High-Level Project Summary
We have developed a cylinder and some cube pads that allow astronauts to provide a better ratio of nutrients and this is very important as astronauts must be fed perfectly to perform better.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
The Persephone 01 project consists of 2 solutions.
The first, its function is to grow herbs as they are: spinach, Chinese cabbage, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, and romaine lettuce, for this purpose we are inspired by the APH project, and Veggie, basically our solution is to merge them to get better results with the development of plants. This involves using the pads to grow the plants and placing them in a box similar to the APH project, but this time bigger.
The section where the plants go would have a space of 200cm by 400cm. Allowing us to use 132 square cm per type of plant, each space in turn would be divided into 6 equal parts leaving 22cm square per plant, therefore the pads would have an area of 22cm square. The environment would be controlled and monitored by the same system as the APH.
The second part of the project is a cylinder that when rotating at a certain speed generates a centrifugal force that mimics the force of gravity, this will allow planting: Pink potatoes, sweet cassava, and beets. When rotating the centrifugal force will be equal to 9. 81m/s, allowing plants to grow under the same conditions as here on earth.
Inside the cylinder there would be another cylinder with a smaller diameter that would have three functions: to supply water to the plants (for this it would need to rotate to generate a centrifugal force of 9. 81m/s), 2 to provide light to the plants, and 3 to monitor and control the environment of the plants in an automated way. The cylinder would be made up of layers: (order from inside to outside) 1: inner layer: in this layer will go the soil needed for the growth of the plants, on the walls of the layer there would be weight sensors to monitor the weight of the plants and with this information to be able to stabilize or balance the weight of each side placing a counterweight and finally there would be mayas for where the water would come out to the second layer. 2:Outer layer: in this layer it is basically another cylinder through which the water would come out but this would rotate with a greater speed, generating a centrifugal force of 10m/s, so that it would also have a surface with spiral channels that would lead it to a hose and thus be able to recover the water.
The dimensions of the cylinder would change depending on the plant as these are not uniform in terms of mass and fruits, because each silver would have its cylinder made to measure.
e. g. : rose potato cylinder
Diameter:420 cm or 4. 2 metres
Radius: 210 cm or 2. 1 meters.
The size of the cylinder is proportional to the mass of the plant, the width of the soil the plant needs and the height it acquires when it grows.
to calculate that the centrifugal force is 9. 81m/s we must consider: Fc=m*w2*r
then we have to have the centrifugal force equal to 9. 81m/s= 981 cm/s=xm* (1319. 46 cm/t) 2*210cm
Using this formula we can have the angular velocity, and with this the amount of power needed by 2 motors to make it rotate.
The crops were selected in this way to cover part of the energy and nutritional demand that astronauts need, to have a variety of foods, with this they would also cause a good psychological impact on astronauts.
These are the ideas behind our Perséfone 01 project.
Space Agency Data
Some details we considered were mainly the inspiration of the veggie project and some prototypes of recent NASA projects which were taken from the following Agencies.
NASA DATA
The APH is a fully enclosed, closed-loop system with an environmentally controlled growth chamber. The plant habitat uses red, blue and green LED lights, and broad spectrum white LED lights. The system contains more than 180 sensors, relaying real-time information, including temperature, oxygen content and moisture levels (in the air and soil, near the plant roots, and at the stem and leaf level), back to the team at Kennedy
The APH will be activated by astronauts aboard the space station but will be controlled by the team at Kennedy, minimizing the amount of crew time needed to grow the plants
On Nov. 16, 2015, Astronaut Kjell Lindgren initiated VEG-01 C, with one set of six plant pillows planted with zinnia seeds. This was the last experiment for VEG-01. The zinnia has a longer growth period, different duration photoperiod and flowered as part of the experiment. They can be considered a precursor for a tomato and other plants that need to flower and fruit. Seeds were on-orbit for more than a year and a half and so germination data is of value for long-duration spaceflight campaigns. Long-duration growth will assist in determining viability of other long-duration crops in Veggie. Veggie did not encounter issues with pollen or flower production. Growing flowering plants and allowing them to flower verified this. Astronauts harvested plants and returned them, along with plant pillows, to Earth for microbial analysis and root structure visualization. It is of value to determine if microbial population changes by plant species. A NASA intern at Kennedy was able to germinate seeds from the zinnias returned from space, and researchers grew numerous daughter plants, indicating that pollination occurred in microgravity. When tomatoes are grown in space, crew members will need to pollinate the flowers to produce fruit.
CASA DATA
Astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) receive shipments of fresh food every few months. These deliveries supplement their menu, adding variety and nutrition—important factors in keeping crewmembers healthy and happy. But as missions venture to more distant destinations like the Moon or Mars, astronauts will need to be more self-sufficient. Greater distances will make resupply trips less frequent or impossible. Instead, space travellers will need to develop "green thumbs" to grow their own food in space.
Space food must be compact and lightweight, as well as nutritious and tasty! Food is selected and packaged to last the entire duration of a mission. Astronauts enjoy a balanced diet during their stay in space with menus that contain between 1900 and 3200 calories per day, depending on the needs of each crewmember.
Hackathon Journey
Our experience with space apps has been magnificent, we have learned Optimize the work, improve the
communication, teamwork and to improve ideas.
This project is inspired mainly by the enthusiasm and also by each of the skills of the members
Some of our team’s problems were technical and organizational problems, but we managed to solve them through effective communication and finally we thank space apps for giving us the opportunity to
participate.
References
National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 www.nasa.gov FS-2020-01-007-KSC: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 www.nasa.gov : https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
Growing healthy food in space and in remote areas,Govermmento of Canada CSA , https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/food-production/growing-healthy-food-in-space-and-remote-areas.asp
Tags
#veggie #APH #Persephone #NASA #Space apps challenge
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.