Development Plan
Donate to Support GADGET
Overview of Plan:
The team will build an aeroponics chamber similar to the one described in the technical concept report. However, it will not contain the MRVE components. The team will also create a sample of MR Fluid.
Total Cost of the Plan:
9359
Feedback
[Post Feedback]
Lisa Spence
Hey Team GADGET!!
This is a fascinating project, in blends several technologies into a practical and much needed concept. You are spot-on with your concern for having a design that takes a small "footprint" for transport. Weight, of course, is always another concern when lofting objects into space -- the use of the polymeric materials is a great answer to this problem.
I hate to admit that I did not read in detail all of the comments that have been posted ... but there are all sorts of benefits to the crew members in having a garden. For one, they get fresh foods!! Long duration astronauts do miss having fresh fruits and veggies in between logistics flights. It is amazing how their moods change. Of course, fresh veggies are also healthy from a nutritional standpoint. We hardly go a day where we don't hear about how some fruit/veggie is high in antioxidants, which helps the body resist damage from all sorts of environmental abuses. The radiation environment on the Lunar surface certainly qualifies!! Finally, having a garden to tend is nourishing to the "soul". Many people find that plants are "relaxing" to them; growing their own food gives people a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
When crew members are isolated from the people they really love, when their world becomes very "small", very small things -- seemingly small to us Earth-bound beings -- become enormous.
SO, Team GADGET --- Press on!! You are doing amazing things, thinking great thoughts!! Get outside of your box, keep getting outside your box, show us all that we don't need a box!!
Lisa Spence; Constellation Program Systems Engineering and Integration
Bill Gardiner
Your project is very interesting to me as the chair of the Breakthrough Science and Technology Track at the National Space Society's 2009 International Space Devlopment Conference (ISDC) in Orlando, Florida (yes, the venue is near "The Mouse") and I would like to invite you all to present your device on our Space Adaptation Syndrome/ Nutritional Countermeasures panel. A central concept of the panel is that the consumption of freshly grown produce will be an essential component of overcoming the adverse health effects of reduced gravity environments. The link to the Conference Call for Papers is http://www.isdc2009.org. The papers must be contributed. i.e., you will need to come at your own expense. Thre is going to be a Space Investment Summit Wednesday, May 27, 2009 where investors and youy may meet. Our panel will be on Saturday, May 30 in the afternoon (the specific schedule hasn't been set yet). William W.("Bill") Gardiner, President, Analytech, A Division of Laboratorey Consulting Sources, Inc.; Southeast Regional Director, National Space Society; MS, Environmental Sciences, Indiana University, 1976; BS,Biological Sciences and Sociology, 1975, Indiana University
David Baxter
Fits the goals of the National Space Society, to settle space. Especially the goals of the NSS Breakthrough Science and Technology Committee.In order for colonization of the solar system to begin, this research will be very helpful. As chairman of the committee, I recommend that the students could contribute to the space adaptation track, at the 2009 International Space Development Conference, in May, in Orlando, Florida.
Sincerely,
J. David Baxter
Chairman
NSS BS7TC
Peter Galea
Interesting project, it is another step in the right direction for the advancement of space exploration.
I apologize if I am not getting this correctly. But, to address Mr. Palmers concerns:
1. It is critical to have a redundant system for the production of oxygen. This system could tap into the any existing infrastructure/ecosystem and provide oxygen production redundancy. So, I am not sure what any objection is?
2. The question of H2O... can be addressed by any of an array of eukaryotic respiratory organisms as well as joining together with existing infrastructure/ecosystem to strengthen the resiliency of the ecosystem as a whole. At a minimum, this would again add an element of ecological redundancy. So, any concerns of previous design similarities (NASA) should be moot; and are in fact validated by Mr. Palmer’s stated concerns.
3. It is my understanding that the students intend to have proper proportions of CO2 and other gases as a part of the chamber when it is taken to the moon. In other words, they are addressing the balance of equations, while considering the current plan as well as the existing infrastructure/ecosystem.:
a. The net process of photosynthesis is described by the following equation: 6CO2 + 6H2O + Light Energy = C6H12O6 + 6O2
b. Respiration is the opposite of photosynthesis, and is described by the equation: C6H12O6+6O2 ----------> 6CO2+6H2O+36ATP
4. By the way, being involved with information technology at this point, it seems obvious to me that adding a "computer component" to an existing design of is no small task.
