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Michael Cortez edited this page Jan 23, 2016 · 80 revisions

Life Support in USI Kolonization System (UKS)

This is based on USI Life Support version 0.1.5. TAC Life Support is covered below and is not current for KSP 1.0.4.

USI Life Support for USI Kolonization System (UKS)

USI Life Support is a simplified life support system that relies on four resources to keep your Kerbals alive:

  • ElectricCharge, a stock resource in the game.
  • Supplies, or Nutritional Organic Meal Substitute (N.O.M.S.) for your Kerbals.
  • Mulch, a byproduct of Supplies consumption which can be recycled back into Supplies.
  • Fertilizer, used in some early conversion cycles and for more an efficient production. Can only be sourced at KSC and cannot be produced in the field.

ElectricCharge is simply the electric charge which is part of the stock game (solar panels, batteries, etc.). Kerbals require 0.01 ElectricCharge per second which is very little. A small battery will keep a Kerbal alive for many, many days. Supplies are provided by USI Life Support containers.

A single Kerbal Supplies Consumed Mulch Produced
MKS-LS Only 1.08/day (.00005 per second) 1.08/day (.00005 per second)
MKS-LS w/ UKS 16.2/day (.00075 per seoncd) 16.2/day (.00075 per seoncd)

Kerbals can go 15 days without Supplies without incident. After 15 days Kerbals will simply stop working. They'll stay in their seat but they won't EVA, they won't command the ship - they'll act like tourists. Once provided Supplies, they'll return to work. By default this includes exceptional veteran Kerbals (Jeb, Bill, Bob, Valentina - those in orange suits) however you can change the 'NoSupplyEffectVets' configuration in the setting.cfg file so that they will be immune to the tourest effect. Orange-suited Kerbals consume Supplies, but they'll never quit. Additionally, on Kerbin Kerbals will not strike if below 25km altitude. They will still consume resources but will happily keep working. Assume they find some berries to eat if they run out of food. No need to manage Supplies for ground bases and most atmospheric craft on Kerbin.

Parts in USI Life Support Install

  • Life Support MiniPak (Supplies): 100 Supplies, surface mount
  • Life Support MiniPak (Fertilizer): 100 Fertilizer, surface mount
  • Life Support MiniPak (Mulch): 100 Mulch, surface mount
  • Life Support Tank (1.25): 500 Supplies, inline mount
  • Life Support Tank (2.5): 4,500 Supplies, inline mount
  • Life Support Tank (3.75): 15,000 Supplies, inline mount
  • Nom-O-Matic 5000 Greenhouse: Produces Supplies using Mulch and ElectricCharge
  • Nom-O-Matic 25000 Greenhouse: Produces Supplies using Mulch, ElectricCharge and optionally Fertilizer

Quick Reference for how many days supplies will support a single Kerbal

Supplies USI-LS Only w/ UKS
100 92 6
500 462 30
4,500 4,166 277
15,000 13,888 925

Parts in USI Kolonization Install

Starting with USI Kolonization 0.32.0, existing Recyler converters have been converted to a new recycling mechanic. Instead of converting mulch back into supplies which created resource contention problems, the new recycler mechanic reduces the need for supplies by assuming that your Kerbals will use the recyclers as needed to reduce the amount of supplies pulled from storage.

Module Life Support Recyclers

Converter modules:

Kolonization modules must be staffed and efficiency bonuses govern total throughput, but not conversion ratios.

!! PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2016 Organics have been removed from the supply chain, Fertilizer is required for all converters that produce supplies and recyclers have been changed to a internal mechanic rather than a converter. Many of the descriptions and charts below have not been updated to reflect these changes as of January 23rd 2016. !!

Resource Economics

Supplies are part of a simple resource loop: Supplies -> Mulch + Fertilizer -> Supplies. Fertilizer is now a required resource for converters that produce supplies and no longer an efficiency booster. Methods for generating 'Fertilizer` will be introduced in an update.

Kerbals automatically produce one unit of Mulch for each unit of Supplies consumed. Mulch needs to be stored in a suitable container such as the Pioneer Module, otherwise it's purged as it's produced. Mulch can be immediately recycled back to Supplies using only ElectricCharge in a Nom-O-Matic 5000 Greenhouse Module with a 50% efficiency rate and can process as much Mulch as a single Kerbal produces. Nom-O-Matic does not need to be staffed and does not benefit from workload efficiency bonuses.

Life Support

Resource Flow as of USI-LS 0.1.2 and UKS 0.31.4

In terms of economic efficiency, the following recycling economies are possible:

  • 50% economic efficiency at converting Supplies to Supplies. Requires a modest amount of ElectricCharge to power greenhouse. Does not require staffing, 1 Nom-O-Matic will convert 1 Kerbal in Mulch.
  • 50% economic efficiency at converting Supplies to Supplies. Requires a twice as much ElectricCharge as Nom-O-Matic, can scale to support up to 10 Kerbals worth of Mulch but workload efficiencies come into play and may be difficult to operate efficiently early on and will require staffing.
  • 90% economic efficiency at converting Supplies to Supplies. Requires nearly 100x as much ElectricCharge as Nom-O-Matic, can scale to support dozens of Kerbals worth of Mulch but workload efficiencies come into play but can operate with very little staffing later in game. Requires far more R&D and a more complex vessel to achieve.
  • 120% economic efficiency at converting Supplies to Supplies with consumption of Fertilizer. Fertilizer can only be sourced from KSC and therefore must be shipped to colonies, but can significantly extend resources as 1 unit of Fertilizer can convert 20 units of Supplies into 24 units of Supplies. Be aware that some excess Supplies storage space may be needed or careful planning to prevent dumping of Mulch.

