High-Level Project Summary
We develop an incubator for plants, which is divided into 3 parts, the first of these being a mechanism, which maintains the water at a temperature that prevents it from freezing and evaporating given the space conditions, subsequently the water is conducted to a mechanism which heats the water, this leaves through a grid system towards the section where we find the crops. In the second part, which corresponds to a device which through the use of specialized fans absorbs the CO2 emitted by the human , so that the plants process it in their organisms, and through chemical processes transform it into O2 that is purified. Finally, we have the structure, which is of metal and a resistant polymer
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
"The only way to do a good job is to love what you do"; by Steve Jobs.
This phrase from Mr. Steve Jobs is something that is very important to take into account for us, a couple of CEDHORI students, whose ages do not exceed 16 years. How did we find out about this hackathon?, Our parents, who They know that it has always been our dream to be able to do a job for an institution as important as NASA, they gave us the advice to enter and try to create the next idea that changes the life of humanity.
Did you know that? "Around the world, over 820 million - one in nine of the world’s population - are still chronically undernourished. Among children, more than one in five is stunted "(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019).
This is a completely worrying fact, and this has been one of our motivations to choose the challenge of "Have seeds will travel!", Since this consists of creating a new concept of crops that can not only be implemented in space missions, but at the same time it can benefit this large number of people, who cannot have a good diet or whose conditions in which they live are so adverse that they do not allow a traditional farming system. It is for this reason that we have created the following innovation in high-yield agriculture, almost completely autonomous and with little human intervention, both to prevent crops from becoming contaminated, and to be able to allow a person who has almost no time or who never had time had seeded can use it.
We develop an incubator for plants, will use the energy from the spacecarft, for here in the Earth there could be a variant with solar panels, and wich is divided into 3 parts, the first of these being a mechanism, which maintains the water at a temperature that prevents it from freezing and evaporating given the space conditions, subsequently the water is conducted to a mechanism which heats the water, so that steam is generated and this leaves through a grid system towards the section where we find the crops, later the steam that comes out of this mechanism condenses generating an irrigation system, which eliminates the water excess through conduits that go directly to a purifier in order to return it to the main water container,because if it’s not purified it will be exposed to contaminants, repeating the cycle again and again.
In the second part, which corresponds to a device which through the use of specialized fans absorbs the CO2 emitted by the human , so that the plants process it in their organisms and through chemical processes transform it into O2 that is subsequently purified, and expelled to the area where the crew is located, so then the cycle is constantly repeated and with purpose of having a sustainable source of oxygen.
Finally, we have the structure that will be made of metal that recive a process with Ultra High Temperature Ceramics(UHTC), in order to resist the heat (Dunbar, 2008). It will also have a compartment for the soil is separated from the water tank, and there will be a panel of a special biodegradable polymer, that will have holes with enough space for 36 plants of lettuce (may vary depending on the crop), for this reason the structure will be of a measure of 9.05 inches wide, 43.31 inches long and 47.24 inches high, the usable space will be 3.54 inches wide, 37.80 inches long and approximately 36.22 inches high, this taking into account all the frames that will be 2.76 inches wide, this for greater solidity of the incubator and also to include an easily accessible wiring inside. For a better support of the plant it is considered to install ultraviolet lights that facilitate its growth, it will also have two panels of the same polymer that is based on polyethylene and called RXF1 that is material that the NASA is going to use on spacecraft (NASA, 2005), so that the growth and health of the plants can be controlled, the panel above has a chain of sensors specialized in measuring temperature of the water,air and of the plants, CO2, O2, Ph of the soil, moisture, light sensor and of the fans in order to see if they are well. See our model and diagram of the concept:
Among the main benefits are that it is a self-sustaining system, since with a single recharge of water is enough, because as we explained earlier, one quality is the water that is not used is filtered and purified again, to that can be reused. The other advantage in relation to self-sustainability, by making use of one of the basic processes of plants that through photosynthesis, converts our carbon dioxide into oxygen, so that with this the plants benefit from the CO2 of the astronauts, and they from the purified O2 of the plants. The last most important advantage is that as our name says, everything is about being as "green" as possible, and that is why the idea is to use biodegradable polymers that are no longer useful but here in the Earth, but that they are resistant, in order to give them a second life, with a greater positive "impact" for humanity.
What we hope to do with our project is to improve the lives of astronauts, find a better diet for them, in their future missions to Mars, and not depend on packaged food, which does not always retain its properties, but not only that, we also want people who live in countries with the most adverse conditions to also be able to grow their food in an economical, ecological, and safe way.
In our project, the necessary hardware would be all the components that we are going to use, such as air, water and plant temperature sensors, CO2 and O2 meters, soil pH meters, humidity sensors, ultraviolet light sensors, and controllers for fans, apart from a display to see the information and air and water purifier.The software that the incubator uses would be the Arduino Uno R3 microprocessor and by choosing this microprocessor it would need a C ++ code, which is a relatively easy code to use and configure.
