High-Level Project Summary
The project is a development of an already existing Veggie system, where we identified its flaws (wicking system, container) and came up with the appropriate solutions (the use of a rigid plastic container and the replacement of the wick system with a piped system). We also added a filtration system at the end of the tank to recycle the contaminated water and use it again for irrigation through a closed filter cycle. In this way we can grow large plants to meet the needs of 4-6 astronauts on a trip to Mars and reduce the amount of water used, and this is the importance of our project.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
How does the system work?
After doing a lot of research, a crop system’s design was reached.
1. Components of the crop system:
- The large container (which contains a number of small containers inside it.
- The container which contains the plant and the soil.
- Filtration system.
2. The system will work as follows:
- The large water container will have a big hole in it that will be connected to the plastic pipes. Each plastic pipe will connect to the large water container and one of the plants’ container. The number of plastic pipes is the same number as the plant container. And The water containers will be above the plant container and at a distance from the plant container
- A syringe will be connected to the plastic pipe’s end that will be connected to the plant container and then the syringe will quickly remove from that end to make it connect to the plant container. The role of the syringe is to remove the air in the pipe and help in the transfer of water from the water container to the plant by the effect of the gravity without stopping.
- After the plant is satisfied with the water it needs, the dirty water that remain in the plant’s root can accumulates under its roots cause its death. So we decided make the container of the plant leaky and have holes at its bottom to pass the dirty water on a filtration system that purifies this water to become suitable for irrigating the plant again.
- Finally, the recycled water will flow inside tubes to reach the small water containers that was above the plants’ containers, then this cycle will be repeated continuously and without interruption.
3. The advantages of the system:
- The system is still simple and does not contain complex materials.
- We can grow large numbers of plants because we have increased the amount of water by enlarging the size of the container and placing more than one container inside it.
- We were able to overcome the problem of the inability to grow large plants because they need a lot of water (which was found in the veggie system). By providing a large amount of water, so we can grow it inside the system.
- We were also able to save water by purifying the dirty water under the roots of the plant and reusing it to irrigate the plant itself.
- It is used anywhere, whether it is an arrival trip or a planet.
The materials we used :-
- plastic containers for water .
- plastic containers for soil and plants .
- plastic tubes and pipes .
- LEDs.
- Filter.
We hope to achieve that :-
- We will calculate the amount of water that we have saved.
- We will determine what kind of plant we will grow in our system.
- Calculate the dimensions of the container.
- We will working on the filtration system more and more to make it more simple and easy to apply .
- We will complete the prototype that we are already working on.
Space Agency Data
1)https://www.nasa.gov/feature/astronauts-harvest-radish-crop-on-international-space-station/
This link helped us study the APH system, and this helped us determine the system that we can modify on.
2)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3uaR0dltQ&list=PL37Yhb2zout05pUjr7OoRFpTNroq_wd9f&index=9
This link helped us to know the challenge "Have seeds will travel !!" more and also the important points that must be found in our project
5)https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space
6)https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
These links help us to learn more about the Veggie system, and through it we found the defects and advantages of this system.
7)http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/AEN/AEN157/AEN157.pdf
This link helped us find the defects of the container, and by identifying the defects, we were able to think about treating them
Hackathon Journey
Our experience in NASA space applications was really great and very beneficial for all of us. We have learned many valuable skills such as the skill of scientific research and how to solve problems in a correct scientific way. We have also learned how to work in a team and cooperate to produce the best results. And we chose this challenge specifically because we have a passion in the field of space cultivation and plants, and we have read all the challenges and found that this challenge is the best for us and we can do it better without the rest of the challenges. Our approach in finding a solution to this project is to follow the steps of scientific research to obtain the best guaranteed scientific results. The team was able to overcome the difficulties we encountered during the work by dividing the tasks on us and then discussing them later, and we worked as an organized team to reach the best solutions. Finally, we want to thank the organizers of the competition for allowing us to have this wonderful experience
References
1) https://www.nasa.gov/feature/astronauts-harvest-radish-crop-on-international-space-station/
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3uaR0dltQ&list=PL37Yhb2zout05pUjr7OoRFpTNroq_wd9f&index=9
5) https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space
6) https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/veggie_fact_sheet_508.pdf
Tags
#Have_seeds_will_travel, #space, #plants
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.