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SCP-9038 Thaumiel ~ medium confidence
SCP-9038
Expected annual
$52.9M
One-time setup
$779.7M
Annual recurring
$47.7M
Personnel
26
Estimated initial setup is large (roughly three-quarters of a billion USD) driven by orbital module construction, launch/insertion, and one-time reserves; recurring annual operations (~$50M/yr) are driven by standby contracts, logistics/resupply, and staff/maintenance.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $779.7M
Facilities $281.0M
[#1, #8] Orbital containment module construction and ground control center buildout (module major cost + hardened ops room).
Launch And Insertion $150.0M
[#2] Launch vehicle(s), integration, upper-stage insertion and insurance/contingency for orbital placement.
Decommissioning Costs Worst Case $100.0M
[#26] Provision for worst-case controlled decommission/disposal (capture, sterilization, debris mitigation) if triggered.
Contingency Anomalous Mass Events Reserve $100.0M
[#28] Strategic reserve for large anomalous-mass events and emergency rapid-response scaling.
Equipment $77.2M
[#3, #5, #6, #7, #12, #16, #17, #18, #19] Propulsion/attitude hardware, feeding system dev, metrology suite, comms backbone, physical-security hardware, initial on-orbit spares, power hardware, initial data/storage hardware, cybersecurity dev.
Decommission Design And Testing $30.0M
[#14] Design & testing of emergency decommission capability (one-time engineering, validation).
Insurance Reserve $30.0M
[#22] Initial insurance/liability reserve fund (prudential reserve for diplomatic/cover costs).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $10.0M
[#11] Initial thaumaturgical research/implementation and lab setup for thaumaturgical systems.
Cover Story Setup $1.5M
[#13] One-time setup of diplomatic/front paperwork, fake telemetry feeds and plausible public face.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $47.7M/yr
Decommission Standby Contract Amortized $10.0M/yr
[#14] Amortized cost of standby tug/capture vehicle contracts for emergency decommission/intervention.
Logistics And Transport $9.0M/yr
[#16, #20, #21] Annualized budget for on-orbit spares resupply, occasional retrieval missions (amortized), and occasional crewed maintenance visits.
Staff Wages $5.5M/yr
[#9, #10, #11] Mission operations (flight controllers/telemetry), scientific staff, and thaumaturgical specialist wages (salary+benefits+clearance overhead).
Supplies And Consumables $5.0M/yr
[#4] Annual propellant and station-keeping resupply budget (amortized fuel deliveries and associated launch costs when not piggybacked).
Contingency Response Contracts $5.0M/yr
[#15] Amortized contracted capability for rapid response teams, on-orbit servicers and robotic tugs.
Facilities Maintenance $3.0M/yr
[#8, #27] Ground control center operations, utilities, facility overhead and administrative support.
Research And Monitoring $3.0M/yr
[#11, #24, #6] Ongoing thaumaturgical maintenance, long-term cosmology research, and metrology calibration/analysis programs.
Cover Story And Legal $1.5M/yr
[#13, #23] Ongoing legal/cover operations, front-company maintenance, PR and falsified publications management.
Cybersecurity Ops $1.2M/yr
[#19] Software maintenance, patches, penetration testing and classification compliance operations.
Physical Security Maintenance $1.0M/yr
[#12] Maintenance, consumables and upkeep for space-rated security/counter-intrusion systems.
Communications Ops $1.0M/yr
[#7] Bandwidth, satellite relays, anti-jamming operations and covert comms channel upkeep.
Insurance Top Up $1.0M/yr
[#22] Annual top-up to insurance/liability reserve for incidents and cover payments.
Feeding System Maintenance $500K/yr
[#5] Periodic maintenance spares and consumables for automated feeding/delivery system.
Training And Drills $500K/yr
[#25] Regular drills, operator refresher training, thaumaturgical checks and recertifications.
Data Infrastructure Ops $500K/yr
[#18] Ongoing secure data storage, archival operations, and classified data-center costs.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $47.7M/yr
88.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with scheduled maintenance, resupply, and no major incidents.
routine_operations scheduled_resupply no_major_incident
🚨 Minor Incident $69.7M/yr
10.0% probability / year +$22.0M vs baseline
Localized containment anomaly or equipment failure requiring retrieval/repair missions and emergency interventions but containment maintained.
unintended_alignment_shift partial_sensor_or_feed_failure near-miss_intrusion
🚨 Major Breach $199.7M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$152.0M vs baseline
Containment failure or catastrophic spontaneous shift requiring full intervention, decommission procedures, or controlled disposal.
containment_breach spontaneous_volume_shift_causing_hull_damage loss_of_control_of_trajectory
👥 Personnel 26 total
Role Count Notes
Mission Operations / Flight Controllers 8 [#9] 24/7 watch rotation, telemetry and robotic operators.
Research Scientist 8 [#10, #24] Cosmology and thaumaturgy analysts for monitoring and long-term research.
Thaumaturgical Specialist / Ritual Staff 4 [#11] Specialists for maintenance and ritual/arcana support.
Engineer / Maintenance 3 [#3, #6, #17] Propulsion, metrology, power and robotics maintenance engineers.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#12] Oversight of access control and counter-intrusion planning (covert/deterrent measures).
Administrative Staff 1 [#8, #23, #27] Program administration, HR, legal liaisons for front organizations and clearance processing.
📋 Confidence Notes
Line items are well-specified with engineering and programmatic costs, but major uncertainty exists due to the anomalous/thaumaturgic nature of SCP-9038, orbit choice, and required conservatism in reserves; probabilities for breaches are heuristic.
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