ICS "Type 1" Instant Homestead Module
An ICS "Type I" Instant Homestead Module (ICM), often fondly referred to as a "Town in a Can" among Protectorate colonists on semi-habitable worlds, is a collection of shelter, infrastructure, production, and agriculture equipment designed and to fit within the overall footpring of an expanded General Purpose Module and to be deployed remotely from orbit within a disposeable aeroshell.
Colony vessels like the ESCI Revelation and ESCI Dewhollow, as well as support vessels like starbergs, carry numerous Type 1s and can produce them from resources extracted on-orbit for use by their planet-bound compatriots. Numerous prospective colony sites are identified en route to the host star system and, once the carrying vessel arives, the most promising sites are picked for investment with IHMs. Several uncrewed IHMs are typically dropped in a localized region to create a new colony site, after which colonists, HLAI platforms, and/or autonomous construction vehicles are then delivered to the colony site separately to begin the long unpacking process. If conditions are right, the colony will eventually expand well beyond the need for the IHMs and, in time, the modules and attendant domes may become seats of government, colonial history museums, spaceport terminals, specialized production facilities, and more as the colony requires.
Power Generation
Beneath the collapsible geodesic domes adorning the exterior of the module (see Armor & Defense) lie a series of folded solar panels which follow the sun serve to charge foliated capacitor banks near the module's core once deployed. This system powers the module's microwave communications antennae, computer system, internal CELSS systems (see Additional & Auxiliary Systems), and auto-fabricators. Smaller photoelectric collectors embedded in the skins of the geodesic domes provide additional power, but this is largely used to power grow lights during planetary night cycles.
Propulsion
One or more IHMs can be stacked atop a propulsion bus to move them into position for deployment. Aside from two tiny, breakaway banks of chemical thrusters for attitude adjustment during descent, IHMs are generally deployed without a source of propulsion.
Weapons & Armament
IHMs are not generally themselves armed, relying on the small arms of the colonists and support from any orbital infrastructure they might have for defense against external threats. An IHM is massive enough to do significant damage to a surface target were it dropped as a form of ortillery bombardment, though doing so would be considered extremely wasteful.
Armor and defense
The protective pycrete shell of an IHM is a full two and a half feet thinner than the one that forms the shell of most GPMs. In the place of this extra water ice on the outside lies layers of tough mesh netting for the storage of the typical IHM's twelve collapsible geodesic dome shelters - two on each side - and, beneath these, a set of folded solar arrays. These meshes double as disembarkation ladders, as the module is designed to land with one airlock module facing towards the sky; the airlock at the 'bottom' has a reinforced structure so that it can be used as an entrance to a mineshaft dug to supplement the homestead's space or material needs. Inside, the extra space gained from the reduction in wall thickness is used for hundreds of small cells containing tools, preserved seeds for genetically-enhanced food crops, a secondary oxygen and water filtration system, a few disassembled auto-fabricators, and more odds and ends useful for the assembly and maintenance of a farmstead on an alien world.
A colonist could take shelter in the cramped confines of a stowed IHM during a solar radiation storm or when the ship carrying it is passing through a debris field, but a standard GPM would be better for this purpose due to its much thicker exterior shell. Once deployed on a planetary surface, the full protection of a GPM is considered less necessary and, therefore, IHMs are not generally as heavily armored as such.
Communication Tools & Systems
An IHM is typically equipped with a microwave-band transciever for communication with surface neighbors and orbital assets alike. The auto-fabricators provided in the IHM contain blueprints for the construction of multispectral scope emplacements which, among other things, provides secure laser communications channels.
Sensors
The CELSS system of the IHM is capable of detecting contamination in the atmosphere and waste stream produced by the colonists and, thereby, may serve as an advance warning system for chemical, biological, or radiological threats to their health. A small set of deployable weather sensors atop the IHM may be used in conjunction with remote sensing systems in the colony's orbital assets to help in the prediction of weather.
Additional & auxiliary systems
Each IHM contains a small, but fully developed, closed ecology life support system (CELSS). There may be times en route to the planet to be settled or on the planet's surface itself where it may be necessary to take shelter within the IHM, and colony vessels generally cannot afford to be wasteful with their mass or volume budgets due to the tyranny of the rocket equation. Tubes full of dehydrated algae, genetically modified to provide both ample nutrition and waste oxygen wait within the IHM for the simple flipping of a few switches to start melted ice from the outer module jacket flowing through them. Space, biological resources, and options for entertainment within an undeployed IHM are both in short supply, so those forced to make use of the CELSS are encouraged to sleep as much as possible to conserve all three.
Hangars & docked vessels
Each IHM comes with twelve sets of metal trusses, cables, and transparent pressure membranes which can be assembled into enclosed domes of around 50 ft in diameter. Each of these domes has a simple inflatable sally port which can serve as an airlock and be joined to an inflatable hub near the IHM by way of extensible transparent tubes. Colonists are expected to bring in soil from the outside to fill the bottom of the dome, and, after sterilizing it, fertilize it with recycled waste or excess tube algae and plant their crops in it. Alternatively, an assembled dome can be filled with furnishings manufactured with the aid of the included auto-fabricators and tool kits to create a farmhouse, coop, or stable as required by the needs of the specific colony site.
Class
Nickname
Town in a Can
Manufacturer
Owning Organization
Related Technologies
Complement / Crew
5 (emergency shelter) or 24+ (deployed module)
Comments
Author's Notes
Inspired by the article "The Architectural Genius of the Geodesic Dome and the Challenge of Putting It All Back Together" from Smithsonian Magazine.