Greenhouses — revision 39822

The Greenhouses project is a project of [[SolSeed]] which is an expression of our desire to contribute to [[theDestiny]]. The Greenhouses will be designed to land on cold worlds in the Solar System and grow and store food for later consumption by astronauts visiting the world. = Scope = The project is to [[Bring Life]] to other worlds in a meaningful way with the minimum payload size. * The project will include the following abilities ** The ability to extract resources needed to grow plants (e.g. CO2, NH3, H2O, K&P-compounds) ** The ability to process resources into the forms needed for plants ** The ability to maintain the environment needed for plant growth (Temperature, atmospheric pressure and composition, water chemistry) ** The ability to garden plants (protect from disease, etc...) ** The ability to harvest plants or edible parts of plants ** The ability to preserve harvested plants * The project may include the following abilities ** The ability to store Oxygen gas produced as a useful bi-product of the plant growth * The project will not include the following abilities ** The ability to build new greenhouse infrastructure (robotics, pumps, sensors, etc...) in situ = Phases = The project will have three major phases: == Experimental Phase == In this phase, the components will be designed and tested and incrementally assembled at our three separate facilities in Ottawa, Portland and Redmond. == Arctic Test Phase == In this phase, a version of the greenhouse will be deployed to the Arctic (or Antarctic) in order to attempt to grow food remotely in a cold environment. Even the coldest places in the Arctic and Antarctic are significantly warmer than most of the worlds in the inner solar system. Carbon dioxide will be available as a gas in the Arctic, rather than a solid as in most worlds in the inner solar system (by inner I mean inside the scattered disk) == Alien Development Phase == In this phase, a version of the greenhouse, capable of surviving on alien worlds, will be developed, tested and launched and sent to other worlds (initially outer main belt asteroids and possibly Mars). = Resource Flow Chart = The following table shows the 7 critical resources required for plant growth and summarizes the process for converting them as found in raw form on alien worlds into stored food. {| border="1" |- ! colspan=3 | Gather Raw Materials -> ! Prepare and Feed it to PLants -> ! Store Plant Parts for later Astronauts to Eat |- ! Abr ! Resource ! Sources ! Required Form ! Results |- | C | Carbon | CO2, CO, C, CH4, HCN | CO2 | rowspan=3 | C6H12O6 (->Carbohydrates, Lipids, etc) |- | H | Hydrogen | H2O, CH4, NH3, HCN | H2O |- | O | Oxygen | H2O, CO2, CO, metal oxides | H2O, CO2, O2, NO3(-), PO4(3-) |- | N | Nitrogen | NH3, HCN | NO3(-) | Proteins |- | K | Potassium | K? | K+ | K+ |- | E | Energy | sunlight | Blue and Red parts of spectrum | holds molecules together as chemical bonds |- | P | Phosphorus | P? | PO4(3-) | DNA, ATP, ADP |} == Addtional Considerations == * Atmospheric composition * Atmospheric pressure * Temperature * Radiation * Robotic miners * Robotic food preservation system * Robotic gardeners = Approval and Sub-projects = This project was approved as a SolSeed project at [[Sol2014]]. At [[Sol2014]], 4 separate sub-projects were also approved. == Food Preservation Recipe Development == At [[Sol2014]], it was decided that Duck Weed would be used as the first test food for the system for the following reasons: * Being the smallest flowering plant, they will allow us to use the smallest possible greenhouse cells. * Being fast reproducing, they will allow greenhouse cells that become contaminated or otherwise fail, to be recolonized from neighbouring cells and repopulated quickly. * Being water plants, they can be grown with the simplest hydroponic systems. * Duck weed has been proven as a food by a number of experimental projects However, Duck Weed is not commonly used as a food and there are few recipes for preserving it as a food for delayed consumption. Therefore, this sub-project was created with the purpose of finding ways to make preserved (freeze-dried?) Duck Weed palatable with minimum other organic ingredients. [[User:Patch|Patrick Saumur]] was chosen as the Chief Food Preservation Officer and head of this sub-project at [[Sol2014]]. == Resource Extraction Robot Development == In order to store food we must remove mass from the inside of the greenhouse cells. This mass must be replaced if the greenhouses