Chapter 33: Internal Combustion Engine
Tom was somewhat shocked to see that the body fluid inside the Monster Birds not only contained various amino acids, proteins, and active enzymes, but also multiple types of sugars.
Although the specific types were not the same as Earth life, there was no doubt that they were indeed the things Tom was very familiar with.
This was a very strange thing.
Amino acids, proteins, etc., currently seem to be unique to Earth life. As a space life form, do these Monster Birds also maintain life through the same mechanisms as Earth life?
What is its relationship with Earth life?
After a moment of thought, Tom temporarily put aside the exploration of this question.
Now the Shenkong (Deep Space) Spaceship had been maneuvered by him to hide in Deep Space, and the genetic analysis equipment was only on it.
"This Monster Birds life form also seems to be based on DNA and RNA. Once this incident is resolved and the Shenkong (Deep Space) Spaceship returns, a genetic analysis of it will make everything clear."
Temporarily putting this matter aside, Tom’s attention quickly shifted to another matter.
Since the body fluid of these Monster Birds was so nutritious... could it be used to cultivate Clone?
One of the major limitations preventing him from cultivating higher-quality Clone, and thus having more consciousness link shares and controlling more Clone, was his inability to produce more nutritious culture fluid, which prevented cells from developing according to his genetic optimization plan!
The nutrition here did not simply refer to sugars, proteins, fats, and the like. If that were the case, Tom had planted so many beets and sugarcane that he could easily soak the Clone in white sugar.
But this clearly wouldn’t allow the Clone to develop.
The nutrition required by Clone was concentrated on early cell division and early embryo development, requiring easy absorption, reasonable proportion, reasonable type, and many other requirements.
The more optimized the genetic plan, the higher the requirements for the culture fluid when cells developed according to that plan. It was possible that even a slight difference could prevent the cells from developing, or from developing according to the original plan, leading to overall deformities.
However, the body fluid of these Monster Birds seemed to perfectly meet his nutritional requirements!
Limited by current technical conditions, Tom could only make such a general judgment. As for whether the body fluid contained any trace impurities and how much, he could not discern at all.
But it didn’t matter, he would use it first.
What if there were impurities, leading to cultivation failure?
If it failed, it failed. Just destroy it as a deformed fetus. What else could be done?
Tom was even too lazy to experiment with mice, rabbits, pigs, cattle, or sheep. He directly took his own cell samples, then filtered, purified, and extracted the Monster Birds body fluid according to the procedure, and poured it directly into the culture tanks.
And not just one, he made 100 at once.
Whether it would succeed would be known in half a year.
Since the physiological analysis of the Monster Birds could not proceed for now, Tom no longer paid attention to it, but shifted his attention to another matter.
Developing internal combustion engines fueled by methane and pure oxygen!
By now, Tom had discovered the limitations of electrified vehicles.
They had too high demands on the logistics network.
There must be a power grid and batteries. There must be a charging station within a maximum of two hundred kilometers of the working location.
They simply couldn’t move far from the base.
This mode was fine when there were no external enemies. Anyway, he could gradually lay down the infrastructure himself and wasn’t worried about it being destroyed.
But the Monster Birds attack immediately exposed this limitation.
Just like now, reconnaissance vehicles powered by batteries could only travel a maximum of 200 kilometers from the base; any further and they couldn’t reach.
At this stage, he couldn’t build aircraft, so global reconnaissance of Loshen Star was impossible.
But internal combustion engines were different.
A three-ton vehicle would only need eight liters of liquid methane and oxygen to travel 100 kilometers.
Loshen Star has a diameter of approximately 2350 kilometers, and circling Loshen Star is less than 7400 kilometers. A vehicle carrying 600 liters of fuel could complete a circle.
Furthermore, he would need to develop tanks, armored vehicles, etc., later. Charging on the battlefield would not be that convenient, but replenishing methane and oxygen would be much easier. A methane tanker would suffice.
All these factors combined led Tom to decide to develop internal combustion engines.
The principle of an internal combustion engine is also very simple: methane and oxygen burn in the combustion chamber, generating high-temperature, high-pressure gas, pushing the piston, and then driving the crankshaft to do work.
With current technology, Tom could not achieve the same high efficiency as in the Earth era, but there was no need to pursue such high efficiency. It was still the same saying: as long as it works, it’s good.
So, hundreds of Clone were put into this work.
Still adopting the previous model, they would now customize and produce some parts in the laboratory, assemble the most primitive internal combustion engines, try to make them run and do external work, and then gradually optimize the structure and improve performance.
Anyway, the principle was there, and building a primitive internal combustion engine was not difficult.
Subsequent improvements and optimizations would be a meticulous task, requiring a lot of time and accumulation of technology.
But still, it didn’t matter. Hundreds of Clone, all mastering all existing engine technologies, simultaneously tried hundreds of optimization paths. If one Clone made a discovery, it was immediately synchronized with all other Clone, and then further optimized and developed based on that. In less than ten days, the first practical internal combustion engine was completed.
At this time, another few hundred Clone developing transmission systems, body structures, steering systems, and braking systems also completed their development work synchronously.
Thus, this newly developed internal combustion engine "heart" was installed into the vehicle body.
The "fuel" vehicle built by Tom was about two meters high, three meters wide, and five meters long.
Its body was fully enclosed, equipped with an air circulation system and a thermal insulation system, and also had a certain degree of radiation resistance.
The specially reinforced body allowed it to withstand short bursts from a Type I assault rifle without breaking.
However, if it were subjected to continuous bursts and continuous attacks, it would not be able to withstand it.
Its total mass reached 2.8 tons, and when fully loaded, it could reach about 3.5 tons.
Providing energy for it were two "fuel" tanks.
One fuel tank had a volume of 100 liters and contained methane. The other fuel tank had a volume of 200 liters and contained oxygen.
When fully fueled, it could travel approximately three thousand kilometers.
In addition, it also had a reserve fuel tank.
The reserve fuel tank could be large or small, capable of holding over a thousand liters of methane and oxygen at most, which could not only drive the vehicle but also supply breathing for the Clone.
At this moment, under the operation of the driver Clone, it suddenly roared to life.