An automated hardware and brattice installer system for mining units configured to enable autonomous installation of floor mounted belt hardware and brattice behind a continuous borer mining unit to allow for continuous, unmanned, and uninterrupted advancement of the miner.

A method of sealing and pressurizing underground facilities in planetary bodies with atmospheric pressures or temperatures differing from that of earth may include disposing at least one prefabricated, airtight plug within the tunnel system prior to forming additional tunnels or shafts within the tunnel system. Multiple plugs may be additionally disposed within the tunnel system to create various encapsulated tunnel portions optionally having differing pressures and temperatures. The tunnel system may be airtight and sealed from external, hostile atmospheric conditions, designed to facilitate safe living and work conditions in the tunnel systems and to facilitate safe movement of people and equipment between tunnels, shafts and the surface of the planetary body. Tunnel systems are defined as any variety of man-made mines and tunnels or naturally occurring tunnels such as lava tubes or caverns and the like.