The Orion Project - (Theoretical)

[align=center]The Orion Project[/align]

The orion project is a series of augmentations designed to enhance the performance of soldiers by improving their natural biomechanics and their abilities to operate in combat. It combines both drugs administered to the user over time and external devices to help improve the overall physical abilities of the user, primarily their strength, speed, and endurance, although it can improve cognitive function to some extent. While a far cry from a super soldier project, it provides useful enhancements to the user, and serves to make them both more comfortable and physically capable in combat. While soldiers are not enhanced dramatically, they go from being able to comfortably carry approximately 75 pounds to 125 pounds. While 125 pounds is commonly carried by machine gunners, demolitions and other heavy weapons soldiers, and largely considered the heaviest weight the average soldier can carry, it is done so at significant risk of injury and fatigue. The Orion project seeks to take that stress off of the body, and promote both strength and wound healing in a way to allow soldiers to maintain the elevated levels of endurance when in the field. All of the devices or chemicals used in the project are designed to use very little, if any power; the artificial heart for instance only consumes about 3.5 to 5 watts, where as the exoskeleton, oxygen concentrator and cooling suit consume just a handful as well. The key purpose is to enhance the natural abilities of the user, rather than rely on more powerful exoskeletons which have a shorter range due to the increased energy requirements. An additional feature of the orion project is to improve the soldier's survivability and general well being, from both extreme environments and injury. While the impact varies and few soldiers are catapulted to incredible levels of strength, it does provide substantially increased endurance, especially at heavier combat loads. While many of the project's features are integrated in to the suit or designed to work with a suit of armor, many more operate independently from the armored suit entirely.

While the suit itself provides substantial strength enhancement via purely mechanical means, as it possesses a powered exoskeleton, it also works to improve the over-all physical capabilities of the user in general, by enhancing their natural biomechanics. Initial aspects of the design are as such that it removes a lot of the pressure off of the user, such as by redirecting the weight of the armor and the combat pack and distributing it more evenly around the body, as well as directing it straight into the ground, using mostly unpowered systems. Due to it's design, it is more ergonomic than most semi powered exkoseletons, but consumes more energy. It places a large portion of balance and coordination on to the suit, having a wide array of sensors and gyroscopes. It is also can effect the nervous system; by reading signals in the brain, it can nearly instantly transfer them to the body through electric impulse, and thus speed up the reaction time of the user. It can also smooth out actions, much like in an F16, so that a person will move in a more efficient way; in addition their body could be controlled to make certain motions, thus giving faster operating capabilities and more things that their muscle memory might not be capable of (as their suit can control the body through nerve stimulation).

The suit does not actually possess an artificial heart, as it is constantly on the user, but the suit is designed to work in concert with this heart; while the heart of the host individual is not removed, it is slowed down by the pacemaker unless the backpack is turned off or disconnected from the heart. The artificial heart pumps blood about 3.5 times faster through the body than what the host person would ordinarily experience at resting levels; since it utilizes a very low pressure hydraulic heart, it can achieve such high rates without an increase in blood pressure; in fact, the person with the heart could be technically considered "dead" due to their low blood pressure, as their body has a virtually non-existent pulse. This in turn allows significantly more blood to circulate through the body without issue, even at greatly increased levels, and could in theory sustain the equivalent of an adrenaline rush indefinitely. Regardless, this in turn speeds up brain power, lifting capacity, and reaction time, without the ordinary detriments associated with long time adrenaline exposure. Additionally, the suit routinely adds PFC's, glucose, electrolytes, and other nutrients to the body; since the tubes hook up to major body parts, including the neck, wrists, thighs, ankles, and other areas, the materials are distributed through the body much quicker and to certain body parts faster than a typical intravenous pump. If the body is estimated to be working with extreme difficulty, it will pump more of these materials into the blood stream in order to give more energy, locally and totally, to increase performance. As well, it can absorb these materials from the bloodstream using a nano-graphene filter, and then remove them, in case they become too much; as well, it can remove other toxins and build up materials from the body, like excess lactic acid, to a limited extent.

Most notably, the suit has limited medical benefits. Artificial blood, with 5 times the capacity of ordinary blood, and a significantly longer shelf life, can be pumped into the body if the vital signs begin to alter, suggesting the user needs emergency attention. The internal thermoregulation suit itself can seal up and tighten areas that have been wounded, and provide quick clot to quickly slow down bleeding. Automatic trauma foam is injected in to areas that are injured, to slow down bleeding and increase the survival odds of internal organs. While this does not treat the injury itself, the quick reaction of the equipment can drastically increase survival rates, if the user is damaged. This system relies naturally on the vital signs indicator by the thermal regulator, and in addition transmits this information to the commanders and squad to keep them aware of the current state of their units. Furthermore, the increased volume of blood (3 times) and increased oxygen (2 times) gives the user 6 times as much oxygen as an ordinary person dissolved in their blood stream at any given point in time. This provides enormous amounts of oxygen to existing bodily organs, meaning that blood loss is less traumatic to the organs or the brain given the bodies latent supply of oxygen prior to an injury. This helps to reduce the impact of injuries and increase the amount of time a soldier has before medical attention becomes an absolute necessary, increasing survival rates or long term damage due to oxygen loss.

