science problems.
This led to a peculiar sight across Li Qingsong’s base:
A Clone might appear to be operating an excavator, but simultaneously, he was contemplating the most advanced, cutting-edge problems in materials science.
A Clone might be feeding pigs, but he was also pondering issues in materials science.
Even a Clone driving a train, seemingly engrossed in his task, was in fact also thinking about materials science.
Moreover, if an emergency required his full attention, he could instantly cease his thoughts on materials science. That cognitive load would then be instantaneously transferred to the mind of another Clone, perhaps a construction worker tying rebar a thousand kilometers away.
Through this model, Li Qingsong achieved complete utilization of the brainpower of all his Clones, letting none of it go to waste.
Li Qingsong was already highly proficient with this model. However, this was the first time he had mobilized such a large force—one thousand Clones for practical application and the cognitive equivalent of 3,000 more for pure thought.
The problem was simply too important; it had to be solved with the utmost speed.
With thousands of minds, each possessing a reserve of knowledge from nearly every scientific discipline, all focused on a single problem, a breakthrough came quickly.
By adding a specific ratio of nickel and tungsten and applying a special metal treatment process, a heat-resistant alloy meeting Li Qingsong’s requirements was finally created. It was then quickly installed on the test apparatus.
The propulsion test began once more.
This time, the flame jetting from the engine’s nozzle was brighter and more intense, a clear sign of higher temperature and pressure.
Looking at the data on the screen, Li Qingsong nodded in satisfaction.
’The thrust is finally sufficient.’
The biggest hurdle in building a flight-capable vehicle was the engine. With the engine technology figured out, fabricating the hull was no problem at all.
Soon enough, a strange aircraft appeared before Li Qingsong. It was hemispherical in shape, with a flat underside and two exhaust nozzles on its rear.
"Ignition!"
At Li Qingsong’s command, the Clone piloting the aircraft immediately pressed the corresponding button.
The next moment, searing flames erupted from the aircraft’s underside, pushing the four-meter-tall, eight-meter-diameter hemisphere slowly into the air until it hovered a dozen meters above the ground.