sPlant

Guadalajara, Jalisco | Have seeds will travel!

PlantG of sPlant

High-Level Project Summary

PlantG is a design of a deployable crop production system, consisting of two units with 5 different growth chambers to grow 5 species with a high nutritional value. The design has an optimized system, utilising the PHARMER and adding a self-learning AI, to have controlled environmental conditions, keeping in mind that this system would be truly functional with two different time production cycles, to ensure freshness. Astronauts living in the International Space Station must consume fresh food every few months, to allow the crew members to stay healthy and happy, this design would provide fresh vegetables to the crew in long-duration mission without the need to resupply food,

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nq0gNVRI0RHohani-ldhkyOIcutXLHVc?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15PIxb1KDEO9wnN82OwIWFVT2oC7UCGNC/view?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

The design of a supplementary, autonomous and deployable crop production system, that would allow the production of five different plant species individually while optimizing the space in the spacecraft by utilising the previous space that was dedicated to food storage, and at the same, providing the crew the nutrients that they would require during the return of the long-duration missions. The design is inspired by the two current crop systems; the VEGGIE system and the Advanced Plant Habitat already has. Our solution seeks to optimize the existing systems.


This design will have different sensors to control the environment condition of each chamber for each different species, in addition it has a unfoldable form that will not take a lot of space during the arrival flight mission, and can reuse the carbon dioxide that the crew produce while producing new oxygen. One factor we considered while designing, is that it must be made from the same materials as Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat has, due to the effectiveness of preventing radiation and the provable control conditions that they can deliver.


Plant specification


  • Biofortified seeds
  • Specifically design for: soybean sprouts, baby carrots, cherry tomato, celery and chinese cabbage.
  • The species selected have a high nutrional value of vitamin C and antioxidants.
  • The system would have to daily produce 285 g of food per person.
  • Two different production time cycles, to have fresh vegetables and avoid food waste.


Operating system


  • Improve the current PHARMER system by adding a small Artificial Intelligence, preloaded with the information retrieved from PHARMER and Veg-01, with the ability to self-learn, and store all the information that will be collected during the long duration trips. 


Design

The size of the system would be divided in two units one of 65 x 60 x 40 cm (Images) and of 20 x 60 x 40 cm when folded, the second one 100 x 60 x 55 cm (Images) and of 30 x 60 x 55 cm when folded.



  1. Unit 1: This unit of the system is the larger one, designed to be able to crop three different species; celery, tomato cherry and soy bean, consisting of three different chambers glued together that can fold, but with unfoldable parts that would store the thermostat, the air filter system and the fluid interference and the humidity sensors.
  2. Unit 2: This unit of the system is the smaller one, designed to be able to crop two different species; baby carrots and chinese cabbage, consisting of two different chambers glued together that can fold, but with unfoldable parts that would store the thermostat, the air filter system and the fluid interference and the humidity sensors.



  • Each plant pillow would have different dimensions according to the growth dimensions of each plant.
  • When the units would deployed inside of the spacecraft or space station they would be basically floating because or the lack or gravity, that is why and the end of each unit, at the base of the chamber 1, they would be retractable and thin Kevlar cables that hook into the ground, and allow the production system to have more stability and less movement.


Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EeRNUdSUQuNid3838BhQ3Uc758C9wx5g?usp=sharing


Future perspectives


  • This concept design can be easily implemented inside a permanent surface greenhouse facility in a celestial body, either in Mars or on the Moon, keeping in mind the necessities in a future perspective. This can allow for different researches, such as acclimatization of martian soil for the selected plant species, due to the recent analysis of the nitrogen rich soil that Mars have, among other.
  • We implementing a modified PHARMERS software system with a self-learning AI, the knowledge gained can help to create a database platform for different research investigations and new cultivation conditions to be applied here on Earth.

Space Agency Data

The information of the current crop systems where retrieved from:




Hackathon Journey

Hi! We are Natalia Frías, Fatima Hernández and Valeria López, and we form part of sPlant. 


We choose the challenge: Have seeds will travel! We decided on this dare because having a healthy and sustainable lifestyle it’s difficult, especially in remote and arid areas on the Earth, and moreover in space. Eating nutritious food can be a privilege and this solution could provide a way to make it more accessible to others. 


Our solution is called PlantG and is a supplementary, autonomous and deployable crop production system that would allow the production of five different plant species inside an individual growth chamber while optimizing the inside space. It emulates a drop-down shelf, attached to the ceiling of the spacecraft or space station; the system would be folded on itself. The design is a two units system that would consist of two or three chambers or blocks glued together.


Our overall experience was like a very intense final project from our university, we established work cycles with specific tasks for every member of the team, so we have a very fair work environment.


The most challenging thing was to keep it cool, there was a lot of information to investigate, so we had to prioritize what was most important, and sometimes, we felt that we were moving really slow and didn’t deliver everything that was asked of us.


We are most thankful for our family, who were very supportive during our 48 hrs challenge.

References

Tags

#design #cropsystem #spacecrop #AI #PHARMER #deployable #biofortifiedseeds

Global Judging

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

Have seeds will travel!

A viable food system for long-duration exploration missions does not yet exist, but it will be necessary to maintain crew health and performance. Your challenge is to design a deployable crop production system capable of supporting the nutritional requirements of a crew of 4-6 on a transit mission to Mars and back to Earth.