All of these elements are combined with various performance enhancing drugs, which play a lesser, but still important role. Drugs ranging from Blood doping, DHT, HMB, HGH and creatine are used in the conditioning proccess to make the soldiers stronger. All of the drugs are designed to increase the performance of the user with little to no side effects, so their impact is often less than what the results of heavy drug abuse might produce. DHT, or Dihydrotestosterone, considered 2.5-3 times more powerful than testosterone and without any known virilization effects, is commonly used by medical practitioners to treat muscle wasting. Currently, few side effects are reported and it's generally been deemed safe to use without many health concerns. It is essentially the chemical testosterone turns in to when it builds muscle, skipping the androgenic precursors. Hydroxy methylbutyrate is also used by coma patients to treat muscle wasting, and works by preventing the body from breaking down muscle protein, which not only helps with long term endurance and fatigue, but also helps to build muscle. MB produces these effects in part by stimulating myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis and inhibiting muscle protein breakdown through various mechanisms, including activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and inhibition of proteasome-mediated proteolysis in skeletal muscles. This allows it to both prevent the break down of muscles, increase muscle production, and help athletes recover from exercise faster. This is especially useful for soldiers who may find themselves under days of intense combat with little break, out in the field for months on end, without food or water, or simply under too much stress to reliably exercise and build muscle. As there are no known side effects, it is generally considered safe to use. Creatine is another commonly used supplement, designed to increase the energy of the user and it has been shown to help with fatigue for those with TBI's.

On top of all of these improvements are improved logistics systems. From recapturing waste water from urine and sweat, to water filters, to freeze dried food and even power systems, significant weight reductions and long term survivability are dramatically increased. The general purpose of the program is to dramatically improve the performance of the soldier, and basic logistics, such as food and water, cannot be neglected. Freeze dried rations are approximately 3 times lighter than traditional MRE's, and water is made more available by the use of filters which can filter out water nearly anywhere on the planet greatly reducing the required carry (a days worth of water is a minimum of 6 pounds; a month's worth would be 180 pounds), and even recycle the user's own urine and sweat to dramatically increase the length of time a soldier can go without needing to replenish their water supply. By both finding water from the environment and reclaiming their own water, it's possible for a soldier to greatly increase their ability to operate in the field before resupplies are needed. When combined with the HULC exoskeleton, which can carry up to 150 pounds of additional gear and travel at 10 mph, the average soldier's capabilities will radically transform far beyond that of any conventional method.

Elements
-Artificial Heart
-Oxygen Concentrator
-Blood Doping
-PFC's
-Exoskeleton
-Liquid Cooling
-Performance Enhancers
-Logistics

[align=center]Artificial Heart[/align]

The average heart requires about 1.3 watts of energy to operate, every second, for over 75-100 years. The heart is relatively inefficient, below 10% efficiency, suggesting it takes at least 10-13 watts of continuous power to power the average heart. A primary function of the heart other than to pump blood is to promote which direction oxygenated and unoxygenated blood goes. While this is through a method of diffusion and osmosis balance this also promotes which direction nutrient filled blood goes too, as well; in addition, in regulates it's rate depending on hormones, to tell the body how to go faster or if it needs to work harder.

A primary problem with artificial hearts is getting the power and capabilities necessary to knowing how to regulate speeds. The orion projects works in two ways, the first one which is to monitor the heart rate, and the second is to overcome the natural boundaries needed by the human body. While regulated to 35 BPM with a pace masker (to preserve the function of the heart, so it won't atrophy) which will immediately subside if the pack is damaged, oxygenated and unoxygenated blood and can be artificially pumped through the heart to filter out blood, and as well the heart can be monitored to be made aware of how fast the pack should beat based on adrenaline and other functions.

The heart pump uses a hydraulic pump and "turbine" [1][2][3], much larger than the heart, to circulate blood up to roughly 5 times it's given limit, although it usually operates at around 3.5. While this would ordinarily raise blood pressure enormously (to increase the heart rate to such levels), due to the constant circulation of the blood rather than irregular thumps, the over-all blood pressure at any one point is much lower than even in an ordinary human. The heart works primarily through the use of a 10,000-RPM artificial pump, which leaves its patients with little to no pulse. Because the heart is augmented and not replaced, the 35BPM of the heart is still a minor part that gives partial blood pressure, rather than being nearly absent. Regardless through this process the blood can circulate much faster throughout the body, without undue strain on the body.

This entire process uses about 3.5 watts, due to being substantially more efficient in operation than the human heart. Because it does not need to monitor the hormones and other chemical nearly as much, due to it's high rate of circulation over compensating for problems that may involve increasing the heart rate, such as adrenaline, it is less of a hassle to try to match the heart rate associated with the hormone levels. Still, there are methods for measuring these levels in the body.

As a result of the increased heart users, most users can operate as if on an adrenaline rush for long periods of time. Their reaction time is faster, their brain is faster and absorbs more information, and they have increased strength. Primarily, however, the increased heart rate helps to improve endurance, taking the stress off of the human heart. By placing it on to the machine, the heart does not need to be at elevated levels during strenuous exercise, or when pumping the incredibly vicious blood. This not only helps to avoid wearing out the heart, but allows for greatly increased endurance, allowing for constant physical exertion at peak levels nearly indefinitely. Obvious other restrictions still apply, however it can improve performance drastically. The heart, while it does not consume a substantial amount of energy, requires constant upkeep, and due to the increased blood supply, would but difficulty on the host if it stopped working; thus, the heart relies upon an RTG which provides a small but steady supply of power for many decades.

Detecting Hormones and other chemicals in the blood
The heart is monitored using various heart monitors, in order to conclude how much of each hormone is present in the blood using the heart as a monitor to determine how fast to pump based on hormones like adrenaline.

However, Infrared spectroscopy, much like what is used in alcohol breathalyzers, is used to measure how much of each chemical in the blood. Tuned to measure what's in the blood, the infrared spectrometer can detect the presence and how much of each chemical is in the blood, in order to tell the heart how fast to beat. Despite this, the artificial heart operates well over it's necessary limits, suggesting that even if adrenaline desired to have the heart pumping 3 times it's limit, since it is usually far over this level, it more or less would be irrelevant.

However monitoring the heart's responses and the level of hormones in blood in order to understand how to beat faster can be important and is an available function of the suit should other functions fail, or in order to try to get the suit to attune to the bodies need, albeit perhaps more quickly.

