SS Life Support (Civ4)/Civilopedia

Essential to the sustenance of human life are food, water, air, and heat, and the Life Support System provides all of these things. Recycling is the key to the Space Ship's Life Support System, and no organic component is left to waste in the vessel. Computers control the collection and recycling of waste, which is injected into large vats of algae which consume the waste or processed into fertilizer for the Space Ship hydroponics garden. Both the algae and the garden provide food and oxygen for the colonists as well as for their livestock, which consist of fish, shrimp, and a particularly hearty (and tasty) breed of Peruvian mountain llama.
Extra oxygen is processed in the air filtration system, which electrically divides water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules and separates them for oxygen and fuel uses. Excess heat produced by the Fuel Cells is also absorbed into steam pipes, which are used to keep the interior of the vessel warm and to separate pure water out of waste water to a 99.44% purity.
Extraplanetary travel has never before been attempted on this scale, and the Life Support System has been carefully crafted to provide indefinitely for the needs of the colonists as well as giving them a basis for redeveloping a food chain on the eventual planet of colonization.