Elementary Roots

Campinas, São Paulo | Have seeds will travel!

The SpaceGreenhouse using origami engineering

High-Level Project Summary

The greenhouse was developed to be a viable solution for growing food in any type of environment. The structure was made in the form of individual modules, that is, each floor has its own pH, temperature, air humidity and light sensors, in addition to three valves to control the levels of CO2, O2 and carry out the gas exchange. Furthermore, the modules fit together, being able to be stacked and connected like a beehive and, consequently, requiring less space. Plants grown in the greenhouse can provide supplementary food for supplying vitamins and nutrients deficits for the crew.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://elementaryroots.earth/demo

Link to Final Project

https://elementaryroots.earth/

Detailed Project Description

OBS: The final project link contain demo, validation and a copy of the video, mirror athttps://elementary-roots-website.vercel.app/

The project consists of a smart, mobile and compact greenhouse which aims to be the ideal place for planting vegetables in hostile environments, to supply the need for vitamins and nutrients in food, or even being the main source of food. The greenhouse will be almost entirely automated (except for planting and harvesting even be the main source of food and organized as follows:

1.Structure

The greenhouse will be formed by 3 individual regular hexagonal modules which your structure is inspired by origami [1] made of 3D printer filament(module measurements in the image below). This shape allow to sustain bigger mass than the module. The greenhouse can be used as single module and can be assembled with anothers forming like a tower or a beehive structure.

The most adequate amount of modules for the space mission (4-6 crew members) is between 3 - 5 modules, because each planted area can provide 10 crops.

*Greenhouse organized like a beehive structure.

*Greenhouse organized like a tower.

The main caractheristc is that the module can be folded to a rest position resulting in a easier way to transport and storage it.

*Compacted form

Besides having a dome made of Hydrogenous Polymer-Regolith[2] and silica aerogel[3] for protection against galactic and sun radiation respectively. In relation to the individual modules, there will be a specially area for a layer of hydrogel mixed with arcillite, a layer of earth and 7.5g/L Nutricote[4]. The plate will transport water by pressure to the hydrogel and arcillite mixture, chosen due to the high absorbent capacity of both materials, which would facilitate the long-term supply of water and nutrients to the soil and plant roots.

*Polymer used for the protection.

*Greenhouse organized like a tower using the protection dome

2.AUTOMATIC PART

Each floor of the greenhouse has its own sensors in order to inform the crew of its status, in addition to letting its operation automatically, with the respective actuators; pH sensor - notifies crew members when to add fertilizer; temperature sensor - controls a resistor to heat up; light sensor - adjusts the brightness of LEDs; CO2 and O2 sensor - controls the valve connected to two tanks with the respective gases.

3.Lighting

Each module will have a row of RGB led strip in order to have the level of lighting and color necessary for the ideal growth of the plant.

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We chose to use these plants because in addition to having good nutritional benefits, they do not grow very long and the period for harvesting is short, making them ideal for quick consumption.

The pepper[5] (which was already used by NASA on previous missions), in addition to being rich in vitamins and minerals, has a psychological benefit, as it helps to enhance the taste of food, which is a problem for astronauts because microgravity causes congestion in the taste buds, changing their sensitivity and changing the taste of foods[6]. In this way, pepper helps to improve the taste, providing greater well-being for the crew and, consequently, better mental health. All the plants chosen where also used in others NASA researches.

Everything was based on the Nasa's Space Nutrition[7], which we selected some plants and putted yours following nutritients:

**Nutrition facts[8]

Source code: https://github.com/SirMonteiro/Elementary-Roots

Space Agency Data

NASA's data was used for several aspects of our project, such as finding the most efficient combination of soil and hydrogel, thus obtaining the best efficiency for the production of plants for the ingestion of the crew, the data were also used to choose the most suitable materials to be used in the greenhouse and which plants would be used.

Hackathon Journey

Participating in Hackathon was a challenging and unique experience, because is not easy to develop an entire project in just two days, but for sure it was a inspiring thing to do and we learned a lot (such as how to develop a prototype, cooperative work under short deadlines, etc.) with the Hackathon journey. Our group really enjoyed the whole proposal, once we already had prior knowledge on the topic of the challenge and we all fell that Hackathon changed our lives for the better. The mentors were very attentive and helpful, solving all the team's doubts and motivating us to improve the project even more.