[align=center]Oxygen Absorption[/align]

It's a simple fact that more oxygen mean increased athletic performance; the body needs constant supply of oxygen to function, and more oxygen, such as by breathing faster, can increase the bodies ability to function. Glycolysis, or the process of extracting energy from glucose, is a necessary function for nearly all life. Increasing the amount of oxygen one breathes in can have a calming and relaxing effect on people, while simultaneously improving athletic performance and decreasing stress on organs such as the lungs which usually have to breathe faster in order to get more oxygen. Greater levels of oxygen saturating the blood and organs also have the potential to reduce the effects of injury, as blood loss can be sustained so long as an appropriate amount of oxygen is supplied to the user, and high levels of oxygen can increase the impact of resting [1][2]. Portable oxygen concentrators, many less than 8 pounds exist which are capable of increasing the ambient oxygen level from roughly 20% to 40%, even all the way up to 60% or greater (although, 80% and greater usually requires a machine well over 40 pounds). Blood doping and PFC's can additionally increase the oxygen absoprtion of the blood stream, and thus how much can be realistically delivered to the body. While PFC's come with very little risk, blood doping can greatly increase the viscosity of the blood, which means increased blood pressure. This can be combatted largely by the use of an artificial heart which decreases the necessary pressure to pump more blood, and so when combined with the artificial heart, allows for greatly increased oxygen absorption with no undue stress on the heart. In fact, artificial hearts have been shown to actually improve heart health to some degree. The PFC's add approximately double the ordinary hemoglobin of a normal person to the bloodstream, and permeate in to tissues of the body that are traditionally very hard to heal, especially due to swelling, being 40 times smaller than hemoglobin, making them ideal to treat certain wounds. The oxygen concentrator roughly doubles the user's oxygen intake, where as the blood doping increases the user's oxygen capacity by triple. All combined, this allows for approximately 8 times greater oxygen absorption, which dramatically reduces healing times, increases endurance, and takes stress off of certain organs, such as the heart and lungs during intense exercise. It does not dramatically increase strength, however, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Soldiers not only heal faster from injuries and sleep better, but are also capable of

Oxygen Concentrator
The Oxygen Concentrator more or less concentrates ambient oxygen, providing more from the air, and increasing the total amount of oxygen exposed to the user. Oxygen concentrators operate on the principle of rapid pressure swing adsorption of atmospheric nitrogen onto zeolite minerals and then venting the nitrogen. This type of adsorption system is therefore functionally a nitrogen scrubber leaving the other atmospheric gasses to pass through. This leaves oxygen as the primary gas remaining. PSA technology is a reliable and economical technique for small to mid-scale oxygen generation, with cryogenic separation more suitable at higher volumes and external delivery generally more suitable for small volumes.

At high pressure, the porous zeolite adsorbs large quantities of nitrogen, due to its large surface area. After the oxygen and other free components are collected the pressure drops which allows nitrogen to desorb.An oxygen concentrator has an air compressor, two cylinders filled with zeolite pellets, a pressure equalizing reservoir, and some valves and tubes. In the first half-cycle the first cylinder receives air from the compressor, which lasts about 3 seconds. During that time the pressure in the first cylinder rises from atmospheric to a few times normal atmospheric pressure (typically 20 psi/138 kPa gauge, or 2.36 atmospheres absolute) and the zeolite becomes saturated with nitrogen. as the first cylinder reaches near pure oxygen (there are small amounts of argon, CO2, water vapor, radon and other minor atmospheric components) in the first half-cycle a valve opens and the oxygen enriched gas flows to the pressure equalizing reservoir, which connects to the patient's oxygen hose. At the end of the first half of the cycle there is another valve position change so that the air from the compressor is directed to the 2nd cylinder. Pressure in the first cylinder drops as the enriched oxygen moves into the reservoir, allowing the nitrogen to be desorbed back into gas. Part way through the second half of the cycle there is another valve position change to vent the gas in the first cylinder to vent outside. That keeps the concentration of oxygen in the pressure equalizing reservoir from falling below about 90%. The pressure in the hose delivering oxygen from the equalizing reservoir is kept steady by a pressure reducing valve.

The total concentration increases from ordinary atmospheric concentrations of 20.9% to about double at 40%. Since this is considered relatively safe, in conjunction with various anti-oxidants, it is an easily usable increase in oxygen concentrations to help improve performance in the field. While it does not increase strength, increasing the total amount of oxygen dissolved in the blood helps to increase endurance and growth, as well as healing in nearly all tissues of the body.

Blood doping
Erythropoietin use, or EPO, can be utilized to increase blood cell content, and thus oxygen, nutrient, protein, and other carrying capacities. By increasing the total volume of the blood, more oxygen can go to the brain and to repair tissue after it's damaged, as well as nutrients, faster, more oxygen can be absorbed by the lungs and dissolved into the blood, can increase performance. In addition to healing faster, increased endurance is possible through blood doping, which not only doubles the amount of oxygen a person can consume from their lungs, but also transports more nutrients to muscles and other organs faster. While there can be some drawback to increasing the amount of blood in the body, such as increased iron absorption and potentially overworking the heart, as long as the body stays below relatively safe hemocrit levels, there is little chance for issue. As human blood is not as thick as it could be, increased thickness to a degree can be relatively harmless. The effects are along the line of high altitude training, without any of the potential drawbacks of low oxygen training.

Maximum safety limits can be hard to determine, as some people live in conditions which necessitate much higher concentrations, but in general double the ordinary hemocrit levels are generally considered safe. The system is designed to utilize triple the ordinary blood volume of a normal person, as afforded by the artificial heart, which takes most of the strain off of the heart and cardiovascular system, particularly as it decreases blood pressure to harmless levels. Without the artificial heart, the maximum safety limits of EPO is generally around 70% above that of a normal person, which means somewhat reduced performance. EPO has also been shown to reduce the effects from TBI's, clots, hypoxia and strokes, giving soldiers increased survivability to injuries on top of their oxygen increasing abilities.

