High-Level Project Summary
cereZ is a compact and storable bioregenerative system for life support and production of fresh food in deep space missions inspired by NASA's Veggie and APH (Advance Plant Habitat) system that uses Mexican invention called dry rain which provides the necessary water and fertilizer so each plant receives the ideal amount of these without the damage of the capillary effect that occurs in microgravity.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Introduction
Since the first humans began to be sent into space, humanity has been faced with the problem of lack of food for the crew. This is because there was no safe way to generate food in the extreme environment that is outer space.
The first meals consumed by the first astronauts were tubes similar to tubes of toothpaste with food content of terrible taste and texture whose only goal was to keep a group of pilots and explorers fed for a couple of weeks. Today that food option has ceased to be viable since it has been discovered after decades of experimentation and studies that the human body needs food variety not only for the physical health of these but also for the mental health of the individuals themselves.
After several observations and studies on the effects of a strict spatial diet, never-before-seen effects such as menu fatigue have been discovered. This effect is believed to be the cause of significant and alarming weight loss in astronauts.
Because of this and other food aspects to consider NASA, JAXA, NSSA, among many others have been focused on finding methods to expand the space menu specifically focused on rare foods such as fresh plant-based foods. The problem with these fresh foods of vegetable origin is that they do not have a long storage duration therefore they must be ingested on the days of their harvest which, like a butterfly effect, brings with it another problem to consider: it is very expensive to send food constantly to space and in the near future there will be occasions where the option of sending food will be impossible given that the mission is taking place so Far from that food would not arrive on time.
A problem within a problem whose complexity has left hundreds of experts confused about where to start. This is the kind of challenge that Ctrl+Z has set out to face
Abstract
The challenge in question is to design a supplemental vegetable production system to support the crew of exploration missions to the Moon or Mars and back, considering that the system can be foldable while not in use and can complement the needs of 4 to 6 people.
In recent years NASA has shown interest in raising and growing plants in space as approaches to regenerative life support systems. The cereZ project was born from the need to have a system with these characteristics for deep space missions, where it is sought that, in addition to providing fresh and nutrient-rich food, the system has the capacity to contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the environment, oxygen production and management and recycling of water on board.
It is important to take into account the nutritional contribution of the foods produced during the mission, which is why those that can provide nutrients that are difficult to maintain in packaged foods (such as vitamin C, B6, and B12), as well as vegetables and seeds considered as superfoods (which have a more significant contribution of properties and nutrients compared to others) are considered as potential foods.
The cereZ system will have the ability to adapt to different climatological requirements to provide the necessary care for the production of different types of plants and vegetables, however, based on the idea of producing food that provides significant nutrition to the crew, it is proposed that the main vegetables produced by cereZ are: Rabish, Lettuce, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Celery, Carrot, Spinach, Beets and some sprouts such as alfalfa, sunflower, and lentil.
The vegetables mentioned above were selected due to the nutritional values they possess, as well as their ease of production and care. Moreover, the system incorporates the ability to keep these vegetables with novel technology such as solid rain.
Nowadays for agriculture, it is good to know the different methods that are available to achieve a good quality product, it is very important to know all these methods and the advantages they can bring to put them into practice as they should be, more if it is the innovation of growing food in space.
There are different types of producing plant foods such as polycultures, polyculture or polyculture is that type of agriculture that uses different crops on the same surface, imitating to a certain extent the diversity of natural ecosystems of herbaceous plants, and avoiding the large loads on the agricultural soil of monocultures, in this case, the method of production by polycultures is used since this provides all or most of the requirements nutritional needed by an astronaut crew.
HYDRATION
Solid rain is an ally in agricultural work that allows optimizing and taking advantage of the water of irrigation systems, reducing losses due to lack of water, protecting crops from scarcity, and minimizing the frequency of irrigation. It is an irrigation system that, unlike others such as drip and belt, is the only one that uses water in a solid-state; the results are extraordinary because the root stays moist for several months, and rehydrates repeatedly with precipitation.
The water adheres to the gel located in the roots of the plants and it is sufficiently moistened and allows to make the most of the liquid, so that "there is no waste", the water does not filter into the subsoil, nor does it evaporate. Solid rain is one of the key concepts in the development of cereZ.
