Core temperature follows a lumped heat balance — the same relation as the article's ΔT = Q/(m·Cp), written as a rate equation:
C_th · dT/dt = Q_heater − h(P)·(T − T_hull)
h(P) = h0 · (P / 101 kPa)
Lower chamber pressure means fewer gas molecules to carry heat by convection, so it insulates the organism from the −40 °C hull chill; higher pressure conducts heat away faster.
Metabolic uptake follows Michaelis–Menten saturation in the nutrient infusion rate [N], then a Gaussian thermal-performance curve scales it by how close the core temperature is to the organism's optimum:
M(N) = Vmax · N / (Km + N)
f(T) = exp( −((T − Topt) / σ)² )
Metabolic rate = M(N) · f(T)
Tissue stress accumulates when temperature drifts from Topt, when effective metabolism falls into starvation range, or when pressure leaves the safe band — and relaxes on its own whenever all three sit inside the safe zone at once. Random hull micro-fractures occasionally jolt the ambient temperature, exactly like the containment breach risk described in the source article.
The bay silhouette (top view) is a 2D adaptation of the source simulation's lumpy 3D organism blob: the same harmonic terms (3rd and 7th order, amplitudes 0.16 / 0.08) that perturbed the 3D sphere's radius per-vertex are reused here as a single angular radius function r(a) = baseR·(1 + 0.16·sin(3(a+φ)) + 0.08·cos(7(a+φ) − 2)), where φ is the drag-controlled view angle — dragging the bay rotates φ and sweeps a different meridian of the same organic shape into view, rather than a flat re-projection of the 3D scene.
- Heater / chiller — direct thermal power Q into the chamber (negative = active cooling).
- Nutrient infusion — sets [N] feeding the Michaelis–Menten uptake curve.
- Chamber pressure — trades off insulation against the organism's safe barometric band (60–140 kPa).
- Auto-Stabilize — a simple proportional controller nudges all three toward the setpoint that minimizes stress.
- Trigger Hull Event — manually fires the same random micro-fracture / radiative-flare jolt that occurs on its own over time.
- Drag the bay view — rotates the cross-section's view angle around the organism.