PFC - Pleflurocarbon
PFC's or, Fluorocarbons, sometimes referred to as perfluorocarbons, are, strictly speaking, organofluorine compounds with the formula CxFy, i.e. they contain only carbon and fluorine. They are known for their high gas dissolution properties, and in particular can absorb approximately 40 times greater oxygen than traditional hemoglobin. Perfluorochemicals will not mix with blood, therefore emulsions must be made by dispersing small drops of PFC in water. This liquid is then mixed with antibiotics, vitamins, nutrients and salts, producing a mixture that contains about 80 different components, and performs many of the vital functions of natural blood. PFC particles are about 1/40 the size of the diameter of a red blood cell (RBC). This small size can enable PFC particles to traverse capillaries through which no RBCs are flowing. In theory this can benefit damaged, blood-starved tissue, which conventional red cells cannot reach. PFC solutions can carry oxygen so well that mammals, including humans, can survive breathing liquid PFC solution, called liquid breathing. This allows for both the treatment of severe injuries, such as TBI's, in addition to greater oxygen absorption in body.

Perfluorocarbon-based blood substitutes are completely man-made; this provides advantages over blood substitutes that rely on modified haemoglobin, such as unlimited manufacturing capabilities, ability to be heat-sterilized, and PFCs' efficient oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal. PFCs in solution act as an intravascular oxygen carrier to temporarily augment oxygen delivery to tissues. The particular program uses Oxycyte, used primarily as artificial blood, which has approximately 20 times the carrying capacity of normal hemoglobin. Roughly 35% of blood is hemoglobin by mass, and the human body contains approximately 1.2 to 1.5 gallons of blood, or approximately 12.5 pounds, and 4.5 pounds of hemoglobin. To roughly double the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, roughly 100 grams of the oxycite are needed; with the oxycyte naturally removed from the bloodstream within 48 hours by the body's normal clearance procedure for particles in the blood – exhalation, approximately 50 grams are needed per day in order to maintain the increased oxygen absorption in the body. A typical load-out will possess approximately 9 days worth, of a 1 pound of PFC. For longer periods in the field, more PFC's are obviously used, with 3 weeks worth weighing 3 pounds.

[align=center]Semi-powered systems[/align]

Semi-powered Exoskeleton
In addition to the HULC exoskeleton is a much smaller, weaker exoskeleton, that uses considerably less power, but plays in an important role in soldier mobility. Part of the purpose of the semi powered exo skeleton is the weight distribution and load carrying over the entire body. As the weight is distributed more evenly and redirected through the suit into the ground in a more appreciable fashion, it is easier to carry the load and thus reduces the strain on the user. However, the exoskeleton also provides limited assistance to the user, allowing some redirection of the forces throughout the suit as a result of a semi powered exoskeleton suit. A lightweight electric actuator mounted on the lower-leg provides mechanical assistance to the ankle during powered plantar flexion. Use of the exoskeleton significantly reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 11 ± 4% (p = 0.019) compared to walking without the device. In addition, it helps to reduce the stress on the user by distributing it more equally over the body and on to the exoskeleton frame, taking stress off of the bones and muscles to some degree.

While the exoskeleton designed by MIT utilizes 1 watt, the exoskeleton utilized in this suit utilizes closer to 10 watts. While the same fundamental principles apply, the design works at different elevations and does not substantially change the users gait to gain the advantages, at the expense of efficiency. Still, it helps to significantly reduce the stress and load off the user; since the weight is put into the suits lower extremities, instead of just a single tube, it helps to distribute the weight easier and balance it more appropriately. While this does not enhance the users strength, it does redirect the weight in such a way as to make it easier to carry, and thus helps to, partially, increase the users strength. The dramatically reduced energy consumption over the HULC exoskeleton allows for longer use in the field, nearly indefinitely if waste movement is used to generate power. While it does not increase the strength of the user, it does increase the speed while walking, and increase their endurance during exercise.

Thermoregulator
The suit is designed to reduce energy consumption and stress on the user by helping the body maintain an ideal temperature, regardless of the environment. Like a personal air conditioner or heater, it keeps the user warm or cold, to near ideal body temperatures in any range of environments, reducing the amount of energy required to maintain homeostasis; in addition, it reduces water consumption and salt loss from sweating and general dehydration, in general improving physical performance. It helps particularly during intense exercise, when the body starts to overheat. On top of this, cooling suits have shown considerable benefits to exercise recovery and athletic performance, allowing for greatly increased stamina at a very low energy consumption figure.

The ideal human body temperature is close to 98.6; The ideal room temperature however, is approximately 60-70 degrees, which is much harder to reach. In addition, proper body temperature conditions differ throughout each body part, so the suit is designed to adapt it's temperature depending on the place of the body, such as the face, hands and nose, which tend to be slightly colder. The primary advantage of the system is it's low energy consumption. As a result of extremely effective insulators, the suit can easily keep the body at desired temperatures utilizing coolant systems over the whole body, which drastically increase performance in the field. Concept designs have shown considerable promise via cooling gloves [1][2][3][4], although the suit itself utilizes an entire fully body unit, which surrounds the entire body. Most key areas in the body are covered, such as the hands or feet, and in addition sensors are used to appropriately gauge how the body should be cooled. If the body begins to overheat, the suit will begin to cool key areas of high vascular content down, in addition to areas over the entire body.