To be clear, there may be some overlap with existing projects; however, isn’t this always the case in science?
I believe that this is the kind of innovative critical thinking that will allow the US to lead the way in sustainable space inhabitation. The creative process of the youth of America is the key to our current and future success as a country. I personally appreciate the dedication of people like Lynn Zelinski, Physics Teacher and students like Samantha Hopkins and Michael Dzakovich.
Thank you all for your efforts.
Peter Galea, BS Biology, MS Physiology
Managing Director NextGen Networks
Former HS Biology and HS Physics Teacher
Scotty Beamon
This Mr. Palmer is the rude one. Pay no attention to such naysayers. Your project shows excellent ideas and effort. We need more people like you.
Bonnie Foster
Great job Spartans! 5 star quality :-)
Brooke Owens
Great vid! Like watching Bill Nye the science guy or something. Good job breaking it down!
Joshua Neubert
Sounds like your team has been hard at work on the development plan and video. I'm very excited to see this newest iteration of the MRVE technology.
In response to your question you posted over a week ago about adding paragraphs, you can type the following (without any of the "s. The " marks are only there so it isn't rendered by your browser as line breaks).
<"p"> will put a new paragraph into any of your posts. It helps to clean it up a bit.
-Drew from We Miss Pluto
Dear Mr. Palmer,
The answer given in the previous posting was in no way said out of malice, and we apologize. We realize it would be much easier for us to sit down and talk questions through rather than deal with them through internet postings where the limitations of the written language get in the way of our mutual efforts to communicate in dialogue.
Again, we apologize for any response that may have appeared unappreciative of the time and effort you took to post a question, and to post a reply. Thank you for your interest in our project.
Richard Palmer
Your sharp and rude retorts confuse me. I have not said harsh words toward you only some constructive criticism which will you help you when you have a panel of judges asking you probably fairly similar questions. If you want to produce this your going to need to answers these questions. I just do not understand why in your last comment you reply with such rudeness and negativity.
Mr. Palmer,
The cost for this system alone is between $1455-1955. As arbitrary as this may sound, our team came up with a mathematical formula to confirm the accuracy of these numbers. The cost of bringing it to the moon would almost be negligible considering the fact that if and when lunar colonization occurs, large sums of money will need to be appropriated to set the actual colony up. The reason that you cannot just bring food and water from Earth initially is that it will spoil, it take too much room in the Orion capsules that NASA is planning on building, it will not have long term benefits such as constant fresh air, and the lunar colony will not have a strong initial economy.
There is a space limitation on the NASA rockets for what can be transported, and this system limits what NASA will have to transport to the moon. Food may have to be transported to the moon from the earth, because this system is unable to supply key proteins like chicken or beef for the consumption of the lunar colonists. However, the transport of these proteins to the moon only depends on whether the lunar colonists are willing to become "tree-huggers" and go veagen, or are able to domesticate cows and chickens to the point where they can bring cows and chickens to the moon without the worry of having them interfere with the lunar colony equipment. Our business report clearly states how the system not only provides food and air for the colony, but serves as the foundation of a fully functioning lunar economy.
If properly maintained, the system can function indefinitely. It can set itself up or it can be brought anywhere and used to produce food and materials. The system is not limited to lunar colonization, but could be easily adapted to work on Earth.
As this system can maintain itself for over a year, and is completely unaffected by the outside environment of the moon, it can produce any number of plants, crops and materials year round. Thankfully, the weather on the moon doesn't change, and there is no change in season, so we don't even have to worry about when we decide to grow our crops-- so if we want to corn, we don't just have to plant it during the earth's spring time, we can grow it all year round!
Thanks for your question, Mr. Palmer.
Richard Palmer
Will the costs of developing the system and bringing it to the moon out way the cost of devising a shipping system from earth? I don’t see this system being able to function or be able to work until a more affordable quicker shipping system from earth is implemented. And when this system is devised is why I ask my first question. Also if you are going to need to bring water from the earth for the colony you might as well bring up food and supplies? I fail to see how this system will be extremely beneficial. Then again I ask will you be able to set up this system on the moon which will be able to feed a colony year round? And if you’re going to also bring up extra food because your system cannot sustain human life why use two different methods?
