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SCP-7117 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-7117
Expected annual
$857.4M
One-time setup
$6.8B
Annual recurring
$799.4M
Personnel
240
Corrected Foundation operational one-time spend of $6,850,000,000 driven by hardened research facilities, a multi-part Mars archaeology program, cis-solar archival vaults/prototypes and program reserves; recurring operational budget is $799,400,000/yr dominated by research/monitoring, Mars operations, launches, staff wages and external collaboration. This re-evaluation materially lowers the prior report's multi‑tens-of-billions estimate by removing infeasible interstellar colonization spending and itemizing all >$1B investments.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $6.8B
Facilities $900.0M
Dedicated SCP-7117 Research & Containment Complex: underground/hardened campus with secured labs, medical ward, secure archives, comms, EMP/radiation hardening and long-duration life-support/backups. Estimate based on comparable hardened government research campuses and required build specifications.
Mars Orbiter Constellation $900.0M
Itemized Mars orbital assets to support archaeology/monitoring: three medium-class orbiters including payloads (synthetic aperture radar, ground-penetrating radar, high-res imaging) and integrated launch costs (roughly $250–350M per orbiter delivered).
Mars Landers And Rovers $800.0M
Multiple lander/rover platforms including precision-landing systems and in-situ excavation/robotic archaeology tooling. Estimate covers development, testing, integration and launch services for a staged program of several landers/rovers.
Mars Sample Return Mission $600.0M
Dedicated sample-return capability (Earth-return stage, containment for potentially anomalous material, rendezvous logistics). Itemized separately because sample-return adds complexity and cost beyond simple landers.
Lunar And Lagrange Vaults $600.0M
Construction and emplacement of hardened archival vaults in cis-solar locations (Moon surface vault + Lagrange repository construction/deploy). Designed to preserve records and biological material within the Sol system where Foundation operations are feasible.
Cis Solar Contingency Outpost Prototypes $600.0M
Small-scale cis-solar (Moon/Lagrange) habitat prototypes and testbeds to validate long-duration survival inside the Sol system. Explicitly excludes interstellar colonies; prototypes intended as survivability and data caching nodes within the Sol system only.
Contingency Reserve $500.0M
Initial liquid contingency fund for rapid re‑launch/replacement, emergency excavation or accelerated procurement in response to mission loss or unexpected anomaly effects.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $400.0M
BSL-4/high-containment lab buildout, archaeological conservation and dating laboratory build-out, initial tranche for materials-testing rigs and anomaly-tolerant engineering testbeds.
Energy Infrastructure $300.0M
Dedicated on-site power generation (micro-reactor or equivalent), UPS and redundant generation plus hardened fuel/consumables storage sized for long-duration operations off-grid.
Insurance Reserve $300.0M
Reserve for classified insurance, write-offs and asset replacement costs tied to high mission failure risk in outer-system operations.
Planetary Geophysical Monitoring Build $250.0M
Dense sensor webs (ground stations) plus supporting orbital sensors for geophysical monitoring of Earth/Mars system and Kuiper/Oort boundary telemetry relays.
Equipment $200.0M
Capital equipment: laboratory instruments, field archaeology hardware, CNC/additive fabrication initial outfitting, secure transport vehicles, and site communications hardware.
Cryopreservation Infrastructure $200.0M
Cryostorage and embryo/genome preservation facilities with redundancy and specialized long-term custodial systems; includes legal/ethical compliance setup.
Long Term Geological Preservation $100.0M
Programs to embed records into geologically stable media (deep borehole archives, synthetic fossil embedding) designed to persist across cycles.
Global Terrestrial Vaults $60.0M
Multi-site terrestrial vault network (Svalbard-class and underground repositories) for distributed preservation of analog/durable archives and DNA/seed banks.
Supercomputing Purchase $60.0M
High-performance compute cluster purchase for stochakinetic modelling, climate/planetary simulations and analysis pipelines.
Specialized Manufacturing Lines $50.0M
On-site CNC, additive manufacturing and spares pipeline initial outfitting to avoid external supply-chain dependence for custom parts.
Data Storage Physical Archival $30.0M
Non-digital physical archival manufacturing (etched metal, ceramic microform, analog durable media) and initial multi-site replication.
Interstellar Probe Program $0
Estimate set to 0 per feasibility: article states attempts to move human subjects beyond the Sol system 'inevitably fail' and 'all precautionary methods do not nullify its effect.' The Foundation will NOT commit resources to attempted large-scale interstellar relocation of human populations because the anomaly makes such efforts effectively impossible. Foundation activities instead focus on cis-solar probes/experiments and archival redundancy.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $799.4M/yr
Research And Monitoring $180.0M/yr
Program-level recurring R&D into stochakinetics, anomaly‑tolerant engineering, planetary/archaeological research grants, modelling and analysis costs.
Mars Archaeology Ops $120.0M/yr
Ongoing Mars operations: orbiter/lander/rover operations, data analysis, remote excavation missions and sample curation.
Logistics And Transport $100.0M/yr
Annual budget for launch cadence of cis-solar missions, vehicle procurement for orbiters/landers, ground operations, and routine resupply to cis-solar assets.
