Permanent, fully regenerative systems for hollowed-asteroid bases — designed to sustain multi-century habitation with near-100% recycling of air, water, nutrients and waste.
Provide a robust, fail-operational life-support ecosystem that turns a hollowed asteroid into a self-sustaining habitat. Once the physical structure exists, this system must support crews that may live for hundreds of years without resupply from Earth.
The requirement cards on this page govern. Where this text differs, the card applies.
Life-support modules are installed after the asteroid is safely hollowed and sealed. The thick regolith provides natural radiation shielding, while the internal volume allows large-scale green spaces and centrifugal gravity options. All systems are designed to scale as the base expands.
Requirement: This mandate covers hollowed bases under 3.1.4. Other assets follow their own section cards. Recycling is at least 99.9 percent. The mass basis and whether ISRU makeup counts as recycled are unset. Verification includes a 500-year digital-twin mass-balance simulation. The 180-day test remains crew-gate evidence under IPLS-3.1.5-012.
Rationale: Eliminates dependency on Earth logistics and enables true multi-century self-sufficiency.
Open Questions: None at v0.6
Requirement: Atmospheric composition figures are provisional. Partial pressures at the total pressure, the source standard, and whether each figure is a setpoint or a limit are unset.
Rationale: Ensures long-term respiratory health and prevents trace-gas accumulation over centuries.
Requirement: Water is recovered from condensate, urine, greywater, and ISRU volatiles under Asteroid Mining and ISRU (3.1). The quality standard per use class and the quarantine release condition are unset.
Rationale: Closes the water loop completely and supports food production and hygiene for multi-century crews.
Requirement: Integrated hydroponic/aeroponic, algae, and cultured-protein systems shall produce 100 % of caloric and nutritional needs using recycled nutrients, waste CO₂, and LED lighting powered by PGEDS-v1.
Rationale: Eliminates food resupply mass and provides fresh, psychologically beneficial produce for long-duration crews.
Requirement: All solid, liquid, and gaseous waste shall be processed into recoverable nutrients, water, and gases using biological digesters, pyrolysis, and catalytic converters, closing the nutrient loop.
Rationale: Prevents waste accumulation and supplies raw materials for food production and ISRU.
Requirement: Pressure, humidity, and trace-gas bands are unset. Automatic isolation acts inside the IPLS-5.1-002 envelope and is logged and reported to the operator. Whether isolation may seal an occupied compartment is unset.
Rationale: Maintains habitable conditions and prevents long-term health degradation in sealed environments.
Requirement: Life-support modules use UMP-ECLSS-001 coupling ports. PIS-v1 is an upgrade path. Port parameters are unset. Whether a hot-swap that lowers life-support redundancy needs operator consent is unset.
Rationale: Guarantees fleet-wide interoperability and rapid reconfiguration without custom engineering.
Requirement: Life-critical systems remain at the 500-year figure in IPLS-3.1-016. N+3 applies per function. N per function is unset. Redundant units shall not share a single power feed, data bus, or compartment. Life support is a separate fail-operational path under IPLS-5.1-002. Supersession of any life-support element waits for operator consent. TSP-v1 readiness criteria are undefined.
Rationale: Ensures continuous habitability for centuries even during partial system failures or technology upgrades.
Requirement: Psychological monitoring follows 3.1.9. An on-site override follows IPLS-3.1.4-007 and confers no operator authority. Access to psychological data is unset.
Rationale: Prevents long-term psychological degradation in multi-century sealed habitats by maintaining Earth-like environmental cues and mental-health support.
Requirement: Each installation includes independent 90-day open-loop reserves. Reserve food shall be consumable without the food-production systems. The sizing population and N for N+2 are unset. Whether operator isolation can stop a reserve activation already running is unset.
Rationale: Provides fail-operational survival margin during major system failures or external events while preserving primary closed-loop operation.
Requirement: Telemetry goes to the command node on the 3.1.19 network. 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: Supports multi-century reliability with minimal human intervention through continuous health visibility.
Requirement: Crew arrival follows IPLS-3.1-018 and IPLS-3.1.4-012. The 180-day life-support audit is evidence for that gate, not a second gate.
Rationale: Protects biological and post-biological crews by ensuring the habitat is verifiably self-sustaining before human presence.