Dear Mr. Palmer,
The fact that MRVE Growing Chamber can convert CO2 back into O2 is an additional benefit of having this system. And in order to allow for these plants to survive, we intend to have CO2 and other gases as a part of the chamber when it is taken to the moon. We also intend bring some water. However, this system is not set up on the moon without a purpose. It is meant to create the food to allow for life on a more efficient lunar colony. Life on the colony itself cannot live without water, and the colony will have to figure out how to synthesize the limited amounts of hydrogen on the moon and the copious amounts of oxygen located there into water, or it will simply have to resupply and learn how to recycle water and other fluids. This system will only be set up in anticipation of lunar colonization. With or without the plants, the lunar colonists need water, and as of now, there is no water on the moon so water will need to be supplied there by earth. This is why life is able to sustain itself on earth—there is a ready supply of available for consumption, and there is also more than just basalt around us.
Additionally, as stated in our proposal, we intend to have timed UV lights within the chamber because you cannot expose the plants to the sun on the lunar surface due to the lack of an atmosphere on the moon, and the fact that the moon does rotate and that for two weeks one part of the moon is in the complete darkness. Even on the ISS, a great international innovation, you cannot look out of the windows because you will get sunburned, and this still occurs with the windows that have protection.
Also, it must be realized that this chamber is not simply intended for lunar use—it is also meant for use on earth. Aeroponic growing systems yield larger and more luscious plants, use less water than hydroponic growing systems, and do not require any soil. These are each key benefits in any nation, especially famine stricken ones because we then do not have to worry about the quality of the soil, and only being able to produce one plant until the nutrients in the soil needed to produce that plant are used up.
Richard Palmer
To be quite honest and pose a serious question to you, why do you need to produce so much 02 to recycle the air on any lunar colony or any spaceship when NASA has already invented a device to convert the CO2 expelled from humans back into breathable 02? And then again you may retort with oxygen may and will be lost through this process but then again you really don't need as much as you are planning to produce. Although I do agree if we were to colonize the moon or any planet for that matter it would be beneficial to create a system to produce plants for food. However to conduct photosynthesis you need three key ingredients: sunlight, H2O, and CO2. How do you propose to conduct photosynthesis without H2O? Are you planning to other gases into H2O or simply bring it up there? These questions are key if you want to design a working model.
Mr. Palmer,
If you recall, the material mentioned in last year's competition was self healing, flexible, and perceivable. Combining this with the aeroponics idea makes it an essential to any colony. I did some research on NASA's aeroponic system from '99. That system could not go to the moon completely unaccompanied and set itself up. It did not utilize the pressure gradiant system that the team informed me of which actually speeds up growth. Furthermore, it only had one purpose: to grow plants. This project could be used for algae growth, electrolysis, and numerous other things. The system also recycles the air of a future lunar colony. There are many more advantages to our system, and we'd be happy to share them with you once we figure out how to post them on the web.
Thanks, Team GADGET
Richard Palmer
I hardly agree with James or Ted. Basically, you took your design from last years competition and then took NASA's own aeroponics system they designed in 1999 and added a computer system? Hardly innovative… I would watch out and make sure you don’t plagiarize and call other people's ideas your own.
James Scott
Very nice indeed. Life support is a big issue with any sort of long term space mission, and some new ideas and methods are always a good thing. I look forward to seeing your projected numbers in terms of yield - I suspect that these techniques may have earth side applications.
T. Burgundy
Finally, a plausible idea. I remember the MRVE material from last year and that was a pretty solid concept. Combining that with the sheer efficiency and versatile aspects of Aeroponics is what I would consider to be "innovative."
I still don't fully understand how the MRVE works, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that the science behind it works. I worked with Aeroponics in the 80's and I know first hand how well it works.
The best part is that your system can be applied to pretty much every entry here in one way or another. Especially the groups that want to make photosynthetic Hydrogen and Oxygen or other substances.
I really hope that you use my donation money wisely. Once again, great work and please get back to me on how the MRVE really works.
-Ted Burgundy
Nancy Conrad
This sounds very interesting. Can't wait to see you again. Your logo rocks.
Good Luck
|
|
