SCP-2716 — SCP-2716 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-2716 Euclid ~ medium confidence

SCP-2716

Expected annual

$58.8M

One-time setup

$2.0B

Annual recurring

$47.8M

Personnel

Estimated initial capital outlay is approximately $2.03 billion driven primarily by lunar and Martian site development and classified procurement premiums; recurring annual costs are roughly $47.8 million driven by mission operations, staff wages, replacement reserves and inter-agency/cover-story expenditures.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.0B

Mars Site Development $1.2B

[#13] Martian Containment Area-01 development and deployment (lander/robotic module, environmental chamber, foundation/anchoring, launch and EDL costs).

Lunar Site Development $300.0M

[#6] Lunar Containment Area-13 development and emplacement (lander + locker + radiation shielding + robotics + launch/landing).

Classified Procurement Premium One Time $242.4M

[#21] One-time classified procurement/black-budget premium (applied ~15% to mission/hardware one-time capital items listed: lunar/mars/site/hardware/lander costs).

Emergency Contingency Fund $100.0M

[#23] Emergency response and contingency reserve (rapid-response launches, legal action, crash recovery).

Mars Power Systems $50.0M

[#14] Mars site power hardware (RTG/large solar arrays/batteries) one-time procurement and installation.

Insurance Reserve One Time $50.0M

[#24] Initial insurance-like risk reserve and liability accounting (internal reserve for mission failures, accidents).

Lunar Power And Comms $40.0M

[#7] Lunar surface power and communications infrastructure one-time hardware (solar arrays/batteries/thermal control, relay/communications provisioning hardware where applicable).

Lunar Rover $25.0M

[#9] Lunar rover / autonomous retrieval system and spares (mobile platform, arm/grapple, navigation, docking hardware).

Decommissioning And Disposal One Time $20.0M

[#30] Decommissioning / end-of-mission disposal one-time reserve (passivation or removal costs as needed).

Specialized Security One Time $2.0M

[#25] Specialized physical/anti-tamper security hardware for lunar & martian sites (one-time hardened enclosures, seals, tamper sensors).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $650K

[#5, #28] Basic lab testing and instrumentation (anemometers, torque sensors, cameras, dataloggers) and quarantine/lab-modification for returned items (one-time lab containment upgrade).

Facilities $500K

[#1] Site-98 Class-III airtight containment vault construction/modification (structural, seals, HVAC, basic sensors) estimated as a single one-time facilities build.

Lunar Locker $200K

[#8] Lunar containment locker and vacuum-rated vaulting hardware one-time procurement and emplacement.

Initial Recovery And Transport $25K

[#4] Initial recovery/transport from Southampton Airport to Site-98 (evidence handling, legal clearances, secure transport).

Contamination Control One Time $25K

[#12] Initial lunar contamination control & packaging procedure startup costs (containers, protocols).

Equipment $0

[]

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $47.8M/yr

Replacement Reserve Annual $20.0M/yr

[#22] Annualized reserve for scheduled replacement/upgrade of orbital/lander/rover hardware (amortized estimate for $50M-$500M replacement events every 5–15 years).

Classified Procurement Premium Recurring $6.2M/yr

[#21] Recurring classified procurement/operational premium applied (~15%) to ongoing mission/ops recurring costs (logistics, ORBIT/DSN tasking, ops overhead).

Insurance Replenishment $5.0M/yr

[#24] Annual replenishment for insurance-like reserve and liability accounting.

Staff Wages $4.8M/yr

[#3, #10, #16, #18] Salaries/benefits for Site-98 security & technician, lunar task force mission controllers, Mars operations staff and research staffing (aggregate annual wages and benefits).

Mars Power Ops $2.0M/yr

[#14] Recurring ops for Mars site power systems (battery cycling, heaters, RTG ops oversight or solar ops).

Interagency Liaison $2.0M/yr

[#19] Inter-agency liaison, diplomatic costs and program influence (ongoing agreements, briefings, travel, legal counsel).

