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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). Much of the system's design is in part to allow for the use of heavy armor, such as to compensate for overheating incurred by the armor or oxygen impairment from wearing a gas mask at all times, as it is to provide biomechanical benefits to the user.

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. Combined with PFC's, this increases to roughly 8-9 times as much oxygen absorption 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. Furthermore the PFC's are able to reach places that red blood cells traditionally have trouble accessing, allowing them to treat and prevent severe wounds to tendons and the brain for instance, or in case the lungs are damaged, increasing their survivability further.

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 process 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. The average soldier has 30% more muscle mass and endurance due to the performance enhancers, 3.4 times more endurance from the cooling suit, 9 times more oxygen from the oxygen concentrator, increased blood volume and PFC's, a heart rate is that 3.5 times that of a normal person at all times giving them virtually limitless endurance due to their heart, synthetic cartilage and titanium enhanced bones which reduces joint pain and damage, and an exoskeleton and other measures that helps to redistribute the weight over their entire body and in to the ground. Synergistically this results in fantastically higher endurance, less fatigue, shorter recovery times and greater strength and physical capability, on top of the other logistic and transport benefits, without major levels of power consumption. By working with both low power systems and biomechanical enhancements, soldier performance increases. Soldiers also have three times the vision and protection and motion blur when compared to ordinary people, as well as resistance to flashbangs and loud noises with hearing protection.


Elements
-Artificial Heart
-Oxygen Concentrator
-Blood Doping and PFC's
-Exoskeletons
-Liquid Cooling
-Performance Enhancers
-Logistics
-Synthetic cartilage and joint protection
-Sensory enhancement

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 it does increase the amount of weight a soldier can carry over time. Soldiers not only heal faster from injuries and sleep better, but are also are less likely to suffer injuries due to their increased endurance and reduced fatigue during intense exercise.

Studies attempting to determine the performance of increases in athletic performance have varied in results, however most show a decrease in recovery time and a notable increase in endurance related athletic performance. "This effect was confirmed by Adams and Welch, 16 who showed that breathing 60 percent oxygen increased endurance time at 90 percent maximal workload from 12.5 min to 15.8 min. " [1][2][3], or a 26% increase in worktime. For soldiers who wear body armor or carry heavy weights over long periods of time, the high oxygen helps improve their endurance and decreases their recovery time. There is maximum limit of oxygen diffusion rates, and a maximum limit more oxygen can increase athletic performance, with diminishing returns. At 60% oxygen rates, the soldier experiences virtually as much performance increase as possible. With blood doping and PFC's the soldier has a significantly higher blood diffusion rate. As the body only consumes an extra 5-10% oxygen under high oxygen outside of exercise, the high oxygen doesn't provide much benefit unless the soldier is exercising or under some other form of stress. Since soldiers primarily are concerned with endurance, that is traveling long distances with very little sleep and carrying heavy equipment, the high oxygen impact on endurance is particularly useful. When the artificial heart and other features are combined together, a soldier's athletic performance is dramatically improved.

High oxygen however can cause the oxidation of various chemicals in the body, which can lead to premature cell death. Antioxidants are needed to prevent this from occurring and in particular effecting DNA, which reacts to oxygen and can break it down. The main objective is to prevent the formation of free radicals, which can damage cells. Oxidative stress is a potential health risk, but it can be easily remedied with various forms of antioxidants. Antioxidants can be provided via tea and supplements, however even at high levels without antioxidants the effect of cells is only minimal. Studies have shown that high oxygen, even 100% oxygen, only provide minor oxidative stress and was easy to defend against. [1] "However, the HBO2-induced DNA damage rapidly disappears after the end of the HBO2 exposure in healthy humans. Moreover, DNA damage was detected only after the first treatment and not after further treatments under the same conditions, indicating an increase in antioxidant defense."




Oxygen Concentrator
The Oxygen Concentrator more or less relies on capturing ambient oxygen air, and increasing the total amount of oxygen exposed to the user at the same atmospheric levels of the air. 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. Essentially the oxygen concentrator takes natural oxygen levels of 20% and boosts them up to 40%, giving the user twice as much oxygen as normal, although levels up to 90% can be achieved for brief periods of time. Due to the fact that higher air pressures will damage the body and lungs, the oxygen concentrator works to essentially double the air pressure initially, and then scrub out the nitrogen, before reducing it back to ordinary atmospheric pressures to be safe to breathe.