are not to become vacuums. In order to continue to grow plants, the greenhouses must remain filled with the proper gasses (CO2, N2), water and dissolved substances (K+, NO3-, PO4(3-)). In order to supply these substances indefinitely, raw materials must be extracted from the worlds that the greenhouses land on. Seeing as the resources may be scattered over the surface of the worlds, the greenhouses must be teamed with rovers which can traverse the world, extract the correct resources and return to the greenhouses. This sub-project will develop those robots. [[User:EricSaumur|Eric Saumur]] was chosen as the Chief Rover Development Officer and head of this sub-project at [[Sol2014]]. == Atmospheric and Hydrological Analysis == In order to know how much of each substance to add to the cells, we must monitor the concentrations of each substance inside the greenhouses. This sub-project will acquire, select and test the sensors required to monitor the greenhouses and determine quantities of substances for addition to the cells. [[User:Brandon CS Sanders|Dr. Brandon C. S. Sanders]] was chosen as Chief Analysis Sensor Officer and head of this sub-project at [[Sol2014]]. === Issues to Consider === *Atmospheric composition and/or pressure slips off of ideal. This issue might be solved as follows: **Keep stores of each of the gases (in tanks) or ices (as blocks in cold warehouse) cold warehouse could be natural cavern or robotically excavated burrow. **Include equipment for destilling the atmosphere to remove overly high partial pressures of certain gases (e.g. oxygen) *** Balance gases by releasing substances from storage into greenhouses to make up for deficits or using still to remove and store other substances to reduce surfits === Sensors for PC-board integrations: === * pH https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10972 * dissolved oxygen https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11194 * IR thermometer https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10740 === What to do with the oxygen?=== Plants produce oxygen as they produce sugar so as we store food we will have extra oxygen produced as a bi-product. This product is valuable as the massive component of Hydrogen-Oxygen Rocket fuel and as the key component of air for astronauts to breath (needed to metabolize the food we create). The following table summarizes the Pros and Cons of various solutions: {| border = 1 ! Solution ! Pros ! Cons |- !Oxidize Metals |metal oxides are easy to store at least on some worlds reduced metals should be easy to find (they are the chief component of metalic meteors) oxidizing metals could be a source of energy reducing dependence on solar panels | |- !Oxidize Carbon |carbon dioxide can be stored as an ice reduced carbon may be available on carbonaceous condrite worlds carbon dioxide is a resource oxidizing carbon could be a source of energy reducing dependence on solar panels |- !Store as Liquid Oxygen |astronauts will need oxygen to breath in order to metabolize food |hard to store; will need large tanks and refrigeration (LOX requires -183 C much colder than the asteroid belt) |- !Dump into Atmosphere |an option on Mars |but elsewhere a terrible waste of a major component of CHON even on Mars, it would be lost for a very long time as a trace presence |- !Carve out Caverns and Fill them with an Oxygen Atmosphere Add CO2 and keep at low enough pressure |May be able to grow some plants in the cavern if extra lighting is sent | |- !L2 Point |shaded from the sun mirror of Mylar to protect from infrared from backside of body could make tanks made out of ice to store it or an inflatable box could use inflatable tank (large capacity with relatively small mass) |} == Food Preservation Automation == In order to create the preserved Duck Weed when the greenhouses are at remote locations, the process developed by the Food Preservation Recipe Development project must be automated. This subproject will work to achieve that automation. [[User:Scifiben|Ben Sibleman]] was chosen as Chief of Food Preservation Automation and head of this sub-project at [[Sol2014]]. He was also chosen as Chief Documentation Quality Officer. He will be in charge of ensuring that each documented process developed by this project (Greenhouses project as a whole) is tested in order to ensure that the process can be repeated accurately based on the documentation provided by the sub-project that developed it. === Optimal growing conditions === *between 6.5 and 7.5 Ph * 303.2 K