I live in the Martian wilderness!

[Sol 8, Southern Utopia Plain, 9:00 AM.]

The heavy airlock door of Oasis One shelter slid open with a "whoosh".

A cloud of white mist seeped out from the crack in the door; it was the warm, humid air inside the cabin that condensed into ice crystals upon encountering the extreme cold outside.

Gu Yu emerged from the mist; he had rushed back to Oasis One overnight.

At this moment, the servo motor of his black armor combat suit emitted a slight hum, helping to distribute the weight of his body.

"Xuan, wake up. Time to get to work. Activate the Sky Shuttle Engineering Vehicle."

"Captain, Ai doesn't need sleep," Xuanjian's clear, girlish voice rang out immediately.

[Activating the TianShuo engineering vehicle; current energy reserve at 92%; the "ShenGong" additive manufacturing module at mounting point five is warming up.]

With a deep, resonant roar of the motor, the massive body of the Tianshuo shuddered, its tracks kicking up red dust as it rumbled into motion.

It didn't go far, only a few dozen meters, before stopping in front of a small mound not far from the shelter.

Gu Yu stared at the pile of soil, his eyes gleaming.

To the untrained eye, isn't this just a pile of broken earth? But in Gu Yu's eyes, it was clearly a mountain of gold.

The Martian soil is rich in hematite, or iron oxide. Simply put, the surface of this planet is covered with a thick layer of rust.

On Earth, iron ore has to be mined deep in the mountains and forests, but on Mars, every grain of sand under your feet is actually unrefined iron.

"Xuan, activate the vacuum suction system and suck this red soil in for me."

Gu Yu did not use the bucket. For such a delicate smelting task, rough digging would only bring in impurities.

The vacuum injection port under the Tissot chassis suddenly opened.

"call--"

The powerful negative pressure airflow instantly swirled up the red sand on the ground, precisely capturing those tiny iron oxide-rich particles.

Then, it is continuously drawn into the centrifugal screening chamber inside the Shen Gong module through the pipe.

A few minutes later, the silo was full.

But this is only the first step. In this wasteland 60 million kilometers away from Earth, there is no coke, no coal mine.

To turn these red oxides into black steel, Gu Yu must transform himself into a chemical plant.

He walked to the auxiliary filling port on the side of the Divine Craft Module, slowly extended his right hand, and with a slight thought, activated his carbon control ability.

There were no magical light effects, only the cold indifference of the conservation of matter.

Fine strands of black carbon powder fell from his fingertips into the filter of the filling port.

Black carbon, red iron. The two elements meet in the mixing chamber and are wildly churned by the turbine blades until they become a uniform dark brown powder.

This is the perfect combination of reducing agent and oxide.

Xuanjian reported, "Captain, the materials are mixed. The molar ratio is 1:3, and the error is less than 0.01%. It can be sent to the molding chamber."

Gu Yu gazed through the thick, radiation-shielding lead glass at the core area of ​​the Divine Craft Module, a sealed cavity in an absolute vacuum.

"Xuan, initiate the 'Powder Bed Electron Beam Melting' program in the Divine Craft module."

With the order given, a microscopic war, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, began.

hum-

The powder spreading roller glides slowly across the printing platform, spreading a thin layer of mixed powder, only 50 micrometers thick, as smooth as a mirror.

Immediately afterwards, the electron gun at the top was activated.

An almost invisible electron beam shot down with a roar.

It was precisely deflected and focused by the magnetic field coil, eventually transforming into a high-energy light spot with a diameter of only 0.1 millimeters, which landed on the powder.

Nourishes—

The instant the light spot came into contact with the powder, a terrifying high temperature of up to 3000 degrees Celsius suddenly erupted.

This is an extremely violent chemical process in which carbon atoms gain enough energy within that microsecond-level time window.

They violently rammed into the lattice of iron oxide, forcibly stripping away the oxygen atoms and combining to escape as carbon monoxide gas.

Without the binding of oxygen, the pure iron atoms melt instantly and coalesce into a liquid state.

But this is not the kind of molten iron that flows freely.

Because the electron beam moves so fast, it's like an invisible paintbrush, only outlining a U-shaped cross-sectional profile on that layer of powder.

The moment the beam of light moved away, the surrounding cold powder rapidly absorbed the heat. The molten iron that had just been formed didn't even have time to flow before it instantly froze and solidified into a layer of hard black iron.

In areas where the beam of light did not sweep, the powder remained loose.

The platform dropped by 50 micrometers.

Apply another layer of powder.

The electron beam scans again.

This time, the newly melted iron layer not only completed its own reduction reaction, but also used the residual heat to melt the surface of the next layer.

The two layers of atoms bonded together perfectly under high temperature, becoming firmly welded together.

One layer, and another.

Deep within that loose mass of pink, a black metal spine is silently growing.

"Add insulation and begin printing 'cold junctions'," Gu Yu coldly ordered, staring at the parameters on the screen.

The "cold end" is the core of the design of all high-temperature electric heating elements.

It refers to the part connected to the power source that shouldn't be generating heat. If even the wires get red-hot, the entire system will melt.

With the technology available in 2025, engineers will have to build the heating elements first, and then use a complex welding process to connect the cables.

That solder joint is often the weakest point of failure in the entire system.

However, in the face of the Divine Module in 2047, this outdated modular manufacturing method has long been completely eliminated.

"Xuan, switch to multi-material composite printing mode. Load high-purity copper powder and nickel powder into the auxiliary material bin, and print the 'wires' directly on it through in-situ alloying."

[Understood. Switching printing protocols. Multi-nozzle cooperative mode is activated.]

As the command was given, the powder-spreading roller of the Shen Gong module slid across again, but this time, it was no longer spreading only one type of powder.

Its multiple powder chambers, resembling printer ink cartridges, open simultaneously, performing extremely precise "zonal application" on the printing platform through micro-nozzles.

At both ends of the heating rod core, a mixture of three basic metal powders—iron, copper, and nickel—is laid out in precise proportions.

Around these mixed metal powders, a ring of Martian silicate powder was simultaneously laid down to provide insulation.

Immediately afterwards, the electron beam was activated again.

This time, it's no longer a simple scan, but rather a "power partition melting" process based on a path preset by AI.

When scanning the mixed metal powder region, the energy and residence time of the electron beam are precisely calculated to ensure that the three metals are completely melted.

At the same time, they need to be allowed enough time to mix and diffuse fully in the liquid state to form an iron-nickel-copper alloy with better conductivity.

When it sweeps over the silicate powder area, it melts it into an insulating ceramic shell with higher power.

This is no longer a simple 3D printing; strictly speaking, it is the prototype of "4D printing".

In three-dimensional space, different materials can be controlled to undergo different physical and chemical phase transitions at the same time and on the same level.

The alloy wires and ceramic shell generated on-site are perfectly fused together at the atomic level to form an integrated cable that is absolutely reliable and has no solder joints or gaps.

One layer, and another.

Gu Yu stared quietly at the complex energy distribution diagram on the screen, his heart filled with awe for human wisdom.

The heated iron core, the insulating Martian ceramic, and the conductive field alloy are seamlessly integrated into a perfect whole during a single printing mission.

This "in-situ manufacturing" technology existed only in the imaginations of scientists decades ago.

At this moment, it is being easily realized by the Divine Module on the Martian wasteland.