Chapter 46: Feitian-1
This first ignition test didn’t last very long, nor did it involve any real flight.
Just a dozen or so minutes after it lifted a dozen meters off the ground, Li Qingsong brought it back down and shut off the engine.
Afterward, the Clones waiting nearby swarmed it, using all sorts of tools to disassemble it completely. They began to inspect each component one by one to see what changes had occurred during the test.
The engine and thruster systems were of particular importance.
And so, Li Qingsong saw that after only a dozen or so minutes of thrust, the high temperatures and pressures had already caused some unexpected changes in the engine and thruster components.
’This won’t do. I need to keep adjusting and optimizing.’
That simple phrase, "optimization and adjustment," was, in reality, an incredibly complex, multidisciplinary project.
On Earth, a task like this would be impossible without tens of thousands of people working on it for a year or two.
But here on Ceres, things were different.
By now, the total population under Li Qingsong’s command had reached 1.4 million, and his number of conscious connections had risen to 600,000. Correspondingly, the number of Clones working in the research base—completely freed from other labor and dedicated solely to advancing technology—had also increased to 300,000.
What did it mean for a civilization to have half its population dedicated to research?
In contrast, while Human Civilization’s population had grown to ten billion, its total research population—even including STEM university students—was only about 600 million, a mere 6%.
Yet that 6% was enough to propel Human Civilization to an extremely high level of development. It was even capable of launching a ship to carry Li Qingsong to Ceres on the edge of the Solar System for scientific research.
But now, the research power Li Qingsong possessed was far more significant than a simple 50% ratio would suggest.
These 300,000 research Clones all possessed a comprehensive, multidisciplinary knowledge base. They had zero communication overhead, worked 24/7 without rest, and suffered no internal friction, dedicating all their energy to research.
All told, a rough estimate would place one of his research Clones as equivalent to 20 human scientists.
That was equivalent to 6 million high-quality human researchers conducting scientific studies!
At this moment, about 50,000 research Clones—equivalent to roughly 1 million human scientists—were dedicated to optimizing and adjusting the aircraft.
As a result, a new optimization plan was ready in just three days. Five days after that, a new prototype aircraft was built.
This time, it flew to an altitude of several hundred meters, traveled for several kilometers, and stayed airborne for half an hour.
This was followed by more optimization and adjustments. After repeating this cycle, a finalized, mass-producible model of the aircraft was finally built six months later.
"Ignition!"
At the command, the liquid methane and liquid oxygen stored in the fuel tanks of the still-hemispherical aircraft were released into the combustion chamber under the control of an automated chip.
An electric ignition system set them ablaze. They immediately began to burn violently, their volume expanding rapidly as temperature and pressure skyrocketed.
Through specially designed nozzles, these high-temperature, high-pressure gases were channeled beneath the aircraft and expelled downward.
The aircraft slowly began to rise.
After liftoff, the downward thrust weakened, and the exhaust was redirected to the rear. The vessel began to move, flying faster and higher.
Because Ceres has no atmosphere, the vessel couldn’t use aerodynamic lift to maintain altitude. It had to constantly fire its downward thrusters; otherwise, it would fall.
The process of directing thrust downward to maintain altitude and backward to control speed was fully automated by the chip; the Clones only needed to input the corresponding commands.
Flying on Ceres had another advantage: no air resistance. Once it accelerated to a sufficient speed, it only needed to maintain altitude and could continue flying under its own inertia.
This saved a significant amount of fuel.
This first finalized vessel built by Li Qingsong reached a top speed of 2,000 kilometers per hour. It spent several hours circling Ceres completely before decelerating sharply and hovering once again above the test site.
Its downward-facing nozzles fired intensely, pushing it to a steady, controlled landing at a relatively slow speed.
After another comprehensive inspection confirmed that everything met expectations, Li Qingsong immediately issued the order.
Mass production!
For years, Li Qingsong had been plagued by the slow speed of goods distribution.
Bulk cargo, like ore, didn’t require speed and could be transported slowly along the railway lines.
But for small, specialized cargo—such as a base urgently needing certain components, a chip factory rolling out more advanced chips for widespread distribution, or a base requiring more Clones as reinforcements—having these goods and personnel travel slowly by train had become intolerable.
Now, the finalized, mass-produced vessel, which Li Qingsong named the "Skysweep-I," could perfectly address this shortcoming and further boost the overall productivity of the entire base cluster.
’It’s a shame that, for now, the Skysweep-I can only operate near the surface of Ceres. It can’t enter space, so it isn’t a true spaceship yet.’
Li Qingsong felt a slight twinge of regret. ’But that’s fine.
’Here on Ceres, an aircraft and a spaceship are basically the same thing anyway. During mass production and subsequent large-scale use, the Skysweep-I’s shortcomings will continue to be exposed, and I can just optimize them as they appear.
’Once it’s optimized to a certain point and its performance has improved enough, its top speed will naturally break 830 meters per second, exceeding Ceres’ first cosmic velocity and allowing it to enter orbit.’
Currently, the Skysweep-I’s top speed was 2,000 kilometers per hour, or approximately 550 meters per second, still a significant gap from the required 830 meters per second.
Of course, even at that speed, it could only orbit Ceres. To escape its Gravity and enter deep space, it would need to reach a speed of about 1.2 kilometers per second, or 4,320 kilometers per hour.
With the finalization of the Skysweep-I’s design, the spacecraft industrial base—which had been built in advance but never put into operation—finally received its confirmed specifications and production standards.
Tens of thousands of Clones were immediately assigned to the production lines. After a series of calibrations and adjustments, the lines finally began operating at full capacity.
Before long, the skies of Ceres were filled with Skysweep-I vessels, crisscrossing the void and roaring past with long trails of fire in their wake.