FERTILIZATION: SLOW RELEASE FERTILIZERS
Description
Slow-release fertilizers (SRFs) provide a constant supply of nutrients for plants over an extended period of time.
They contain plant nutrients (mainly nitrogen) in a form that delays their initial availability.
Therefore, true slow-release fertilizers provide a sustainable and continuous supply of N for up to 4 months, even in uncertain weather conditions.
Benefits
• Temperature/humidity-dependent nutrient release
• Continuous supply of N up to 4 months
• Constant growth = No growth peaks
• Low salt concentration and toxicity
• Reduced risk of burns
• Reduced risk of less leaching
• Promotes a good root system
• Savings in labor, time, and energy
Tools used
CATIA
The conceptual design of the growth chambers for vegetables was made with the computer-aided modeling software CATIA. The design was made taking into account the needs of being folding, lightweight, resistant, and with the ability to be modular and couple with other growth chambers.
The design was made taking into account the needs of being folding, lightweight, resistant, and with the ability to be modular and couple with other growth chambers.
The approach considers that the outer material of the chambers is polymeric composite material reinforced with carbon fiber for the sake of lightness and resistance, while the inner lining is formed with some aluminum alloy with good thermal conductivity in order to easily maintain the temperature conditions required for the growth and care of the plants, in addition to being a plant-in-a-harmless material and not susceptible to corrosion or early environmental wear and tear.
Business model
The cereZ system is more than a product or a business. cereZ is implementation, a system that goes hand in hand with all the other systems that are implemented for the survival of any crew that is on a deep space mission. That is why cereZ cannot be quantified or provided independently but would have to collaborate together with the different space agencies, teams of nutritionists specialized in space feeding, space mission planners, and the companies that develop and manufacture the spacecraft and their interiors.
Potential clients
Although cereZ cannot be sold independently, it can be sold through collaboration contracts in conjunction with the teams that want to implement this technology in their spacecraft.
The clients of interest to which this innovation is provided would be among others NASA, JAXA, AEB, AEP, Australian Space Agency, CONAE, CSA ASC, ESA, NSSA, SANSA, among others that are in the public sector and SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin among others that are in the private sector.
How much does it cost?
The development of cereZ produces varied costs depending on the number of modules that have to be manufactured and implemented within the ship. To determine this value it is necessary to work together with the team of nutritionists of the crew and the team that plans the mission to know how much space and weight is available to implement. cereZ
Although this data is needed to know the total cost of implementing cereZ to a deep space mission, thanks to the fact that this technology adapts to the desired size it can be estimated that the cost of a basic module starts from $ 10,000 dollars which would result in the production of approximately 1.5kg of fresh food of vegetable origin per day, which is enough for a crew of 6 people to consume the ideal amount of recommended vegetables.
Benefits
Although the cost seems high for the production of 1.5kg of fresh food of vegetable origin per day, it must be taken into account that to get any type of food, fresh or packaged, it costs $ 60,000 dollars for each kilogram that is sent, this is without considering the logistics and planning expenses that it takes to prepare the crew's food in advance.
Knowing how much it costs to send just one kilogram of food into space can calculate how much it would cost to maintain the diet that cereZ promises to provide. For 2 years of food (equivalent to 1100 kg) of fresh food of vegetable origin (considering the appropriate portions for a balanced diet) it would cost by the daily method 66 million dollars while with cereZ the price to provide the same amount and style of food only costs a maximum of 2.5 million dollars where $ 110,000 is the cost of the necessary modules.
Given that this reduction starts from 96% of expenses and the fact that the current method only provides a certain limited amount of fresh food every 90 days and that in the near future for distant missions will not have access to this food which harms the state of physical and mental health of the crew drastically lowering their performance, this investment is priceless.
Results
The cereZ aerospace concept provides a novel method for life support on deep space missions by incorporating disruptive technologies such as solid rain, a folding system for plant growth chambers, and consideration of foods important for space crew nutrition.
