d6

México City | Have seeds will travel!

Awards & Nominations

d6 has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

Herbie System

High-Level Project Summary

This system is based on the principle of monitoring and controlling production through an intelligent system that defines when and in what quantity crops need to be produced to satisfy the nutritional demand of astronauts.It optimizes agricultural production in space through 4 principles:-Deployable systems that save space or have a second storage function - Use of instrumented and digitally controlled micro-ecosystems to optimize production according to the type of plant- Elimination of pumping systems and saving up to 90% of water by using water in a "solid rain" version- Production optimization by drastically reducing plants Hydric Stress during growing time

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaZnpHn-CwuKlsh1dD1UxlQ

Link to Final Project

https://d6makerspace.earth/

Detailed Project Description

Herbie at a glance

Herbie is a closed loop system that is proposed to be used in an integral way with the current NASA’s systems of Sprouting Tables and Germplasm Banks to produce various crops in space. This includes both a software and a hardware part:

Software

Herbie’s brain and soul are printed on a Digital Monitoring and Control System that has two main tasks:

· Definition of the quantity and types of plant to be cultivated to maintain a sufficient stock, based on projections of the nutritional situation of the astronauts and food consumption

· Monitoring and control of the environmental conditions of micro-ecosystems to optimize production by reducing the Water Stress that plants could face under adverse conditions

Hardware

Herbie’s body can be divided into Production and Sensing systems:

Production

· An easy stackable, foldable, hermetic, and compacted sized box that is used to enclosure micro-ecosystems inside it

· Individual mineral substrates that fit inside each foldable box, specially designed to support plant growing with the Herbie System

· A "solid rain" ration sufficient to keep the roots of several batches of plants moist and nourished for more than 2 months, eliminating the usage of high weighted electrical water pumps

Sensing

· Plug and play sensors are located inside the production systems to monitor relative temperature and humidity, light, CO2 concentration, and leaf temperature

· Individual gateways that read each micro-ecosystem conditions and communicate them to the central software

Plug & Crop

Herbie’s working principle is very simple.

Each micro-ecosystem (hermetic box) is initially folded and stored to optimize spaces within a spacecraft. Once it needs to be used, it unfolds in only 2 movements and is ready for sowing.
The next step is to place the mineral substrate and the solid rain, placed in the bottom cavity of the substrate, inside the box.
The last step is to place the portable monitoring kit inside the micro-ecosystem and connect it to an individual gateway with which the identification number of the box and the type of plant to be cultivated will be defined.

At this point, ready sprouts from Sprouting Tables, are transplanted into the micro-ecosystem previously defined and indicated by Herbie's brain and dashboard.

Herbie's variable monitoring and control system will do the rest of the cultivation work, always reading and optimizing the characteristics of the environment and comparing them to each plant type profile so that its growth productivity is always optimal. Any failure in the system, will throw a report to the astronauts for the maintenance of the mirco-ecosystem that does not work properly.

The only job the astronaut will have, at this point, is to observe and enjoy the growth of crops such as lettuce, peppers, kales, and tomatoes and harvest their food once Herbie instructs it!

Why Solid Rain?

Solid Rain is a granular, potassium-based, degradable, non-soluble and non-toxic powder that, when in contact with water, expands and is capable of absorbing up to 400 times its weight in water and turning it into a solution to be able to transport large amounts of water for agricultural use in a compact way.

Using this technology, the plants will tune the humidity according to their needs, ensuring a stable and healthy growth and optimizing the largest consumable in agriculture... water!

Development Tools

To develop this concept, the d6 team used CAD tools (Solidworks and NX), Unity and 3D Max for the development of immersive environments, Final Cut for the creation of videos, and VS Code and React JS for software development.

High Hopes

Our goal, as a team, is to discover new challenges, expand our knowledge and go further with comprehensive solutions.

For this challenge, our hope is to captivate the world with a simple but powerful solution to feed astronauts and perhaps to help with the solution of the problem of world hunger.

Space Agency Data

Data sheets provided by NASA Space App:

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

Some 3D models used for inspiration:

https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models

Videos for research and imagination boost:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRO6bCLN1Dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3uaR0dltQ

Hackathon Journey

D6, for the second year in a row, was able to apply user-centered design and found a fun way to develop ideas, build concepts, and show tangible results.

Our approach is to understand both the explicit and implicit requirements in the challenge to be able to develop functions that present new experiences to users and comply with the metrics of the systems, all this without leaving behind fun and free thought.

We want to thank Isaac Asimov, who with his stories inspired us to understand that the future of humans lies with technology and that our existence in the stars will depend on the use of our creativity.

References

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

https://www.30mhz.com/products/sensors/

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

https://sps.honeywell.com/us/en/products/sensing-and-iot/sensors/humidity-with-temperature-sensors/honeywell-humidicon-hih8000-series

https://www.amcaremed.com/products/german-standard-oxygen-gas-outlets/

https://www.five-oceans.com/products/brass-fuel-hose-barb-14-inches-npt-thread-x-38-inches-hose-crafted-for-fuel-systems-sharp-edged-barbs-for-any-portable-tank-fo-4277

http://amazoniaforestal.blogspot.com/2011/10/germinacion-en-camas-de-almacigo-en.html

https://lluviasolida.com.mx