Lunar Rover Maintenance $1.5M/yr

[#9] Annual spare parts, scheduled actuator/wheel replacement and maintenance for lunar retrieval rovers.

Cover Story And Legal $1.0M/yr

[#20] Public cover-up, PR, legal fees and publication control (grants/payments, litigation prevention, leak response).

Lunar Orbital Imaging $1.0M/yr

[#11] Recurring cost for tasking existing orbital assets / DSN time and imagery cadence for Mare Tranquillitatis (chosen approach: use existing assets rather than dedicated orbiter).

Lunar Search And Retrieval Ops $1.0M/yr

[#10] Annual operations cost for Task Force Alpha-29 (mission controllers, imagery analysis, re-tasking cadence every ~3 weeks).

Mars Dsn Ops $1.0M/yr

[#15] DSN/communications operations and guaranteed comms time for Mars site (recurring operations/DSN tasking fees).

Logistics And Transport $500K/yr

[#10] Routine mission logistics, uplink/downlink ops, mission planning and transportation overhead for lunar search & retrieval operations.

Specialized Security Ops $500K/yr

[#25] Cybersecurity, firmware updates, intrusion detection monitoring and security ops for remote sites.

Program Accounting $500K/yr

[#29] Internal audits, classified accounting and oversight costs.

Research And Monitoring $300K/yr

[#18] Compute, archival storage, image processing and non-staff research instrumentation upkeep (annual IT/storage/compute ops).

Cultural Mitigation $200K/yr

[#26] Annual cultural/brand mitigation expenses related to 'SPACE-TACULAR' inscription (PR research, suppression of marketing tie-ins).

Personnel Support $200K/yr

[#27] Psychological care, rotation support and training for isolated staff and remote ops specialists.

Lab Quarantine Ops $50K/yr

[#28] Annual operations for quarantine lab (consumables, testing procedures for any returned items).

Facilities Maintenance $30K/yr

[#2] Vault ongoing utilities, maintenance and monitoring (power, HVAC, filter changes, periodic seal checks, alarm monitoring).

Supplies And Consumables $25K/yr

[#5, #12, #28] Consumables for short-term tests, contamination control consumables and quarantine operations (annual replacement items).

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $47.8M/yr

77.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations, scheduled maintenance and no major incidents; uses existing orbital assets for imaging.

routine_operations scheduled_maintenance

🚨 Minor Incident $57.8M/yr

20.0% probability / year +$10.0M vs baseline

A recoverable hardware failure or localized mission failure (e.g., lunar rover incapacitated or short-term loss of comms) requiring a targeted replacement/repair mission.

rover_failure localized_hardware_degradation

🚨 Major Breach $347.8M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$300.0M vs baseline

Significant loss of remote hardware or public exposure requiring emergency launches, large-scale PR/legal action, and major replacement missions.

hardware_loss public_exposure emergency_replacement_launch

👥 Personnel 36 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	8	[#3] 24/7 site security staffing to cover shifts for Site-98 containment and perimeter monitoring.
Research Scientist	6	[#18] Scientists analyzing telescope imagery and anomalous data (Orcus output) and supporting experiments.
Mission Controller / Remote Ops Specialist	10	[#10, #16] Personnel running lunar search & retrieval operations (Alpha-29) and Mars remote operations/mission control.
Engineer / Maintenance	6	[#9, #16] Engineers for rover/lander maintenance, robotic servicing and remote hardware troubleshooting.
Site Director / Executive Staff	1	[#1, #18] Site director / executive oversight for approval and coordination of testing and inter-agency liaison.
Administrative Staff	3	[#29] Accounting, classified procurement administration and program management staff.
Medical Officer / Psychological Support	2	[#27] Psychological screening and counseling support for staff exposed to anomalous imagery and isolated operations teams.

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates combine well-understood terrestrial costs (Site-98 vault, staffing) with highly uncertain space mission costs and policy/black-budget premiums; ranges are broad for lunar/Mars mission hardware and classified procurement premiums, producing moderate confidence.

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