Greenhouse in outer space!

Feed the Future.

Food is one of the greatest necessities for humans, therefore it should be a huge priority.

The Problem

When on an unknown planet, agriculture can be a tough issue. It is especially difficult to farm through different terrain. It might also be difficult because the heavy percipitation every 4 days.

The Solution

The basic information so we chose to do living sustainably in space from the text provided we learned that freshwater is available in patches as there are bodies of water but not just 1 large area full of water. We can assume that there is oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as without containing that we wouldn’t be sent to this planet as oxygen is a necessity for living on any planet. And lastly we know that foreign soil is hard to perform agriculture. Using this information we came up with our problem: How can we optimize the agricultural and settlement infrastructure on this planet? Which led us to our solution: a greenhouse. Thus our final statement if we make an eco friendly greenhouse then,

Scientific Aspect

This list is based on technology which will be available in 2080 and are being researched right now. Nanotechnology such as the one the Iron-Man suit which was shown in Infinity War can help make a structure which can repair itself. This will greatly reduce the need for maintenance and increase the resilience of structure. For example, if there is a hailstorm and there are cracks forming in structure, it can be repaired by itself. This technology is currently being researched at the Beckman institute. In fact, they have discovered regenerative plastic and they expect to be able to create a fully functioning product in the next decade. The majority of the components are likely to be 3D printed. This is because we are unlikely to have access to mining and the resources of the planet upon landing. Carrying materials from earth is also an issue as it takes up precious payload space and weight. This is why it makes sense to generate the parts upon arrival to the planet. The material which will be used for the frame and the main structure is going to be a regenerative carbon-fibre. Carbon fibre is light, strong and also flexible to some degree. Flexibility is important to resist wind as the structure can move slightly to prevent the structure collapsing on itself. Carbon-Fibre is quite expensive. It costs $85000 - $220000 per metric ton. To reduce the cost, we will use garbage from earth to create the main body and the special regenerative plastic to create the fibres which join the textiles together. I am assuming that there is a lot of garbage on Earth as it is in condition to Wall-E.

3D Models

Here is our 3D model of the greenhouse that we want to make. The blue box at the bottom is a water source and there are pipes connected to it. Now those pipes take the water into the dome which waters the crops. The dome will be made of glass so sunlight can enter the dome. Now there are rings outside the dome so if it were to rain the water could enter the rings and could be provided back into the plants. The wind might blow everything away so we also put the rings to hold down the whole structure. The rings are connected to weighted orbs in the ground similar to the Burj Khalifa. For protection from wind the structure is also aerodynamic and is flattened this reduces its profile which Since there is going to be a lot of precipitation we will be able to grow these crops very quickly.

Diagrams

We made many different diagrams in order to show our design process.

Location

There are many factors that have to be considered when placing the greenhouse. The first thing to consider is keeping it by the equator as it would ensure that temperatures would stay high and sunlight would be shone consistently throughout the year. We assumed that, like on Earth, seasons do not affect the equator too much. When putting it near the equator we need to make sure that the temperatures are not too high which would harm our crops. We also need to consider humidity. Not all plants grow too well in very humid conditions. Another factor is water. The areas that are surrounded by bodies of water are known to have more fertile and arable soil that contain many nutrients. It also says that there is a slightly alkaline soil with a ph. level of 7-8. We assumed that this alkaline soil is attributed to having some minerals which naturally raise the ph level. Minerals such as magnesium and lime are associated with higher ph. Soils. The next factor is a higher elevation. The higher elevation has a more nutrient-dense soil. Thus, we placed the greenhouse on top of a hill, around the equator, beside a lake. Before deciding the crops we can use we first need to find out the surroundings. We know that the PH level is between 7-8 which means we won’t be able to grow too many crops. Also we will need to grow them in chalky soil. We need to also consider how cold the environment will be. With this information we should be able to find the crops we are able to bring to plant. Some crops we can grow are tomatoes and potatoes, peppers, and sugar snap peas. These are the first crops we will grow before we get better soil. When we use the machine that crushes water, rocks, and manure it will create great soil capable to grow any crops. .

Technical aspects

When Earth was being revolutionized, there was not much access to electricity and components among those lines. However, with planet Howler, we want it to start off straight with these special technologies. Also, unlike Earth, we want planet Howler to be more sustainable. Since we need some kind of energy to power our system. We decided to stick with wind turbines to generate electricity. We picked this for many reasons, but the main reason is because it is a renewable energy source. It is also great because the criteria told us that planet Howler has heavy wind, which is perfect to powering the turbines.

Possible scenario

Since we know that there are many craters on planet Howler, we can't be sure where we will find the bodies of water. Let's say there is a crater that is deep down. We couldn’t transport the water up my pipes because gravity will not help us. It might also take a lot of energy to transport the water by a pump. So then we decided to make a conveyor belt. An electric powered machine that will transport water to the greenhouse to grow our crops. By making a model of a conveyor it will transport little bits of water and high speeds to push them to other pipes which will be transferred to crops. This machine will crush down materials to make very nice soil. They way how this would work is after a week of setting up our greenhouse we should have lots of rotten food or lots of manure we could use. By crushing rocks, manure/rotten food, and water we can make proper soil to make our crops grow way faster.