Launch And Test Missions $80.0M/yr
Annual reserve for test launches, small probes to Kuiper/Oort boundary and mission experimentation within the Solar System.
Inner System Monitoring Ops $60.0M/yr
Operational costs for orbiters, relay stations, Lagrange assets and telemetry networks in the Solar System.
External Collaboration $50.0M/yr
Grants and classified contracts with external partners (universities, national agencies, private sector) to augment Foundation capabilities under cover agreements.
Facilities Maintenance $45.0M/yr
Operations and maintenance for hardened campus, life-support, backups, and on-site infrastructure; includes custodial and utility costs for underground/hardened facilities.
Staff Wages $38.4M/yr
Permanent core staffing: 240 FTEs with specialized roles (research scientists, engineers, archaeologists, clinicians, technicians, security, admin). Average compensated cost assumed $160,000/yr (salary+benefits/overhead). Personnel list provided in 'personnel' section.
Cover Story And Legal $25.0M/yr
Cover narrative funding, legal/diplomatic engagement budgets and classified contract fees. Concealment/OPSEC retained because the anomaly's effects are not spontaneously globally observable in a short window; funds used to maintain plausible cover programs (archaeology/space science).
Planetary Monitoring Ops $20.0M/yr
Operations for dense geophysical ground stations and associated data processing.
Covert Acquisition And Artifact Recovery $15.0M/yr
Black-ops recovery teams, false-front logistics and rapid-recovery expenditures for newly discovered artifacts.
Security And Covert Protection $12.0M/yr
24/7 armed security, counterintelligence, close protection for key staff and clandestine recovery team operations.
Specialized Manufacturing Ops $10.0M/yr
Operational costs for on-site fabrication lines and spares production.
Energy Ops $8.0M/yr
Fuel, regulatory compliance and plant operations for dedicated power generation.
Supplies And Consumables $6.0M/yr
Lab consumables, field supplies, small-tooling, excavation consumables and archive rotation materials.
Supercomputing Ops $6.0M/yr
Power, cooling, software licensing and maintenance for modelling clusters.
High Containment Ops $6.0M/yr
Operations for BSL-4 pathology suites and anomalous bio-research containment protocols.
Cryopreservation Maintenance $5.0M/yr
Maintenance, security and custodial staffing for cryopreservation and genetic/seed repositories.
Cultural Preservation Ops $4.0M/yr
Controlled public outreach, sanitized exhibits and museum maintenance used as plausible cover for some research activities.
Medical Surveillance $4.0M/yr
Long-term medical monitoring, imaging and assays for occupational exposures; occupational health insurance pools.
Psychological Resilience $3.0M/yr
Counseling, resiliency programs and secrecy incentives to mitigate knowledge-of-anomaly effects on staff.
Data Storage Maintenance $2.0M/yr
Rotation and maintenance of physical and analog archival copies, climate control and periodic media refresh.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $799.4M/yr
90.0% probability / year
Normal operational year: research, Mars operations, monitoring, routine launches and maintenance under the revised program.
routine_operations scheduled_launches ongoing_research
🚨 Minor Incident $1.1B/yr
8.0% probability / year +$350.0M vs baseline
Localized mission/asset loss or anomalous contamination requiring expedited replacement and investigations (e.g., loss of one orbiter or a lander failure).
single_orbiter_loss lander_failure localized_contamination requiring decontamination and replacement
🚨 Major Breach $2.3B/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.5B vs baseline
Large-scale cascade (multiple asset losses, major infrastructure destruction, or sanctioned public exposure forcing accelerated rebuilding and diplomatic/legal interventions).
multiple_mission_failures widespread infrastructure loss major_public_exposure requiring legal/diplomatic responses
👥 Personnel 240 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 80 Senior PIs, stochakinetics researchers, planetary scientists and modelling specialists responsible for analysis and program leadership.
Engineer / Maintenance 45 Systems, spacecraft, power plant and manufacturing engineers; facility maintenance crews.
Archaeologist / Field Specialist 25 Mars and terrestrial archaeology teams, conservation specialists and field operations leads.
Technician / Lab Tech 28 Laboratory technicians, BSL-4 support staff, rover/lander ops technicians and fabrication operators.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 30 On-site security, rapid response teams, and close protection for critical staff.
Covert Ops / Recovery Team 10 Black-ops artifact recovery, clandestine transport and false-front operators.
Medical Officer 10 Clinicians, occupational health specialists and emergency response medics for staff surveillance and treatment.
Administrative Staff 6 Program administration, finance, procurement and cover-story coordination.
Data & IT Specialist / Operator 4 Supercomputing operators, data engineers and archival systems maintainers.
Site Director / Executive Staff 2 Executive leadership, program directors and liaison officers.
📋 Confidence Notes
This re-evaluation materially reduced previously asserted multi-decade off-world costs by: (a) zeroing out attempts to relocate human populations beyond the Sol system (article explicitly states such efforts inevitably fail), and (b) itemizing all >$1B investments into defensible sub-components (Mars program split into orbiters/landers/sample return, vault network separated, etc.). Residual uncertainty remains due to unknown stochakinetic behavior, the anomaly's long-term unpredictability and mission-failure risk at the Kuiper/Oort boundary; hence medium confidence.
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