"Survival Vaults/Shelters, for long term habitation..." Topic

You know, the classic "vault/shelter" where the idea is that a population can wait out the big bad and step out when the all clear is sounded.

I was working on details of a functional shelter for thousands of people and while doing so I was looking into the science of the potential fiction.

Here are some pictures that I am looking at:

biospheres (yes a glass roof is unrealistic but the flora/fauna aspect is spot on)
link picture picture picture picture picture link picture picture picture picture picture picture picture picture picture picture

Now these are nice, bright, and pretty…as long as the big bad was not in the form of bombs and such, then a series of "glass houses" could be feasible…but if truly locked down…the same pictures from 300' underground, well things get a bit harder to establish the essentials…natural sun, air exchange, and moisture exchange.

The sunlight can be replicated in measure from artificial light sources, but as anyone who has worked with high end lighting…it does not last forever and the quality of the light radiation fades in an unequal fashion so the same failing increases the growth of unwanted fringe flora.

Vast banks of fiber-optics could provide a manageable source of natural light.

But the images above (the open areas with plants and water) would go a long way to provide a sense of hope, a place to escape the confining spaces of the tunnels, apartments, and other industrial operational sections of the shelter/vault.

Even though most food flora would be best developed within a hydroponics setting there would certainly be need and desire for many micro gardens throughout the facility…for atmosphere, general well being, and even food.

I suspect there would be a drive to develop unique flavors, sizes, shapes picture picture picture among the community.

Certain fauna would be most useful…in particular honey bees. Maybe even bred without stingers and to be extremely passive. The many plants would need pollination and the honey would be a boon to health; honey can be stored indefinitely.

Health lights (full spectrum to equate sunlight) are used during the dark periods up North when the regions experience extended darkness for months at a time; Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD.

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The other communal issues, major issues…

sanitation
atmosphere
hygiene
energy
environmental controls
etc.

These take us far beyond the form and structure of the vault/shelter.

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Gaming aspect…well worth considering most of these issues to better develop RPG settings, miniatures, terrain, etc..

Vault doors picture

Tunnel intersection picture

Sectional apartment picture

Back-up generators picture

Lower tunnel picture

Deep secure well picture

Robot sentry picture

I spent 2 years in SAC as a missile combat crewman. Our underground was a capsule [shaped just like a Contac capsule]
About 10 feet thick with an 8 ton blast door.
We were self sufficient for about a week if there was a war.
Weaselhoffen.

Fantastic images!!!

Dan

From a modeling perspective, I don't think there's anything new here. You'd want such a shelter to be secret, if for no other reason to forestall the place being ripped apart by hundreds of thousands of desperate people. So such a building wouldn't even be vault doors on a mountainside; they'd be a secret sub-basement beneath a resort or something. Interior gaming would be using corridor systems from GW, Litko or Creative Gamescapes.

Gaming it is the interesting part. Actually, gaming the construction of such a shelter is the interesting part, IMO. Gaming out the hunkering down aspect is boring (even if discovered, it's a siege). Gaming the post-apoc emergence would also be boring because you'd have such a material advantage over your competitors. Be a fun concept for an RPG or simulation game: design a shelter for a The End of the World As We Know It scenario, but the simulation controllers won't tell you which scenario they'll be playing out.

@wellspring "Gaming the post-apoc emergence would also be boring because you'd have such a material advantage over your competitors"

I have been giving this a fair amount of thought and came up with some fun options:

Staggered game periods with the previous game affecting the next.

Example: the initial years following the doors closing, there is a rift among the population and an outside door is opened…do you the guy on the button seal that section off or investigate the outside? (for the example the area is sealed off from the main facility)
Etc.

50, 75, 100 years later…the seal on the outer, explorer ring, is opened and your group is tasked with gathering data…

or

500, 750, 1000 years later…etc.

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The idea of popping out in a Mad Max setting is interesting but the idea of popping out in a World Without Man setting is even more so…maybe there are a dozen sealed cities around the world…they all open at the same time and deal with the world as is.

But back to the theme of the thread, I am enjoying the aspect of the finer details of the sealed system.

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Waste is most likely going to be reduced to ash which in turn can be used for the carbon, added to fertilizer, etc..

Recycling will become a fine art…water, air, proteins, plastics, metals, fibers, etc..

Recirculating will be essential…heat from the waste burners brought through the facility for warmth, exchange between states of liquid to gas and back during water distilling used for cooling, processing ammonia from certain liquid wastes to be used for refrigerant, light radiation from the furnaces or other processes used for secondary light sources, etc..

I could see fish being the common animal on hand…piped throughout the facility would provide a point of interest, common appreciation of something alive, with the large overall liquid volume it would be easy to maintain, for food, for fertilizer, for entertainment, for hobby, etc.

Earthworms also would be most useful…used to help with the process of soil aeration, pure protein, fertilizer, etc..

Other aqua-culture would be most useful…shrimp, long arm prawns, fish, crabs, seaweed, clams, oysters, etc…used to process non-toxic waste organic matter, for food, etc..

The multiple periods thing sounds a lot like "A Canticle for Leibowitz". It may tie in well with the whole "Morrow Project" theme as well – especially if you assume a Morrow Project sans cryogenics. Another vault possibility is as a genetic library – cryogenics work quite well on embryos, so hitting the vault's time (or other preset variable) lock could activate artificial wombs to release entirely unsocialized baby animals. So maybe a Robo-nanny in the mix, which means that released vault dwellers will be as crazy as the propaganda that the vault builders choose to indoctrinate them with…

Indeed Rubber Suit you hit the nail several times with that response :)

I was thinking that a nanny staff would be established with a sustained crew size…maintenance as well as biological sciences…in theory this could go on for thousands of years.

Consider if there are levels or rings…an upper level or an outer ring may never even know there is an inner ring/level…the outer levels could be tasked with exploring and recording the outside world, returning with samples and data.

Could be fun fun fun til Daddy takes the giant mutant chicken away…