SCP-1778 — SCP-1778 | Cost Breakdown

Read on SCP Wiki ↗

SCP-1778 Euclid ~ medium confidence

SCP-1778

Expected annual

$72.1M

One-time setup

$618.5M

Annual recurring

$48.4M

Personnel

One-time mission and containment setup costs are dominated by potential dedicated recovery mission hardware and launch (~$100M–$500M per attempt); routine monitoring, intelligence, and secrecy operations drive recurring costs (~tens of millions per year).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $618.5M

Dedicated Capture Spacecraft Per Mission $300.0M

[#8] Development/procurement of a dedicated rendezvous/capture spacecraft (per dedicated recovery mission).

Launch Services Per Mission $100.0M

[#9] Launch vehicle and services for a dedicated rendezvous mission (per launch).

Asat Destructive Disposal Option $75.0M

[#22] One-time cost estimate for an ASAT/destructive disposal operation (political/cleanup mitigation not included elsewhere).

Initial Contingency Reserve $50.0M

[#12] Initial risk-mitigation reserve fund for collateral damage, diplomatic fallout, or failed attempts.

Capture Hardware And Robotics $25.0M

[#10] Space-rated robotic arms, grapples, nets, testing and qualification (one-time per capture system).

Facilities $20.0M

[#13] Hardened quarantine/examination hangar buildout and structural work.

Anomalous Contingency Reserve $20.0M

[#25] Reserved funds for anomalous/unknown effects and emergent phenomena (one-time reserve allocation).

Mission Design And Studies $8.0M

[#7] One-time comprehensive mission design, engineering studies and simulation effort prior to approval.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $6.0M

[#14] Specialized test equipment (vacuum chamber, de-spin rig, radiological lab) and research lab buildout.

Compute Cluster Setup $5.0M

[#4] Space-grade signal processing GPU/storage cluster initial procurement and installation.

Mission Propellant And Consumables Per Mission $2.0M

[#11] Propellant and mission consumables (per rendezvous attempt).

Environmental Modeling Setup $2.0M

[#23] One-time environmental and orbital-debris modeling and planning setup.

Equipment $1.8M

[#3] Radio/telemetry ground station hardware and antenna farms (one-time setup portion).

Mtf Initial Kit $1.5M

[#6] Initial MTF Beta-3 kit: suits, vehicles, aircraft time, and mission-specific equipment.

Embedded Assets Initial Placement $500K

[#5] Initial recruitment/placement costs for embedded assets inside space agencies.

Cover Story Initial Creation $500K

[#19] One-time creation of cover-story materials, fabricated records and initial covert PR setup.

Secure It Setup $500K

[#27] Initial secure IT, compartmentalization systems and related secure infrastructure setup.

Medical Quarantine Setup $500K

[#17] Medical/quarantine suite initial setup and biohazard equipment (one-time).

Initial Transport Escort Per Operation $300K

[#16] Initial lock-down and transport escort costs per operation (one-time per operation component).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $48.4M/yr

Orbital Surveillance Monitoring $6.0M/yr

[#1] Continuous SSA monitoring: dedicated radar, telescope tasking, software upkeep and data analysts.

On Demand Imagery Tasking $6.0M/yr

[#2] Budgeted annual spend for multiple high-resolution imagery/ISR satellite taskings per year.

Cover Story And Legal $5.0M/yr

[#19] Ongoing legal/diplomatic operations, covert influence budgets and cover-story maintenance.

Embedded Human Assets $5.0M/yr

[#5] Recurring salaries, covert funding and operational costs for embedded personnel in space agencies.

Contingency Replenishment $5.0M/yr

[#12, #25] Annual replenishment/reserve contribution for contingency and anomalous-impact funds.

Staff Wages $4.0M/yr

[#26] Core science & administrative staff salaries, project managers, safety officers and support staff.

Mtf Beta3 Readiness $3.0M/yr

[#6] Ongoing MTF personnel rotation pay, training, equipment maintenance and readiness exercises.

Cryptanalysis Team $3.0M/yr

[#18] Salaries and operations for cryptanalysis, linguistics and signal research team.

Logistics And Transport $1.5M/yr

[#24] Annual transport readiness, ship/aircraft charters and logistics capability maintenance.

Public Affairs $1.5M/yr

[#21] Rapid-response misinformation, social media management and leak handling budgets.

Security Personnel $1.5M/yr

[#16] Annual armed guard rotations and transport security for on-site and mission windows.

Facilities Maintenance $1.2M/yr

[#13] Yearly operations, utilities and upkeep for the hardened quarantine/exam facility.

Compute Cluster Ops $1.0M/yr

[#4] Power, maintenance and algorithm development for signal-processing and ML compute cluster.

Mission Rnd Program $1.0M/yr

[#7] Ongoing engineering studies, simulations and incremental R&D if mission planning continues as a program.

Radio Ground Operations $600K/yr

[#3] Ongoing operations, maintenance and staffing for radio/telemetry ground stations and spectrum analysts.

Medical Program $600K/yr

[#17] Ongoing medical monitoring, quarantine operations and health surveillance for involved personnel.

Research And Monitoring $500K/yr

[#14] Maintenance, consumables and upkeep for specialized test equipment and lab monitoring.

Purchase Ssa Data $500K/yr

[#20] Annual purchase/lease of priority SSA data, ephemerides and catalog updates.

Long Term Storage $500K/yr

[#15] Climate control, inert gas storage and monitoring costs for a retrieved object.

Audit And Secrecy Ops $500K/yr

[#27] Internal audit, OPSEC training, counterintelligence exercises and secure IT upkeep (recurring portion).

Debris Mitigation Monitoring $500K/yr

[#23] Annual monitoring and mitigation contracts related to orbital debris and collision avoidance.

Supplies And Consumables $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $48.4M/yr

93.0% probability / year

Routine year with observation, secrecy maintenance, R&D and readiness but no recovery attempt or major incidents.

no_recovery_approved stable_orbit_behavior no_major_leaks

🚨 Recovery Attempt $510.4M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$462.0M vs baseline

A dedicated approved recovery/disposal mission is executed, incurring spacecraft development, launch, capture hardware, propellant, mission ops and political mitigation costs in addition to baseline operations.

O5_approval_for_recovery escalating_anomalous_behavior identified_retrieval_window

🚨 Political Exposure $78.4M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$30.0M vs baseline

Significant leak or diplomatic exposure forces large legal/PR response, payouts, increased covert ops and temporary mission acceleration.

public_leak international_inquiry failed_cover_story

👥 Personnel 30 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	12	[#26] Signal analysis, cryptanalysis, orbital dynamics and experimental research staff included in core science payroll.
Lab Technician	5	[#26] Maintain test equipment, vacuum chambers, and sample handling.
Project Manager / Safety Officer	3	[#26] Program management, safety, mission coordination.
Administrative Staff	5	[#26] Procurement, accounting, scheduling and administrative support.
Legal / Procurement Specialist	3	[#26] Handles paperwork, cover-story coordination and contracting for core program.
Site Director / Executive Staff	2	[#26] Senior oversight and liaison to Level 4 and O5 oversight.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges but many items (mission architecture, political mitigation, anomalous behavior frequency) are highly uncertain; cost ranges are therefore approximated to mid/high values leading to medium confidence.

← SCP-1776 ↑ All SCPs SCP-1779 →