https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTlB6V6RjCdnPKOy_51ESpPU1cdIMGuAhic-fKdh5sJ76-bS2tHdxEuj_Av-thtZDDQR_vomGDNOmKP/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=10000

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTlB6V6RjCdnPKOy_51ESpPU1cdIMGuAhic-fKdh5sJ76-bS2tHdxEuj_Av-thtZDDQR_vomGDNOmKP/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=10000

Project S.E.E.D - Growing Solutions for Humanity

It takes more than a few seeds to feed a crew. Those seeds need to grow, be nurtured and be able to produce more seed to continue to grow more plants. Hence, the whole plant growing eco-system had to be envisaged and include the crew as an important part of the overall process. Our reasoning came down to the question about why we should waste valuable space on a spaceship with storing pre-packaged food that would lose its nutrient value before the mission was even half way complete.

We say forget pre-packaged. Grow Fresh from the beginning of the mission.

Mission pre-planning would help matters enormously, even for missions that became more ambitious than just Mars. Begin the mission with a wide variety of fresh growing produce, and maintain the greenhouse all throughout.

Main Benefits:

1. Crew always have fresh produce becoming available on a cycle that supports their needs.
2. When at a planetary destination, they have the starting kit ready to deploy and produce fresh produce within the new colony. Propagating new seedlings just before descent so that a quick start may be obtained.
3. The full eco-cycle is maintained to refresh crew air supply, utilise crew and other waste streams (instead of storing such waste) and assisting with water resource recycling and filtration.

The solution described does not subscribe to the cramped zero gravity environs of current space vehicles. Instead, it urges the creation of artificial gravity and for spacecraft to be implemented on such a scale that crew numbers larger than six members are easily accommodated. With the general aims being colonisation, then our solution should scale to such larger ventures.

The System

The system is an automated greenhouse that mostly attends to itself, coombined with a bio-digester, water-sanitiser and filtration system, utilising the water storage around the greenhouse for radiation shielding. Outer wall construction is expected to be a multi-layered approach that is used for high altitude aircraft at present. Water (and hence closer to hydrogen) is teh innermost layer of such protection.

The Bio-Digester

Human activity always seems to produce waste of one form or another. Whether from natural body functions, from cooking and preparing meals, or managing the various tasks, there will always be a waste management issue to deal with. By making it inclusive to the project, we utilise that waste to produce substances that will be useful to the crew and the systems that support them.

Waste material put into the digester is fermented by microbial organisms that will break down any organic matter that is introduced. The process is also capable of consuming a variety of organic toxins, thus rendering them harmless. The outputs from the digestion process ate a Methane gas (with some CO2 and H2S which can be filtered out), and a rich humic compost that provides a good fertile medium for growing plants of all sorts (including root vegetables etc.). Storing the Methane for a short while will allow its use for electrical energy generation in a fuel cell. The small amount of process water that emerges can be collected, sanitised and filtered and reenter the water supply and storage system. UV-C sanitisation is very effective at killing off all remaining bacteria and microorganisms, although a small injection of Chlorine could also be considered.

Inside the Greenhouse

The Greenhouse is managed by robotics, programmed to plant, tend and harvest the produce.Plants are grown in trays to minimise transfer of diseases amongst the plants. Systems monitoring the growth of each individual plant ensure it has the right quantity of light, water and nutrients for maximising plant productivity and taste. The lighting colour regime is keyed to maximise plant development, reportedly making plants up to ten times more prolific in their growth.

The standardised elements in the greenhouse will allow high stacking and length extension as suits an installation. If stacked, additional robotic systems will assist in collecting produce and managing growing pans.

With respect to the types of plants, the system will be able to cope, with adaptations as required, with raising spliced plant or dwarf varieties, in a wide enough range of plants to provide all the elemental dietary needs of the crew. Even if some of the plantings are grown in an aquaponic regime.

Additional considerations for produce could include Algae and Fish in conjunction with the Aquaponics. What is grown, thought, will have to provide all that the crew need by way of nutritional elements.