Muscle pyruvate kinase, or MPK, an enzyme that muscles need in order to generate chemical energy, is highly temperature- sensitive. At normal body temperature, the enzyme is active – but as temperatures rise, some of the enzyme begins to deform into the inactive state. By the time muscle temperatures near 104 degrees Fahrenheit, MPK activity completely shuts down. As a muscle cell increases its activity, it heats up. But if this process continues for too long, the cell will self-destruct. By shutting itself down below a critical temperature threshold, MPK serves as an elegant self-regulation system for the muscle. By keeping the body and muscles below this tempature, drastic increases in athletic performance can be found. Studies showed that in 6 weeks, an individual could go from doing 180 push-ups, to 620, or 3.4 times the amount. The suit not only allows soldiers to operate in a wider variety of environments without succumbing to physical fatigue, but also increases their athletic performance directly. In long term exercise, far greater gains can be made.

[align=center]Performance Enhancers [/align]

Drugs have a curious place in muscle building and athletic performance. While many are proven to work, many more provide substantial side effects which are in the long term harmful to the user, and thus don't make good drugs for soldiers. Only drugs without permanent side effects are truly worth the effort, as long term use of drugs cannot only harm the health of the user, but also be detrimental to performance. There are a few drugs which are known to have benefits, however. DHT, considered 2.5-3 times more powerful than testosterone and without any known virilization effects, is commonly used by medical practitioners to treat muscle wasting. Currently, few side effects are reported and it's generally been deemed safe to use without many health concerns. It is essentially the chemical testosterone turns in to when it builds muscle, skipping the androgenic precursors. Hydroxy methylbutyrate is also used by coma patients to treat muscle wasting, and works by preventing the body from breaking down muscle protein, which not only helps with long term endurance and fatigue, but also helps to build muscle. MB produces these effects in part by stimulating myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis and inhibiting muscle protein breakdown through various mechanisms, including activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and inhibition of proteasome-mediated proteolysis in skeletal muscles. This allows it to both prevent the break down of muscles, increase muscle production, and help athletes recover from exercise faster. This is especially useful for soldiers who may find themselves under days of intense combat with little break, out in the field for months on end, without food or water, or simply under too much stress to reliably exercise and build muscle. As there are no known side effects, it is generally considered safe to use. Creatine is another commonly used supplement, designed to increase the energy of the user and it has been shown to help with fatigue for those with TBI's. HGH also helps to build muscle, and increase healing times of the users. Taken both during combat and during exercise to increase the impact of exercise and decrease the strain of the harsh conditions of combat, it helps with muscle growth in and out of hard living conditions. While there are no "miracle drugs" that will make all soldiers at the level of Olympic athletes, combined with good training and recovery, it can allow soldiers to vastly outperform those who don't take such measures and training methods.

DHT
DHT or Dihydrotestosterone DHT has an affinity (Kd) of 0.25 to 0.5 nM for the human AR, which is about 2- to 3-fold higher than that of testosterone and 15–30 times higher than that of adrenal androgens. The dissociation rate of DHT from the AR is 5-fold slower than that of testosterone. The EC50 of DHT for activation of the AR is 0.13 nM, which is about 5-fold higher than that of testosterone (EC50 = 0.66 nM). In bioassays, DHT has been found to be 2.5- to 10-fold more potent than testosterone. DHT is essentially the by product of testosterone, and primarily responsible for the muscle building effects of testosterone. While testosterone turns in to DHT, straight DHT directly ignores the testosterone process, which allows DHT use to ignore the side effects traditionally associated with steroids.

The terminal half-life of DHT in the body (53 minutes) is longer than that of testosterone (34 minutes), and this may account for some of the difference in their potency. A study of transdermal DHT and testosterone treatment reported terminal half-lives of 2.83 hours and 1.29 hours, respectively Unlike testosterone and various other AAS, DHT cannot be aromatized, and for this reason, has no risk of estrogenic side effects such as gynecomastia. DHT provides significantly greater muscle building effects than steroids, and has none of the side effects. It's often used to treat muscle wasting in comatose patients, but it can also build muscle in healthy adults. As a result it is very useful for use with soldiers, but it not a miracle drug. Especially for soldiers cut off from logistical supply and without the ability to exercise or eat properly, DHT is extremely useful for preventing muscle loss.

Hydroxy methylbutyrate
β-Hydroxy β-methylbutyric acid (HMB), also known as β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate, is a substance that is naturally produced in humans and used as nutritional supplement. It is added to certain medical foods to help provide nutritional support for people with muscle wasting due to cancer or HIV/AIDS and to promote wound healing. Supplemental HMB inhibits the loss of lean body mass in muscle wasting conditions, particularly in individuals with muscle lose with age or during bed rest. It is often used in addition to resistance exercise. Supplemental HMB is also used by athletes to increase exercise-induced gains in muscle size, muscle strength, and lean body mass, reduce exercise-induced skeletal muscle damage, and speed recovery from high-intensity exercise. HMB produces these effects in part by stimulating the production of proteins and inhibiting the breakdown of proteins in muscle tissue. Medical reviews have found no issues with safety from long-term use as a dietary supplement in adults

HMB is a metabolite of l-leucine that is produced in the body through oxidation of the ketoacid of l-leucine (α-ketoisocaproic acid). Since only a small fraction of l-leucine is metabolized into HMB, pharmacologically active concentrations of the compound in blood and muscle can only be achieved by supplementing HMB directly. A healthy adult produces approximately 0.3 grams per day, while supplemental HMB is usually taken in doses of 3–6 grams per day. HMB has found no to have no side effects, and is primarily used to prevent muscle loss ,but it can be useful partially to help build muscle, by reducing the natural muscle loss all people experience.

Creatine
Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily muscle. This is achieved by increasing the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Early analysis showed that human blood is approximately 1% creatine, and the highest concentrations are found in animal blood, brain (0.14%), muscle (0.50%), and testes (0.18%). The liver and kidney contain approximately 0.01% creatine. While creatine is designed to increase the energy of the user, it has also been shown to increase DHT, in some cases upwards to 56% but it has very little impact on testosterone itself.

