Planned chamber expansion and seeding of daughter colonies
The requirement cards on this page govern. Each enlargement and each replication cycle wait for operator consent. FPL-v1 is an upgrade path. Hand-over does not move command off the IPLS-5.1-002 chart.
Inter-Planetary Link Ship • Guildford, Surrey, UK
To define the functional requirements for safe, planned, and operator-controlled expansion of hollowed asteroid bases (chamber enlargement) and the seeding of daughter colonies within the same asteroid or multi-body infrastructure, enabling exponential growth while preserving structural integrity, life support, and full command authority.
All expansion and replication operations remain under explicit operator consent. Sentience safeguards, structural safety margins, and cultural continuity protocols are embedded at the hardware level (Section 5.1).
Requirement: Excavation attaches by UMP-MECH-001 and UMP-ROBOTIC-001 under IPLS-3.1.4-006. SRS-v1 promotion to this section is unset. IPLS-SRS-EXP-v1 has no defining card. The reinforcement hardpoint interface and its load rating are unset. The reserved corridor volume and its placement rule are unset. Enlargement and daughter-colony seeding follow IPLS-3.1.4-006. Seeding follows IPLS-3.1-015. IPLS-3.1.4-001 applies to every enlargement. Whether adjacent occupied volumes are vacated is unset under IPLS-3.1.4-006.
Rationale: Enables exponential, operator-controlled growth of the base into a multi-chamber city-scale habitat and future seeding hub.
Open Questions: None at v0.7
Requirement: Each enlargement and each new chamber follows IPLS-3.1.4-001 and IPLS-3.1.4-006. Each replication cycle waits for operator consent under IPLS-5.1-002. What counts as one cycle is unset. The swarm population ceiling and the 3.1.20 tier of swarm units are unset. On sentience detection the IPLS-5.1-003 halt applies. A kill-switch follows IPLS-3.1-008. Restarting replication after a halt is a replication and waits for operator consent. The safe step for an excavation or replication cycle in progress is unset. Allocation follows IPLS-3.1-019. Whether swarms may use unprocessed regolith, or only IPLS-3.1-009 output, is unset.
Rationale: Provides autonomous yet fully controlled exponential growth capability.
Requirement: Shielding follows IPLS-3.1.4-005. RSS-v1 is an upgrade path. Reinforcement material and its acceptance criteria are unset. Monitoring follows IPLS-3.1-020. Alert thresholds are unset. On an alert or sensor disagreement, expansion holds and only the operator resumes it under IPLS-3.1.4-001. The 3.0 safety factor of IPLS-3.1.4-001 applies. Its load cases are unset. N for structural sensing during expansion is unset. This card applies to every enlargement under IPLS-3.1.4-006.
Rationale: Guarantees the asteroid remains structurally sound while chambers are enlarged.
Requirement: The point in an enlargement at which added life-support and power capacity must be in service is unset. The demand basis is unset under IPLS-3.1.6-002. Life-support modules use UMP-ECLSS-001 ports under IPLS-3.1.5-007. Power uses UMP-PWR-001 up to its port rating under IPLS-3.1.6-002. Added life-support capacity follows IPLS-3.1.5-008. Hardpoints feeding it follow IPLS-3.1.6-006. Whether a hot-swap that lowers life-support redundancy needs operator consent is unset. Life-support loads are not shed under IPLS-3.1.6-003.
Rationale: Prevents resource shortfalls during expansion and maintains full habitability at every stage.
Requirement: Bay sizing follows IPLS-3.1.4-004. The largest vessel class an internal bay takes is unset. Bay enlargement follows IPLS-3.1.7-008. Seeding corridor volume is unset. Connections attach by the interfaces in IPLS-3.1.7-002. PIS-v1 is an upgrade path. Seeding waits for operator consent under IPLS-3.1.4-006 and follows IPLS-3.1-015. Whether first occupation of a daughter colony is crew arrival under IPLS-3.1.4-012 is unset. The minimum connection count per daughter colony is unset. Isolation follows IPLS-3.1.5-006.
Rationale: Allows controlled multi-body infrastructure growth while maintaining a single connected habitat.
Requirement: New chambers join the IPLS-3.1.12-002 internal mesh and the 3.1.19 network. FPL-v1 and PIS-v1 are upgrade paths. Entanglement is not a link. The node list and latency for a new chamber are unset. Whether a chamber may be occupied before its nodes are in service is unset. Paths per node are unset. Command and life support shall not share a single node, hardpoint, or power feed. On loss of link, life-preserving functions continue inside the IPLS-5.1-002 envelope. The IPLS-3.1-014 hold applies to other actions. T is unset.
Rationale: Eliminates isolation stressors and maintains full governance connectivity during growth.
Requirement: Irreversible acts follow IPLS-5.1-002. Each enlargement and new chamber follows IPLS-3.1.4-001 and IPLS-3.1.4-006. Each replication cycle waits for operator consent. Reversible and life-preserving actions act inside the IPLS-5.1-002 envelope and are logged and reported to the operator. Overrides follow IPLS-3.1.4-007. How a physical override is authenticated is unset. Veto latency and reliability floor are unset. Whether a veto can stop a life-preserving action already running is unset. The holder follows the IPLS-5.1-002 succession. A seized credential is not consent. The list of critical expansion functions is unset. On loss of link, life-preserving functions continue inside the IPLS-5.1-002 envelope. The IPLS-3.1-014 hold applies to other actions. T is unset.
Rationale: Preserves absolute human/post-biological command authority during potentially disruptive growth activities.
Requirement: TSP-v1 readiness criteria are undefined under IPLS-3.1-016. Supersession waits for operator consent under IPLS-5.1-002. Life-critical systems remain at the 500-year figure in IPLS-3.1-016. Whether expansion elements that feed life support are life-critical is unset. Degradation order, the parts repairable from ISRU spares, and the life-test acceleration basis are unset. Whether swarm units under IPLS-3.1.16-002 carry the 200-year figure is unset. Replication to restore a unit waits for operator consent under IPLS-5.1-002.
Rationale: Ensures the base can continue safe, controlled growth across centuries as frontier technologies evolve.