Space Agency Data
For our project, the first resource used was the video of "Have seeds will Travel", because without this resource we did not know what NASA and the other space agencies really wanted. We also used the Veggie resource, to see how we could modify the existing fields something a little more similar to a nursery on our planet, but which is almost completely sterilized, to ensure a better quality of the concept. We use the advanced plant habitat resource, but as we already mentioned, we have modified the design a bit so that everything is more similar to the earth, since all the parameters such as the pH of the earth, humidity, light, Oxygen and carbon dioxide, can be modified to adapt them to the needs of the crops to be planted. Furthermore, being almost completely sterilized, it prevents food from being contaminated. And finally we use the resource of how to grow plants in space, to know what challenges this has and how we can "combat" them in order to guarantee the safety of astronauts and plants.
As we have mentioned, all the information we used was to base ourselves on something that already existed, in order to create a new concept, which was realistic and not something that sounds like science fiction, in addition to serving as the basis for be able to implement most of the sensors and how we could improve something, so that it can better simulate what life would be like on Earth, for a plant, since our automatic irrigation system makes the evaporated water condense and generate drops In the upper part, which would simulate the rain and dew that plants generally recive here on Earth, in addition to being almost completely isolated, it allows them to grow in a way that can simulate the crops that we have here on Earth. Where farmers sometimes use a kind of awning to isolate their crops from pests and avoid adeversity, the same happens with our encapsulation, using it as much as in space, as on Earth or in Mars.
Hackathon Journey
Our experience at the hackathon has been wonderful, we have had an incredible time, although it is true that it is not an easy challenge, it has not been a reason for stress or anguish, rather it has been a great opportunity to improve friendship and develop better in activities that are demanding and require that we can work with people who share our ideas but who at the same time help us improve.
Our question would rather be, what have we not learned ?, and is that this challenge has opened us new knowledge, such as creating 3D models, in programs like tinkercad, we also learned to create web pages in sites like Wix, we learned a lot about the "Project Veggie" of the NASA , and also how to grow plants on the space.
Investigating the needs of the astronaut, we realized how excessively, expensive and complex the mobilization of food and oxygen for cosmonauts is, even more, in the most complicated and long-lasting missions, such as those of Mars, for this reason, we gave ourselves the task of creating a new concept that allows us to have a self-sustaining food source, such as our plant incubators.
Our main focus was, is and will be sustainability, and being as ecological as possible, as we can see, these approaches are extremely important, since we are currently seeing serious environmental problems, due to high pollution and little reuse of materials.
Our mentality to solve the challenges was always very serious, we knew that this was not a game, so we were always giving our best, we resolved them calmly by reading well the questions, and knowing that we had to do it in a compelling and realistic way.
First, if we had to thank someone, it would be the global organizers of NASA Spaceappschallege, for giving the opportunity for ordinary people to try to solve such complex and interesting problems. Second, we thank our parents, because without their authorization we could not have participated in this great project. And finally to the mentors, but especially to the mentor Johel Barrios, who guided us in a great way on how we could improve our 3D digital prototype and also showing us the pros and cons of our idea, but nevertheless we also will thank to Leo Camacho and Ricardo Quesada who, with their live videos, allowed us to evacuate our doubts before starting the hackathon, and also during the challenge.
References
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2019). Transforming The World Trough Food And Agriculture. Estadistico, FAO. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from: http://www.fao.org/3/ca5299en/ca5299en.pdf
NASA. (2005, August 25). Science at NASA. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://ciencia.nasa.gov/science-at-nasa/2005/25aug_plasticspaceships
Dunbar, J. D. (2008, March 29). Ames Research Center. (J. Dino, Editor, & B. Dunbar, Producer) Retrieved October 3, 2021, from Thermal protection system and materials (TPS): https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/spanish/research/humaninspace/humansinspace-thermalprotec.html
Administration, N. A. (2017). Advanced Plant Habitat. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from NASAfacts: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/advanced-plant-habitat.pdf
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2020). NASA Facts. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from Veggie: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
Dunbar, A. H. (2021, July 12). NASA Exploration Research and Technology. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from Growing Plants in Space: https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space
[NASA Space Apps Challenge]( 2021, September 8). Have Seeds Will Travel! | NASA Space Apps Challenge.
Tinkercad. (2021). AutodeskTinkercad. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.tinkercad.com/
Wix. (2006-2021). My Stunning Websites. Retrieved el 3 de October de 2021, de https://es.wix.com/mystunningwebsites/domain?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=paid_referral&utm_campaign=af_41%40dailytechnics.com%2F&experiment_id=cake_92312063%5E20
Tags
#Hardward #Sustainable #Haveseedswilltravel! #SpaceappschallegeCostaRica
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.