Terminology

A

The ambiguity ladder: The ordered set of questions international space law does not answer, from least to most consequential. It begins with priority of use and ends with what happens when a settlement declines an instruction from the state that launched it. Each rung is answerable today, and none has been answered.; See also: Governance, The Sovereignty Ladder
The arbitrage bound: The maximum sustainable price difference for a commodity between two nodes, set by the Δv between them rather than by anything about the commodity. If shipping water from the Moon to a cislunar depot costs a known mass ratio, no seller can charge more than that ratio above local production cost without inviting a competitor to fly the corridor themselves.; It converts every corridor into a price ceiling. The markets analysis reads the corridor table in money.; See also: Corridors, Interplanetary Markets, Gear ratio

C

Closure ratio: How many times an off-Earth plant pays back its own landed mass over its operating life. Above 1, making an item locally beats shipping it on mass alone.; See also: Ship-or-Make Threshold Calculator, The ship-or-make ladder
The comb: The pattern that appears when program milestones are plotted against announced dates: dense clusters of activity separated by long empty spans, not a smooth ramp. Programs do not accelerate continuously; they wait on a gate, then move all at once.; The comb is why linear extrapolation from any two years produces nonsense in this domain.; See also: Timeline
Confidence scale: The four ratings every figure carries, from most to least certain. Observed: measured, flown or operating. Building: hardware in fabrication or on a test stand. Projected: announced or funded on a credible timeline, nothing flown. Modeled: derived by calculation, with nothing built or announced.; A rating moves as evidence arrives; a Projected depot becomes Building when hardware reaches a test stand.; See also: Method & Confidence
The constituency rule: A settlement acquires political standing at the point where its population has interests that diverge from its funder's, not at the point where it becomes self-sufficient. Standing precedes independence, sometimes by decades.; See also: The Sovereignty Ladder, Settlements
Constraint fingerprint: What bounds a destination, drawn on the same eight axes for every site so the shapes can be compared. Constraints are physics: they do not accumulate and cannot be shielded, only designed around.; See also: Constraint Fingerprints, Hazard fingerprint
The conversion chain: The full sequence from a primary energy source to delivered work at the point of use, including every mass penalty along the way: reactor, power conversion, radiators, distribution and the machine itself. Quoting a source without the chain understates the mass by a large factor.; Energy-chain conversion factor: 0.37 t/kWe.; See also: Energy, Substrate Tables
Corridor: A route between two nodes. Each corridor has a Δv fixed by orbital mechanics, a transit time set by its propulsion, a gear ratio set by both, and a status that records whether anything has flown it.; See also: Corridor Index, Node

D

The dispersal taxonomy: The classification of reasons to be somewhere else: extraction, transit, science, redundancy and settlement. Most destinations qualify under one or two and are argued for as though they qualified under all five.; See also: Destinations

E

The export of light: Mercury's export is beamed power, not mass. Leaving Mercury's surface for Earth costs 10.5 km/s, while photons pay no velocity cost, so the question becomes whether a beam can be made narrow enough to matter at interplanetary range.; See also: The Export of Light, The sorting rule

F

The first article: The first unit of anything manufactured off Earth, and the point at which a supply chain stops being a delivery schedule and becomes an industry. The first article is almost never the cheapest way to get the part; it is the proof that the capability exists.; See also: The Primitives Register, Manufacturing
The four topologies: The four views applied to every destination: energy (what it costs in velocity to arrive), industry (where it sits in the flow of goods), constraint (what bounds the operating envelope) and hazard (what is trying to destroy the hardware).; See also: The Four Topologies

G

The g-term screening rule: A filter for partial-gravity claims: any assertion about human health at 0.165 g or 0.38 g that cites microgravity or 1 g data is extrapolating across a range where no measurements exist. Such claims are marked Modeled regardless of how confident the source sounds.; See also: Mars Gravity, Radiation & Human Health
Gear ratio: Launched mass required per unit mass delivered to a given node. About 5.2× to low Earth orbit and 17.4× to the near libration point. A ton made at the destination saves that many tons of launch, so the gear ratio decides whether local production beats shipping.; See also: Gear Ratio, Δv Corridor Calculator, Corridors

H

Hazard fingerprint: What damages a destination, drawn on the same seven bars for every site. Hazards accumulate, recur and are bought off with mass, power or time: radiation in three forms, impacts, dust, chemistry and recurring storms.; See also: Hazard Fingerprints, Constraint fingerprint

K

Know versus hold: The distinction between possessing a capability and possessing the physical means to exercise it. A design that can be transmitted is known; a fabrication line that must be built is held. The two have completely different security properties and are routinely conflated.

L

Lodger: Someone present at a site without standing in it: a contractor, visitor or seconded staff member. The lodger fraction of a population is a leading indicator of whether a facility is becoming a community.; See also: Settlements

M

MVP (Baseline Viability Architecture): The smallest configuration at a destination that produces more value than it consumes, including its own resupply. Not the smallest thing that works, but the smallest thing that pays.; See also: Destinations, Moon Base, Mars Base

N

Node: Anywhere a vehicle stops, refuels or hands off cargo: an orbit, a libration point or a surface. Nodes are connected by corridors.; See also: Node Index, Corridor

P

Presence gate: The test for whether humans go to a site: a failure must be able to reach help, the radiation dose must fit a career, and the work must need hands, unless being there is the whole point. Return time sorts the sites; dose only reorders them.; See also: Presence Gate, Crewed vs Uncrewed

S

The ship-or-make ladder: The ordered decision for every item at a destination: ship it, ship the feedstock, make the feedstock, make the part, make the machine that makes the part. Each rung costs more capital and less mass, and the gear ratio decides where a given item sits.; See also: Ship or Make, Gear ratio, Closure ratio
The sorting rule: Where a destination's output goes is determined by what is scarce elsewhere, not by what is abundant locally. Mercury has more power than anywhere in the system and no use for it on site, which is why its export is light rather than metal.; See also: Mercury Sorting Rule, The export of light
The Sovereignty Ladder: The staged progression from facility to polity: crewed outpost, permanent staff, resident population, local administration, divergent interest and standing. Each rung is observable from Earth, and none requires a declaration.; See also: Governance, The constituency rule

T

The Triple Substrate: Energy, matter and compute: the three things every destination needs, in different proportions and for different reasons depending on whether anyone is there. A place missing one of them is a mission, not an economy.; Water is a subset of matter, not a peer of it, but it is the subset everything hinges on.; See also: The Triple Substrate, Substrates