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. When injured, this can increase temporarily to 90% oxygen, in order to provide more oxygen to the user, and can even automatically begin pumping air in to the lungs, as well as inflating and deflating the lungs themselves. This increases the soldier's survivability when suffering an injury, both by saturating the body and lungs with more oxygen and replacing the function of the lungs if they stop working. As this consumes large volumes of energy and can even be dangerous to the lungs over prolonged periods of times, it is generally only activated after the system detects the user is injured or the armor is breached. In extreme circumstances soldiers can also activate this effect to improve athletic performance, although the performance enhancement will result in diminishing returns in regards to energy consumption.

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 dramatically reduced performance without the artificial heart. 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. With greater human blood volume comes greater endurance, and greater longevity in the field, as well as faster wound healing both from injury and exercise.

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. This not only increases the soldier's endurance, but their healing abilities as well, as PFC's can reach body parts ordinarily hard to reach by hemoglobin alone, such as tendons, joints, brain tissue and other organs. It also directly provides oxygen to wounds, and thus can decrease healing times from injuries and exercise. This combined with the higher oxygen absorption from the blood and oxygen concentrator dramatically increases the user's survivability as well as athletic performance. More PFC's can be pumped in to the bloodstream after a soldier is injured to oversaturate them with the blood, and to stabilize the soldier's blood pressure; as a soldier loses blood, the oxycyte will automatically replace it, thus giving the soldiers enough artificial blood to continue living for short periods of time. In addition, PFC's can be administered via vaporization in to the lungs, in the form of Perfluorohexane, in order to directly treat damaged lung tissue and provide an even greater volume of PFC's to the bloodstream, although as an experimental procedure is less common.

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 positive benefits to athletic performance without serious drawbacks, however. While their effect is limited, in concert with each other they can help the soldier be slightly stronger and have substantially more endurance, adding approximately 15-30% more muscle mass as an aggregate and more importantly preventing muscle loss or fatigue from prolonged operations in the field or intense training. DHT, considered 2.5-3 times more powerful than testosterone in regards to muscle building and without any known virilization or side 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, unlike the use of steroids. It is essentially the chemical testosterone turns in to when it builds muscle, skipping the androgenic precursors which cause the harmful effects that come from steroids; it not only is more effective, but has none of the side effects and thus is especially useful in muscle building and retention. 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 even at extremely high dosages, it is generally considered safe to use and is even sold over the counter without a prescription. 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, or traumatic brain injuries, which is a common injury for soldiers. HGH also helps to build muscle, and increase healing times of the users, although it is used to a much lesser effect than the other drugs. 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 operate 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, and push above average soldiers to incredible physical levels, creating a wider pool of candidates available to special forces or other elite military units.

Blood doping via EPO is also used by soldiers to provide performance enhancement, but is used in conjunction with the artificial heart and other oxygen-enhancing elements of the Orion project, keeping it separate from the following list of drugs. It's effects vary considerably in use, but a 30% increase in endurance and a 30% reduction in healing time between intense exercise is often reported even at minor dosages, and much more is possible if used in conjunction with other equipment.


DHT
DHT or Dihydrotestosterone is about 2-3 times better at muscle building that raw testosterone (and lasts much longer outside the body), and about 5-10 times stronger than most steroids. In addition to this, DHT has no known androgenic side effects, which are the common issues associated with steroids, and is often used in muscle building and retention in comatose patients. This is becuase 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, which is often prevalent with steroid use. 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, and can build muscle to an extent to make soldiers slightly stronger than they'd be without it. A increase of roughly 15% or more of muscle mass has been reported with moderate dosages, with slight increases to strength and endurance as a result.

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. This is especially useful for soldiers not only in regards to helping them build muscle, but more importantly helps to prevent them from losing muscle, which can occur due to stressful conditions in the field or during prolonged periods of combat.

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 for soldiers in addition to the extra energy and muscle building effects it provides. [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.

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.

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.

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.