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The Ark Project — The Cradle at Pallas: Organic Soil, Not from Earth

Project Notice ARK-PN-2175-01. Posted to the project’s public site on 4 June 2175. No press release accompanies this notice, and none is planned. Text follows in full.

Organic soil, not from Earth.

The Ark will depart Pallas with its agricultural shells stocked with soil produced at Pallas. The mineral fraction of that soil is waste rock from the excavation and from belt mining operations. The organic fraction is waste from Ceres and from other settlements. The conversion of both into living soil is performed according to the Cradle protocol, as published by Dr. Lars O’Connor and the Dome 2 Mycological Ecology Group (Journal of Exoplanetary Biology & Closed-System Ecology, Vol. 48, Issue 2, April 2155). No gram of the soil aboard this ship will have been on Earth.

Feedstock: mineral

The beneficiation of Pallas host rock for the hull has produced, since the late 2140s, crusher fines, tailings, and dressing waste in quantities exceeding the shells’ soil budget. The fine fraction, which is the fraction fungal hyphae can weather, is measured in the tens of millions of tonnes and is not a constraint. Under standing arrangements with belt mining operators, surplus fines from other operations are also accepted at Pallas, delivered at ordinary freight rates.

The Cradle’s founding observation is that fungi are the only kingdom of life that mineralizes rock directly, and that the rate is a function of surface area. The mining operation has performed the first half of the geological work. The Cradle performs the second.

Pallas host rock is not lunar highlands regolith. It is carbonaceous and hydrated, carrying trace organic carbon of its own, and the Cradle protocol is explicit that strain selection is site-specific. A new screening round was therefore conducted per the published method: Phase 0 candidate screening began at Pallas in 2161; Phase 1 competitive mineralization, in 1 m² beds, ran from 2164 to 2170. The founding culture collection was obtained under a material transfer agreement with the Dome 2 Mycological Ecology Group (Luna). Pallas-selected mineralizer lines are designated PAL-1 through PAL-6; the published strains DOM2-7, DOM2-23, and DOM2-41 are retained as secondary inoculants.

Feedstock: organic

The Cradle at Luna built its organic carbon from fungal die-back over seven decades. At Pallas the carbon arrives aboard. Standing supply agreements with Ceres agricultural cooperatives, administered through the Ceres Merchants’ Council, deliver post-harvest residue and food-processing waste. Additional organic waste streams are purchased from Luna’s dome settlements and from Mars. The material is received composted and mature, which shortens the build-up phase of the sequence. As the permanent crew assembles at Pallas, the settlement’s own organic waste is added to the feedstock stream. The loop closes in transit, as it closed at Luna.

Method

The Cradle protocol has been followed in the published sequence: fungal mineralization first; bacterial consortium (Rhizobium, Pseudomonas, Streptomyces); microfauna (nematodes, springtails, oribatid mites); pioneer flora; canopy and root layering. The published finding that ecological succession has a minimum speed was treated as a finding, not a suggestion. No layer was introduced before the preceding layer had stabilized for two full growth cycles.

The Cradle at Luna required sixty-eight years. At Pallas the sequence is compressed by the feedstock: the mineral arrives pre-fractured, and the organic matter arrives mature. What remains is time, and the ship has it in quantity. The agricultural shells will be stocked to design depth by the scheduled departure in 2200, and the soil will continue to mature in transit. Drainage in the shells is configured for the Aft-Tilt Era; that configuration is the subject of a UN Patent Office filing dated 2168.

Status

As of 1 June 2175:

  • Soil production at Pallas began in 2167, when the first 1 m² beds reached transferable organic carbon; production was scaled to sealed 100 m² modules in 2171.
  • 3,100 tonnes of living soil are in production or storage.
  • The oldest production beds report 3.1% organic carbon against the Cradle’s published steady state of 4.8%, and oxygen production of 1.9 L/m²/day against the published 2.3.
  • First planting in an agricultural shell is scheduled for 2178. Full stocking is budgeted by departure.
  • The design depth of the shells is a datum of the module specification set.

Why not terrestrial topsoil

Terrestrial topsoil is not a supply chain the project intends to depend on. It is heavy, it is finite, and a ship that leaves with soil it cannot make is a ship that never left. The crew will arrive at Alpha Centauri having spent one hundred and ten years making soil from rock, in quantity, on schedule. That is the capability the ship is for.

The protocol was sustained for sixty-eight years under a grant from the UN Office for Colonial Development. The work deserves the acknowledgment, and the project records it. The method is published. The strains were transferred. The soil is made at Pallas, from Pallas rock and imported waste, by the crews who will live on it.

This notice is the first of a series describing the systems under construction at Pallas. The record will be made of documents.

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