Extensive research has shown that oral creatine supplementation at a rate of five to 20 grams per day appears to be very safe and largely devoid of adverse side-effects, while at the same time effectively improving the physiological response to resistance exercise, increasing the maximal force production of muscles in both men and women; however approximately 8 grams are used per day per soldier on average. Creatine helps with water retention and helps to improve athletic performance. There is scientific evidence that short term creatine use can increase maximum power and performance in high-intensity anaerobic repetitive work (periods of work and rest) by 5 to 15%. This is mainly bouts of running/cycling sprints and multiple sets of strength training with few repetitions. Single effort work shows an increase of 1 to 5%. This refers mainly to single sprints and single lifting of 1-2RM weights. However, some studies show no ergogenic effect at all. Studies in endurance athletes have been less than promising, most likely because these activities are sustained at a given intensity and thus do not allow for significant intra-exercise synthesis of additional creatine phosphate molecules. Ingesting creatine can increase the level of phosphocreatine in the muscles up to 20%. Creatine has no significant effect on aerobic endurance, though it will increase power during short sessions of high-intensity aerobic exercise. Creatine also helps by reducing the fatigue effects from TBI's as well as traumatic brain injuries themselves, a common injury of soldiers, which makes them particularly useful. [1][2]

HGH - Human Growth Hormone
Growth hormone (GH), also known as somatotropin (or as human growth hormone [hGH or HGH] in its human form), is a peptide hormone that stimulates grow. GH is a stress hormone that raises the concentration of glucose and free fatty acids. It also stimulates production of IGF-1.
A recombinant form of hGH called somatropin (INN) is used as a prescription drug to treat children's growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency. In the United States, it is only available legally from pharmacies, by prescription from a doctor. In recent years in the United States, some doctors have started to prescribe growth hormone in GH-deficient older patients (but not on healthy people) to increase vitality. While legal, the efficacy and safety of this use for HGH has not been tested in a clinical trial. At this time, HGH is still considered a very complex hormone, and many of its functions are still unknown.

Studies have found that HGH reduces body fat and increases lean body mass. HGH builds up connective tissue within muscles, at least in the short term. They promote resistance to injury and faster repair, allowing soldiers to recover from injury and intense exercise faster. The decrease in recovery time also allows for more exercise which can yield greater strength gains over time, rather than from the drug itself. While the effects of HGH are experimental and can be detrimental if taken in dosages that increases height or over saturate the body and decrease stamina, in smaller dosages it can have somewhat positive healing and muscle growth effects. While minor, they work well in concert with the other drugs used in the project.

[align=center]Logistics[/align]

Food
Food weighs a fairly considerable amount, in the long term. The average soldier's food and water requirements a day are approximately 10 pounds, with the average soldier carry approximately 30 pounds on average for a 3 day mission. MRE's are fairly heavy, and while much lighter than other forms of food, still take up a considerable amount of weight. While the average person needs approximately 2,000 calories a day, a soldier in the field may consume upwards to 3,000. While water is incompressible, food actually can be made lighter, primarily through dehydration. Not only does dehydrating food make it lighter, but it also makes it last longer. As oxygen and water are what make food go bad, keeping it from exposure allows it to last longer until the food packaging is reopened. Freeze dried food in mylar bags is significantly lighter even than MRE's, being about 3 times lighter weight. A day's worth of food is only about 1.1 pound, allowing for much lighter travel weights. Instead of 10 pounds for 3 days worth of food, it's about 3.3 pounds. Used widely by airborne troops and special forces, it allows for significantly lighter loads over longer periods of travel. A month's worth of food is only about 30 pounds, rather than 90+ pounds, which makes it easier to transport.

Although mylar bags can be reused, the one's used for the freeze dried food are meant to be thrown away. Boiling hot water is added directly to the bags which allows the food to cook faster and be completely self contained, the water heated using a flameless ration heater. This allows the average soldier to save about 7 pounds in their pack, or lengthen their combat stay to 9 days over 3 days. While not dramatic for all soldiers, the decrease in weight and increase in nutrition over standard MRE's, of which nearly all forms of food can be successfully freeze dried with higher amounts of nutrition, allows for greater ranges of soldiers and more weight to be carried in their stand combat packs and with combat gear.

Water
Water unfortunately cannot be reduced in weight. It's rather heavy, with the average human needing at 6 pounds a day, or .75 gallons, or 3 liters, and more given cleaning, cooking and other requirements. To carry a month's worth of water would be 180 pounds, far above the 75-100 pounds the average soldier can carry. There are ways to reduce water consumption, however. One is the consumption of salts and creatine, which allows for greater water retention. The other is a cooling suit, which keeps the body at an ideal temperature which allows it to lose less water cooling itself down through sweating. The other is water reclamation; by reclaiming water found in urine and sweat, the user can dramatically increase the length of which fresh water will go, allowing for what might be traditionally 3 days worth of water to last a month or more. While a specialized suit designed to capture this waste water exists, it is also possible to simply urinate in to a bottle which is designed to capture and filter the waste, as well. The water filtration system utilizes a life savor filter, based off of the life savor bottle, which allows for approximately 6,000 liters of water to be filtered or 1500 gallons, sufficient for a single person to survive off of water found from the environment or that's reclaimed for approximately 4 years. With a replacement cartridge, this increases to 8 years. While this filters out nearly all bacteria, dirt and viruses, it fails to filter out salt; a graphene filter, designed to filter salts, is instead used, which allows it to filter sweat or urine without the added nitrogen and salts that traditionally can be consumed by the body after filtering urine.

