IFI Life Support CKAN

IFI Life Support is designed to provide an enjoyable life support experience without making it complicated. There is one main resource called LifeSupport, and, in the advanced modes, there are two more, OrganicSlurry and Sludge. The only resource you really need to deal with in all modes is the LifeSupport resource, the other resources are there for the mechanics, and, while you can store them in tanks and move them around, there isn’t a lot to do with them.

The mod is designed so that you can switch between the different modes of operation at any time without causing problems. So, you can start off at the Classic mode, and over time change it to Enhanced, Advanced and Extreme. If you feel that the higher modes are too difficult, you can easily change it back to a lower mode. Any existing ships will continue to operate in the mode they were designed in; ie: If you have a ship/colony which is using the Enhanced mode and has greenhouses, and then switch back to Classic, the greenhouses will continue to work, etc.

Requirements

IFI-LS requires the following mods:

Community Category Kit Community Resource Pack ModuleManager These mods are included in the zip file for convenience.

Please note that there is a directory called Squad, this MUST be merged with the Squad folder since it contains icons for the Tech Tree.

IFI Life Support has 4 modes of operation:

Classic

Only the LifeSupport resource is available. Each unit of Life-Support should provide 1 Kerbin Day (6 hours) of Life support for 1 Kerbal when in space, see below for details on the operation info Enhanced

This introduces the OrganicSlurry resource and greenhouses. When a Kerbal uses LifeSupport, the output is OrganicSlurry, produced at a 1:1 ratio; in other words, if a Kerbal uses 1 unit of LifeSupport, a unit of OrganicSlurry will be produced. Greenhouses are able to convert most of the OrganicSlurry back into LifeSupport, at a 90% efficiency. Tanks are also provided which can store Organic Slurry. Advanced

This introduces the Sludge resource, and the MicroBiome and AlgaeHouse. The 10% of the LifeSupport resource which the greenhouses are unable to recycle create Sludge. The MicroBiome and AlgaeHouse are able to take that Sludge and convert it back into LifeSupport. The efficiency is 100%, although slow. As usual, tanks are provided which can store the Sludge. Extreme

This mode doesn’t introduce any new resources, but there are some new parts: the Circular Intake, the Cryogenic Air Separator and the BioReactor. The functionality is described, but the resources they deal with are totally hidden:

The Circular Intake pulls in outside atmosphere and filters out everything except Oxygen, and then feeds that into the Cryogenic Air Separator. The Cryogenic Air Separator takes that Oxygen and converts it into compressed O2, and then feeds that into the BioReactor The BioReactor takes in the compressed O2, Sludge and Ore (stock Ore), and produces more LifeSupport as output than was taken in as Sludge. All of the active parts also need EC to operate.

Experiments and Parts

All crewed parts automatically have enough life support for 3 days with a full crew. If you don’t put a full crew on, the life support will last longer.

The Greenhouses, MicroBiome, AlgaeHouse and BioReactor all need some experiments to be run before they will work. The experiment needs to be run in the biome where the parts are working.

The greenhouses need to have the experiment: BSS-1 (Biological Systems Study-1) to be run The AlgaeHouse and BioReactor need the experiment BSS-G (Biological Systems Study-Goo) The BioReactor needs the Biosphere Containment Study experiment run Operation Info

There are three way of seeing the status of the life support systems:

Toolbar Button Status Display window shown by clicking the toolbar button Right-click menu on parts Toolbar Button

The toolbar will change color depending on the status of the worst off craft

Green - All craft have sufficient LifeSupport Yellow - At least one craft has less than three days of life support available Red - At least one crat has less than 1 day of life support remaining Status Display Window

The Status Display window shows the current status of all vessels with crew on-board, depending on the mode the Life Support mod is currently in:

Classic - Shows the name of the vessel, where it is, how much crew is there and how many days of LifeSupport remains Improved - Added the ability to show how much OrganicSlurry the rate at which the vessel is able to process it, and how much time will take to process it. The window is expandable by clicking the double-arrow button at the lower-right of the screen. Enhanced - Added Sludge to the window Extreme - No changes beyond the Enhanced