Economic Impacts
The development of the cereZ concept involves the manufacture of the chambers using advanced materials such as aeronautical grade aluminum alloys and polymeric composite materials reinforced with high-modulus fibers, in addition to the control devices and avionics system, the incorporation of irrigation technologies by solid rain, and the inputs and seeds required for plant production. In this order of ideas, taking into consideration the cost of manufacturing the components, together with all the constituents necessary for the operation of the chambers could be considered as a project with an economic impact of moderate investment, however, by incorporating the key concepts, such as solid rain and the definition of foods with high nutritional value and ease of production, the total economic impact of cereZ is reduced and its value and global technological impact is increased.
Space Agency Data
NASA y CSA ASC open-source data
For the development of the cereZ concept, data published by NASA regarding the efforts that the agency has made regarding regenerative life support systems, such as Veggie and APH, were used. Likewise, substantial and substantial information was collected from scientific articles published regarding the state of the art of the evolution of technologies for plant growth in space for hybrid life support systems, as well as from previous designs made for plant growth chambers in space.
Nutritional data from nutritionvalue.org were also used for the establishment of potential plants for space cultivation, as well as information about new agronomic technologies in irrigation that can be significantly used for the development of plants in environments with adverse conditions.
Hackathon Journey
The Space Apps experience is something you can't find anywhere else. It brings together one of the best communities in the world where for one weekend everyone focuses on bettering the world we live in whether it be it through innovation, creativity, art, you name it.
While most of Ctrl+Z already had the Space Apps experience years before, this year was challenging in exciting ways. We've learned how to work in things that aren't our area of expertise. We polished our skills to work as a team and communicate. But if we had to summarize everything that we've learned in just one thing, the thing we definitely learned this year is how to deal with frustration.
The challenge picked was something that really inspired us. The idea of exploring the universe is something everyone loves to think about and when the opportunity to help outreach that even if it was just with ideas that might not go anywhere, we knew that at least we could help explore possibilities on how to get there.
While working on Have Seeds Will Travel we first started brainstorming with the idea of mushrooms and insects as an extra source of food since these provide lots of nutritional value while keeping the volume of production at a minimum. We later dropped that idea since we soon realized that there was little to no research done on the growth of these in outer space. We finally settled on what plants to grow to base out design calculations, that's when we started focusing on the possible prototypes for the system. We made sure to make it so it wouldn't take up the volume until it was necessary and available.
On behalf of Ctrl+Z we would like to thank all our teachers, family members, and friends that helped us throughout the elaboration of this project. Whether it be a recommendation, a suggestion, a meal that you made, or just a meme that you shared to help us deal with the stress. Everything every each one of you did for us helped us more than you can imagine.
And lastly, as a team leader, I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to the team. You guys went far beyond my expectations, worked so hard that most of the time I found myself without anything else to do but supervise. It was an honor to work with you guys.
References
● https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space
● https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
● https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/advanced-plant-habitat.pdf
● https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/living-in-space/eating-in-space.asp
● https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/stem-on-station/ditl_eating/
● https://www.nasa.gov/feature/space-station-20th-food-on-iss/
● https://www.space.com/astronauts-harvest-space-lettuce-veggie-experiment.html
● https://www.space.com/apollo-moon-astronaut-food-artemis-future.html
● Zabel, P., Bamsey, M., Schubert, D., & Tajmar, M. (2016). Review and analysis of over 40 years of space plant growth systems. Life Sciences in Space Research, 10, 1–16.
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space
● https://www.space.com/astronauts-harvest-space-lettuce-veggie-experiment.html
● https://www.britannica.com/science/human-nutrition/Essential-nutrients
● https://www.nutritionvalue.org
● https://www.redagricola.com/pe/fertilizantes-liberacion-lenta-controlada-estabilizados/
● https://www.compo-expert.com/es-MX/grupos-de-productos/fertilizantes-de-liberacion-lenta
● https://lluviasolida.com.mx/#nosotros
● http://agtech.cl/reto-producir-fresas-contenedores-dubai/
● http://www.fao.org/in-action/agronoticias/detail/es/c/508988/
● https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/online/astronaut-life/food-in-space.cfm
● https://wholefully.com/sprouting-101/
● http://somossemilla.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Almacenamiento-de-semillas.pdf
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AblFVyHdbbU
Tags
#hardware, #space travel, #plants,