Water can also be recovered from the environment. While water distillery and boiling has always existed, the water filter removes harmful chemicals or costly energy and time, as well as complexity, purifying water in to a fairly simple and quick task. With no flame or light produced, it is faster ,easier to carry and can be done covertly, allowing for a far better tactical use. While the life saver filters can only filter out bacteria, viruses and other contaminants, the graphene filter can filter out salt and various nitrogen or iron contaminants, as well. This allows for water filtering almost anywhere in the world, and allows soldiers to potentially operate in the field indefinitely without water resupply.

Medicine
For obvious reasons, automatic surgery is nearly impossible. Nothing can replace the human element of medics and doctors that is invaluable to helping soldiers. However, certain basic procedures can dramatically reduce the death rate from common trauma injuries, and extend the life of the user long enough to get beyond immediate field care. Basic measures can be taken to prevent deaths in the field. Ranger training found that although only about 10% of injuries were immediately treatable in the field, 24% of treatable injuries resulted in death. With specialized medical training, rangers found that this 24% could be dropped to 3%, or be 8 times less. While there still is always a human element needed, the suit helps to add some features which should dramatically reduce the chance of death of the user if the armor is breached. Because of the basic vital sign monitoring, such as the heart and blood pressure rate, breathing rate, and body temperature, the suit and commanders can be made aware of the health state of the soldiers involved. While the system has automatic functions designed to be activated the moment injury is detected, to prevent accidental activation of the procedures both input by command and the vital signs are needed for it to be turned on. This can be overridden in person by a soldier, who activates the function himself. The system can be made to be automatic without a command signal, but is rarely done unless the operation is fairly unconventional. None of the features can realistically replace actual long term treatment or medical care, but they can drastically increase the survival time of the soldier to allow them to survive long enough to get the medical care, or has less damage from the injuries. A soldier's life expectancy may only be a few minutes with a chest wound, but it could become several hours with the emergency medical procedures.

Bleed-out is a key cause of death, and so automatically sealing wounds and applying pressure to the wounds can increase the life span of the soldier dramatically. This is done by the cooling suit contracting around parts of body which suffer injury, and quick clot being applied which quickly stops the bleeding without the need of a tourniquet. When the quick clot containers are ruptured from damage, they automatically release the chemical, which helps slow down bleed-out. Another way is by reinfilating the lungs after they're punctured. A collapsed lung not only prevents oxygen from moving through the body, but also begins to twist the heart, which cuts off blood flow to the heart and potentially to the rest of the body. If the medical life signs detect significant changes to the human body and the command is given by a fellow soldier or commander, then the system will automatically pierce the rib cage and re-inflate the heart, without the need of a medic. Even a few minutes of a collapsed lung can lead to the death of lung tissue and even lead to death, which means helping with these injuries quickly can increase the survivability of the average soldier. The oxygen concentrator can force air in to the lungs and force them to expand and contract, allowing for breathing to continue even if the subject's lungs have stopped working. If breathing is detected to have stopped, the machine will attempt to force air in to the lungs, which will saturate them with oxygen and not only prevent lung cell death, but oxygen deprivation to the rest of the body as well. Trauma foam, designed to prevent bleeding to the internal organs, can be released at injury sites after the protective seal is punctured to delay bleeding of the soldier. This dramatically slows down internal bleeding, by over 90%, allowing for approximately 10 times ordinary time normally alotted to saving the soldier's life. On top of this antiobiotics, saline, salts, PFC's and electrolytes can be released if the soldier is detected being injured, which helps increase survivability and begin treatment for various types of diseases and injuries immediately.

On top of this are other functions which can help save a soldier's life even if they are meant to do so specifically. The artificial heart and pace maker allows a heart to be automatically restarted if stopped, and the heart can still survive and blood can still be pumped through the body even if it is stopped, as the artificial heart allows for it. The artificial heart if damaged can also be attached to an external device which allows blood to remain pumping in the body without the need of a complicated surgery. The PFC - Pleflurocarbon not only provides greater oxygen absorption to the body than ordinary blood, increasing resistance to injury as well as response, but it can also permeate parts of the body that ordinary hemoglobin cannot. This helps particularly in injuries where swelling can prevent oxygen from reaching the injured cells, which is particular useful in cases of brain damage. When the body's injuries are sensed, more PFC's are released, allowing for great oxygen absorption by the body and lungs. The oxygen concentrator allows for 40% or higher oxygen, compared to the ordinary atmospheric level of 20%, allowing the soldier to possess double the oxygen in their bloodstream and organs as an ordinary person from this alone. The blood doping also increases both oxygen absorption in the lungs and dissolved in the body, allowing a soldier to survive with much less blood than ordinary, or with lessened breathing. In extreme cases, the oxygen concentrator can increase to provide 80% oxygen, for a few hours to increase the user's oxygen permeation. On top of augmenting lung function, it can also save the lung, saturating the lungs in oxygen and preventing long term damage that might otherwise occur. DHT and HMB prevent muscle loss, which is particularly useful during long periods of inactivity, such as being captured or unconscious. The armor helps to absorb large amounts of energy that may otherwise be absorbed by the user, and the thermoregulation suit can prevent hypothermia or overheating. All of this combines together to drastically increase the survival rate of the soldier, and in particular the higher oxygen allows the soldier to survive are far less blood or with far less body functioning than normal.

[align=center]Power[/align]

Motion generated Charger
Like with the Hulc exoskeleton, the rest of the suit of armor is designed to recapture waste energy of human movement to power the system. As the human body is not perfectly efficient in movement, in fact barely 25% efficient, there is a lot of potential waste energy that can be captured. As electricity is produced via kenetic energy conversion in nearly every application, it is a relatively simple process to convert human movement in to energy production. The exact design is that of the HULC exokseleton, of which the energy producing elements are instead in the armor itself, and recharge the hulc exoskeleton when it is attached. This in turn makes the HULC exoskeleton addition lighter, but also makes the armor somewhat heavier, adding a few pounds. While very efficient, it is not the only source of power for the armor, although it can greatly lengthen the battery supply of the suit and with minimal energy systems used, can power the functions of the suit almost indefinitely.

