Cosmic Crops - VCS

https://youtu.be/7lVoMGaQgL4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X4Ev_qvAFqsMJbilB_2dgruc31Z4qqW-/view?usp=sharing

The apparatus we have in mind is basically made of two stages- the upper stage and the lower stage.

The lower stage further is made of three layers, the base, the crates filled with compost. the mushrooms can be grown in this layer easily.

The upper layer sits on top of a thin sheet of lead placed over the lid of the mushroom layer. on top of it, a layer of aerogel with pipes/tubes for water supply embedded in it. This layer has then another layer on tip which is essentially a crate filled with BNNT as a substitute for soil. then a lid is placed on it above which a 2cm skirt is given on the top of the lid where all the components of the atmosphere control can be placed for ease of access as well as away from the elements to keep them safe.

The lids placed over the plants as well as the mushrooms will be transparent, with openable windows on all sides for ease of access to the crops.

Model of Vertical Cropping System:

"Advanced Plant Habitat"

• 1)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. 

• Advanced Plant Habitat Components

Structural Mounting Assembly • Air Filtration Assembly (provides filtered air to the system) • Plant Habitat Facility Kits (includes hoses, water bags, syringes) • Science Carrier (the tray that the plants will grow in) • Growth Chamber (enclosed volume that the plants will grow in) • Environmental Control System (ECS) (Growth Chamber temperature, humidity, and airflow control) • Fluid International Subrack Interface Standard Drawer (contains the carbon dioxide bottles, water reservoirs, and gaseous nitrogen regulation) • Orbital Replacement Unit Component Drawer (water distribution system, power system, and main computer, or PHARMER) • Growth Light Assembly (lighting system)

"Veggie"

• 70 watts for the lights, fans, and control electronics.
• utilizes passive wicking to provide water to the plants as they grow.
• seeds embedded in a tape or film, which would allow seeds and pillows to fly independently. The space station could have a seed bank and a plant pillow bank, which would allow crews to decide what to grow
• Growing plants in microgravity is complicated by the fluid physics and lack of convective flow.
•  the Veggie team also developed a produce-sanitizing step for leafy greens utilizing food-safe, citric acid-based wipes that are used to sanitize the fresh produce and also clean the Veggie units.
• When tomatoes are grown in space, crew members will need to pollinate the flowers to produce fruit.

"Cut and Come Again” where the astronaut will only harvest the outer leaves allowing for an attempt at a longer growth of the plants

• Each plant grows in a “pillow” filled with clay-based growth media and fertilizer. The pillows are important to help distribute water, nutrients, and air in a healthy balance around the roots

Food is the first line of defense to maintain astronaut health and performance. Pre-packaged food has been used to meet astronaut food requirements since the start of the space program and will continue to serve as the foundation of the food system on early exploration missions. However, missions to Mars could last up to three years. In that time, the key nutrients and vitamins (such as Vitamins B1, C, and K) in currently available versions of pre-packaged foods will begin to lose efficacy and the food may also suffer a decline in palatability and acceptability.

While there are several options to supplant the exploration food system, most require significant technology development and additional complex infrastructure. Plants—and crop plants in particular—have been shown to adapt well to the spaceflight environment and have been grown and consumed by a number of crews on the International Space Station (ISS). The hardware required to grow plants in space has also been developed and demonstrated to a reasonable extent. While challenges remain, the addition of crop plants as a means to provide additional nutrition to the crew diet is considered a viable option to reduce the risk currently associated with developing an exploration food system.

Current crop growth systems on the ISS include Veggie and the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH). Both of these facilities were designed as research facilities to investigate fundamental science issues associated with plant growth in space. Veggie is a relatively simple and basic system open to the cabin environment, while APH is a far more complex facility with a large number of sensors and closed environmental control. However, neither facility was designed to be an operational crop production facility for the purpose of supplying the crew with supplemental fresh produce.

To support an exploration food system with crops, new approaches will need to be addressed that both build on our current plant growth experiences and adapt them to meet new missions and operational and environmental constraints.

OBJECTIVES

Your challenge is to design a supplemental crop production system that supports a crew on a long-duration exploration mission to Mars and back to Earth, or on a mission to an early surface habitat on the Moon or Mars. Your solution could take into consideration whether the system could be stowable when not in use and you should specify the size of the crew you are planning to support. The earliest missions NASA is considering would include between 4 and 6 persons.

In planning your system, consider other constraints of space flight that will figure into creating an efficient and working system. For example, weight and space on the mission vehicle is an important consideration. In the outbound phase of the mission, pre-packaged food may meet all of the crew’s nutritional requirements and that may take up significant volume on the Mars transit vehicle when the mission begins. As a result, allocating space for a fully deployed supplemental crop system at the onset of the mission may not be the most efficient solution to meet food system requirements. It may be on the return journey that nutritional supplementation from crops is more important and at that point you may consider using space that had been allocated to the prepackaged food which will have been consumed.

Similarly, a crop production system intended for use in an early surface habitat on the Moon or Mars may also benefit from the volume efficiency associated with a deployable system.

Also, consider the transit environment. You should consider the potential implications of operating within the deep-space radiation environment and exposure to high energy Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE). Consider mission and vehicle constraints since it would be preferable to have systems that are mass-efficient, reliable, easy to maintain and operate, and that can be stowed when not required to optimize the use of volume early in the mission.

POTENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS

As you design your system, you may (but are not required to) consider the following:

• Stowage volume
• System mass
• Option to use soft wall construction
• Use of highly reliable components to minimize logistical spares
• Option for the growth area to be visible for crew, if desired
• Minimizing resources for operation
• Sanitation and use of easy-to-clean components
• Whether the growth area is open or closed to the vehicle environment
• Recycling the transpired water back to the crops (i.e., close the water loop)
• Including a basic thermal control system
• Whether the system can retrieve water and/or O2 in system prior to shut down
• Whether the system can supply CO2 as plants grow.

Useful features of the greenhouse include:

• The ability to meet the requirements of crop production both in microgravity and partial gravity to serve two operational roles
• Incorporation of a high level of autonomy with minimal required crew interactions
• Capability to reprocess nutrients from waste streams
• Use of in situ resources (water, atmosphere, etc.) where available
• If deemed necessary, incorporation of radiation shielding option to store seeds and/or plants
• Viability as a kit for deployment in arid regions on Earth

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page. More resources may be added before the hackathon begins.

NASA does not endorse any non-U.S. Government entity and is not responsible for information contained on non-U.S. Government websites.

Space Apps was a great wonderful journey that gave students like me the opportunity to compete at an international level which helps us for a stand globally while providing us with the exposure of communicating and working with new people who share the same dream and goal as us. I got the opportunity to learn and gain experiences from new people while interacting with mentors and famous personalities in the space field.

https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/food-production/default.asp

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/advanced-plant-habitat.pdf

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf

https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space

#mars #plant #growplants #seedsinspace #cosmicrops #verticalcroppingsystem

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.