Dietary Provision

Humans, it has been determined, require approximately 2.5kg of food per day. Such food should provide at least the following:-

25% * 2 kg = 500 grams of fruit/vegetable. (fast carb energy moderated by soluble fiber)

25% * 2 kg = 500 grams of cereal/bread/potato. (insoluble fiber bulk)

20% * 2 kg = 400 grams of dairy/meat. (protein energy for repair)

20% * 2 kg = 400 ml of water. (hydration)*

10% * 2 kg = 200 grams of oil/fat. (slow carb energy and lubrication)**

Considering the challenge parameters, as stated, then that requires approximately 1400kg of food per person for just the journey to Mars and back. That is regardless of mission time on the surface. A mass that would have to be flown to space from Earth if they were going to do most of it prepackaged. It can be seen why the need to consider a compact means of providing some fresh produce. For a crew of six, that is 8400kg, and such pre-packed food is not able to maintain the vitamin intake needs as those aspects degrade with increasing storage time.

Hence, the need to grow as much of the food the crew will need from the beginning of the mission, even if the initial start of mission is in Earth orbit while the greenhouse is established and plants begin to come ready for harvest before the crew depart for their destination. Additionally, at no significant increase in initial mass, the eventual colony base can be established with a prepared starter greenhouse that can be deployed after initial landing, and good support remains in orbit above the planet to provide back-up until the colony is stable and settled.

Earthly Benefits

There are already a number of partial solutions around the globe, but most of them fail to consider the full cycle of the ecological environment they exist in. Our solution can be packaged and implemented anywhere. A kit of components that can easily be assembled and operated wherever a local food need arises. That it can also deal with and make use of waste stream inputs helps provide an all-in-one solution to improving our environment and feeding many more mouths from local supply. This integrated approach could help feed the hungry of the world no matter where they are.

NASA Information on the various aspects that are teh subject of this challenge are surprisingly sparse, being confined to some small scale zero gravity experiments within very confined spaces. The world at large has, over the past few years, seemed to have started a burgeoning industry in the establishment of vertical farms. Our idea is more aligned to those aspects and will make its own demands of spacecraft design and development.

NASA's Growing Plants in Space <https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space>

Knowing that we had matters of needing to protect plants and crew from the radiation found in space, we explored the literature that NASA produced on the subject. However, there is also a wealth of information from commercial and research Nuclear Power facilities in both Fission and Fusion regarding such protection. Additionally, aerospace engineering has some other useful information about shielding material selection.

NASA's information about protecting crew from radiation while in space. <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-

from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays>

Papers about growing food in space.

<https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/food-production/growing-healthy-food-in

-space-and-remote-areas.asp>

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

Looking at the future this planet is going to face, it seemed that the means to get self sustainable spacecraft that would support a crew no matter how long their space journey might be posed some interesting challenges. Food supply is just one aspect, but we realised that we would also need to close up the ecological cycle to also minimise wasting valuable resources.

For the longer journeys there is no possibility to get a quick delivery of anything if you are already a few million kilometers from Earth.

We also realised that the construction of spacecraft would need to lean towards making much larger vessels. Vessels that could create artificial gravity and be able to carry hundreds if not thousands of crew. Hence we realised that whatever we came up with would have to be easily scalable and modular in a kind of step and repeat pattern of coming together. Such approaches would also help on Earth in almost every country, cutting food-miles by our produce and perhaps even reducing food waste.

The work of Klorane Botanical Foundation <https://www.kloranebotanical.foundation/en>

FarmBot - Robotic Agriculture <https://farm.bot/>

Vertical Farming - 10 times as prolific! <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming>

Anaerobic Digestion in Developing Countries. <https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/eawag/islandora/object/eawag%3A10842/datastream

/PDF/V%C3%B6geli-2014-Anaerobic_digestion_of_biowaste_in-%

28published_version%29.pdf>

Protection from Radiation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uc1VXL3Q7g>

#SpaceApps ##SpaceFood

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