Combined with the artificial sun's weakened output, weather conditions on the surface have became highly volatile. While some life support units remain intermittently active, they were in severe disrepair. The activation of Installation 08 inflicted substantial damage to the Ark. As with the Halos, Installation 00 features a widely varying range of climates. This means that all known sentient species, with the exception of the Unggoy, can survive on the surface without any form of protection. Like most Forerunner constructs, the Ark's atmosphere is similar to that of Earth, being mostly comprised of oxygen and nitrogen. As such, the Ark can sustain its own ecosystem, providing a variety of habitation for many kinds of life. Several bodies of water occur across the installation. These landscapes and biomes are as diverse as those of Earth and of the Halos, including deserts, taiga, and deciduous forests. This terrain was intended to support cataloged life forms prior to being reseeded throughout the galaxy. The Ark has a habitable surface on each of its spokes and on the majority of the inner circle, apart from the foundry. The installation's artificial star can be seen in the sky. Topography ДЄ surface view of Installation 00's arms. These sentient species would be stored on the Ark and would later be reseeded on their original homeworlds after the Halo Array had been activated. According to this plan, known as the Conservation Measure, the Librarian was to index every sentient species in the ecumene and bring specimens of each to the Ark.

Knowing that the Array would defeat the Flood through sterilizing the galaxy of any neurologically complex life, the Forerunners planned to preserve all life by storing it on the Arks and other preservation facilities. While originally designed solely as a construction and control center for the Halos, due to the Librarian's influence, the Ark was given a secondary function as a safe haven for life in the galaxy in the case of a galaxy-wide activation of the Halos this is also the source of the name 'the Ark'.

In addition to serving as the firing control center for the Halo array, Installation 00 functioned as an automated factory to construct Halo installations, thereby ensuring that the Halo Array was always ready to fire. Installation 00 can be placed on standby mode via a fail-safe system that is activated by an aborted firing such as the one that occurred at the end of the Battle of Installation 05. The Ark was designed with a number of functions, one of which is to remotely activate the Halo rings from outside the array's blast radius. Due to this, Installation 00 was also referred to as the lesser Ark to differentiate it from the much larger greater Ark, whose foundry produced the original array of rings 30,000 kilometers in diameter, as opposed to the 10,000 kilometer-wide foundry of Installation 00. Although later universally known as 'the Ark', Installation 00 was originally one of two installations identified as Arks, the other being the older greater Ark. The Ark is situated outside the galaxy, about 2 18 (262,144) light years from the galactic center. Installation 00 also functions as a potential safe haven from the Halo Array's strategic pulse, and as a facility to construct replacement Halos if necessary. Installation 00, also known as the Ark and sometimes translated as Waypoint, is a Forerunner installation from which the entirety of the Halo Array can be activated. Why, the Ark, of course.' - 343 Guilty Spark to Commander Miranda Keyes Miranda Keyes: ' Where would someone go to activate the other rings?' 343 Guilty Spark: '. Intergalactic space, over the galactic plane, 262,144 light years from galactic centerД¬onservation installation, Lifeworker research station, Halo construction foundry and remote activation facilityДecem (Fully repaired by March 2559) Installation 00Дisk with a hollow core and eight curved arms For the campaign level, see The Ark (level).

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