Solar Recharger
Solar power is finnicky for a few reasons, first being that it requires the sun and good weather to power suit systems, and the second being that they can be rather fragile and require large amounts of surface area to be useful. While they also require batteries to be useful, the suit's already present batteries reduce the need for this somewhat. Solar rechargers cannot be relied upon as a primary source of power, but they can be beneficial when climate conditions permit. Due to their relatively light weight and easy use, they don't take away much from the suit of armor, and thus make an easy addition. The solar panels are placed on the shoulders and parts of the helmet of the user, and masked underneath semi-transparent camouflage in order to prevent glare or the breaking of a color scheme. The solar panels are covered in aluminum oxynitride, which is incredibly strong and bullet proof, but allows for light to pass through with relative ease. The solar panels cover approximately 3 square foot of space, and thus can produce approximately 30 watts a second in good lighting. While they do not work at night, under cloudy conditions, sand storms or generally any situation where light is not available (such as in doors), they do serve as a reliable way to lengthen the power system of the armor over time.

Radiostopic Thermoelectric Generator - Artificial Heart
The Radiostopic Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) is an electrical generator that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.

RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes, and unmanned remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the former Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle. RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for robotic or unmaintained situations that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries, or generators to provide economically and in places where solar cells are not practical. Safe use of RTGs requires containment of the radioisotopes long after the productive life of the unit. RTG's are used extensively for use in the artificial heart, to provide the constant power needed to prevent it from stopping; due to the increased blood volume, without the artificial heart constantly working, it can put extensive strain on the heart, although likely not enough to immediately killer the host.

A primary key issue with most RTG's is fuel efficiency. While they can operate for several decades, converting the heat produced via the radiation into electricity, they typically have incredibly low efficiency, unless utilizing otherwise expensive materials. Americurium 241 is utilized over Plutonium 238 due to the increased volume and ease of extraction due to it's purity in the nuclear process. It possess approximately 4.92 times the lifepsan of plutonium, but produces approximately a quarter of the power. While it produces stronger radiation than P238, it is still the second easiest to contain of all fuels. Most RTG's get between 3-8% efficiency of heat to energy production. Utilizing some newer, experimental designs, the RTG's can achieve nearly 20% efficiency, although they depend on a radically different method of converting the heat to electricity; in the particular case of the RTG, they convert infrared radiation to electricity. While only a portion of the total heat energy, the conversion efficiency is much higher, and thus more energy can be produced from this process.

The system therefore requires approximately 17.5 grams of Americurium-238, to produce around 3.5 watts of energy. The RTG is utilized for it's small size and relatively compact design. While Radiostopic Thermoelectric generators generally tend to be more efficient, the RTG is intended for use with the artificial heart, and thus needs to be easy to round on the person at all times. While Americurium tends to be rather rare and expensive, and it easy to siphon off from the nuclear process.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell
The Aerostak 1Kw serves as the basis of the design for the ultralight hydrogen fuel cell, design. Approximately 5 pounds, the design can use between 2.5 and 20 pounds of hydrogen, based on it's storage device, one which is intended for use on the AMAP armor itself, and another which is designed to be used for the personal equipment.

There are many types of fuel cells, but they all consist of an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte that allow positively charged hydrogen ions (or protons) to move between the two sides of the fuel cell. The anode and cathode contain catalysts that cause the fuel to undergo oxidation reactions that generate positive hydrogen ions and electrons. The hydrogen ions are drawn through the electrolyte after the reaction. At the same time, electrons are drawn from the anode to the cathode through an external circuit, producing direct current electricity. At the cathode, hydrogen ions, electrons, and oxygen react to form water. As the main difference among fuel cell types is the electrolyte, fuel cells are classified by the type of electrolyte they use and by the difference in startup time ranging from 1 second for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM fuel cells, or PEMFC) to 10 minutes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). Individual fuel cells produce relatively small electrical potentials, about 0.7 volts, so cells are "stacked", or placed in series, to create sufficient voltage to meet an application's requirements.[2] In addition to electricity, fuel cells produce water, heat and, depending on the fuel source, very small amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other emissions. The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is generally between 40–60%, or up to 85% efficient in cogeneration if waste heat is captured for use.

Stationary fuel cells are used for commercial, industrial and residential primary and backup power generation. Fuel cells are very useful as power sources in remote locations, such as spacecraft, remote weather stations, large parks, communications centers, rural locations including research stations, and in certain military applications. A fuel cell system running on hydrogen can be compact and lightweight, and have no major moving parts. Because fuel cells have no moving parts and do not involve combustion, in ideal conditions they can achieve up to 99.9999% reliability. This equates to less than one minute of downtime in a six-year period.

Since fuel cell electrolyzer systems do not store fuel in themselves, but rather rely on external storage units, they can be successfully applied in large-scale energy storage, rural areas being one example.There are many different types of stationary fuel cells so efficiencies vary, but most are between 40% and 60% energy efficient. However, when the fuel cell's waste heat is used to heat a building in a cogeneration system this efficiency can increase to 85%; in this particular design, the fuel cell is 60% efficient. This is significantly more efficient than traditional coal power plants, which are only about one third energy efficient. Fuel cells are also much cleaner than traditional power generation; a fuel cell power plant using natural gas as a hydrogen source would create less than one ounce of pollution (other than CO2) for every 1,000 kW·h produced, compared to 25 pounds of pollutants generated by conventional combustion systems. Fuel Cells also produce 97% less nitrogen oxide emissions than conventional coal-fired power plants.