Zen Armaments Tetraoxide Wide-End Life Support

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it … win through, and still know where
his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. - Douglas Adams

Then again, anyone caught without their TOWELS functional is likely to be very dead indeed. Encompassing all necessary functions for human survival, including air supply, pressure stabilizers, inertial dampening, heat/cooling, limited artificial gravity, anti-toxins, and even emergency food generation, this system is a must-have for anyone hoping to brave the depths of space without paying exorbitant prices for individual life-support components.

The heart of this system is Tetraoxide or Red Oxygen (so named for its color); produced easily by compressing oxygen to 20 gigapascals, it is extremely dense and as such a single canister can last a crew of four for several months - more if they are in a reduced activity state (anything ranging from cryostasis to sedatives). One cannister would cost about 1000 KS; however, a refill would only cost 100KS, since the main cost is in maintaining the high pressure required to keep the oxygen in this state.

It also uses a similar system of extreme pressure to store hydrogen; it is cooled and compressed to the point where it becomes metallic, though this requires significantly lower pressure and it's simply stored in a tank which can be refilled for a few dozen KS per kilomole at most starports. It can be reacted with the oxygen to provide heat, warm water, or just auxiliary power, and if combined with Graphite Rods™ can produce an edible mass of organic material (mainly simple carbohydrates and oils such as fructose). Other subsystems use the oxygen and hydrogen as a reactant for inertial dampening and artificial gravity effects. In an emergency, it can be used to fuel any fusion reactor or drive, but this is not recommended as the lack of neutrons in organic-friendly hydrogen makes malfunctions much more likely.

Advantages - cheap, effective, covers all bases Disadvantages - n/a