A 50% economic efficiency will double the initial supply. 100 units of Supplies will produce 50 units after one recycling generation, another 25 after the 2nd, 12.5 after the 3rd. In the end 200 units of Supplies can be consumed. At 90% economic efficiency 100 units of Supplies will allow 1000 units to be consumed.

A 200 unit supply of Fertilizer can turn 100 units of Supplies into 24,000 units of Supplies which can then be extended to 240,000 units of Supplies with a 90% economic efficiency process.

There is currently no fully closed loop cycle without some form of ongoing resource extraction. Surface access to Water and Substrate is required for self-sustaining colonies. Fertilizer can have a dramatic impact on extending even modest resource amounts if used wisely.

TAC Life Support for OKS/MKS:

This is accurate as of TAC Life Support (TAC-LS) version 0.11.1.20

The information described below is updated to MKS 0.31.6. The rough idea is the same for USI-LS, as the same converters will use and produce their counterparts in TAC-LS.

Short Version

Just want to know how to keep your Kerbals alive, read this. If you want more details skip to the sections below.

In order to keep Kerbals alive, you will need:

Long Version

To survive, Kerbals need each (Kerbin-)Day

  • Water (0,242 u)
  • Oxygen (37,012 u)
  • Food (0,366 u)
  • ElectricCharge (306 u)

and they produce each (Kerbin-)Day:

  • WasteWater (0,308 u)
  • CarbonDioxide (31,971 u)
  • Waste (0,033 u)

USI Kolonization Systems provide Converters to extend Life Support.

Resources Flows

There are three recycling circuits for each pair of the needed/produced resources. These circuits are self-sustaining. You do not need to add additional resources to keep them going.

NOTE: The following conversions are only added when TAC Life Support is installed.

Food, Water and Oxygen

The Fast Conversion

The Greenhouse Converter of the Pioneer Module converts Waste, WasteWater and CarbonDioxide back into Food, Water and Oxygen.

Greenhouse Converter Production (at 100% workload efficiency):

Resource Consumes Produces
ElectricCharge 6
Waste 0,000006157408
WasteWater 0,00005699074
CarbonDioxide 0,005920515596
Food 0,000033854166
Water 0,000022376158
Oxygen 0,003427075124
Machinery 0.000001
Recyclables 0.000001
2000 Machinery required for full operation

The Slower Conversion

The Greenhouse Converter of the Aeroponics Module converts Waste, WasteWater and CarbonDioxide into Organics.

Greenhouse Converter Production (at 100% workload efficiency):

Resource Consumes Produces
ElectricCharge 12
Waste 0,000001539352
WasteWater 0,000014247686
CarbonDioxide 0,001480128898
Organics 0,000045
Machinery 0.000001
Recyclables 0.000001
2000 Machinery required for full operation

The same process can be achieved with the MK-V Agricultural Module but with higher consumption/production.

Greenhouse Converter Production (at 100% workload efficiency):

Resource Consumes Produces
ElectricCharge 12
Waste 0,000003078704
WasteWater 0,00002849537
CarbonDioxide 0,002960257798
Organics 0,000075
Machinery 0.000001
Recyclables 0.000001
2000 Machinery required for full operation

Using Fertilizer produces more Organics with the same amount as you would use with the Greenhouse Converter of the Aeroponics Module.

Agroponics Converter Production (at 100% workload efficiency):

Resource Consumes Produces
ElectricCharge 12
Waste 0,000001539352
WasteWater 0,000014247686
CarbonDioxide 0,001480128898
Fertilizer 0,0000025
Organics 0,0000525
Machinery 0.000001
Recyclables 0.000001
2000 Machinery required for full operation

Using These Organics

The Habitat Converter of the Kerbitat(tm) converts Organics into Food, Water and Oxygen.

The same process can be achieved with the MK-V Habitation Module.

Habitat Converter Production (at 100% workload efficiency):

Resource Consumes Produces
ElectricCharge 6
Organics 0,0001
Food 0,000033854166
Water 0,000022376158
Oxygen 0,003427075124
Machinery 0.000001
Recyclables 0.000001
2000 Machinery required for full operation

Efficiency

The Aeroponics Module and Kerbitat(tm) can support an unlimited number of Kerbals based on the number of available:

A rough estimation is that for MKS, two MK-V Agriculture Modules with a single MK-V Habitation Module can support 2 Kerbals. For OKS, two Agricultural Modules and a Habitation Ring will support 10 Kerbals.

Guidelines

Quoting Roverdude:

On land bases, with water and substrate drills, Cultivator is best (free organics from renewable harvestables).

For extending supplies on an orbital station, Agroponics is best. Always. It's mass neutral. (1 ton of waste/fertilizer stuff becomes 1 ton of organics). If the fertilizer runs out, you can use the greenhouse in a pinch.

Greenhouse + Cultivator is fine because there is no input overlap. Greenhouse + Agroponics is bad because the greenhouse is lossy wrt waste.

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