[SpaceProgram] Fwd: Space Farmers: LEDs As Key To NASA's Permanent Lunar Life Support - Forbes

[cole santos]

Why use a rotating array? Your plants will quickly outgrow such a small
area. Make sure to use at least 3w leds or you wont get enough canopy
penetration. Also you need UV for vitamin d production which cannot be
produced by leds...for now. Check out plasma lighting, more efficient that
LED. For hydroponics I am working on integrating organic nutrient sources
such as fish effluent, biogas effluent, and human waste products. For space
applications we need aeroponics to reduce total required water volume. To
do aeroponics with organic nutrient sources you need an atomizer
that doesn't clog. Looking into centrifugal atomizers atm. But in reality
food production is a luxury when you can eat chlorella exclusively.
Chlorella is easy to grow and is the most efficient method of co2 removal
and o2 production by volume of area required. Hence my algae reactor
project.

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:

> Some folks at NYC Resistor were working on a growing apparatus using a
> rotating array of leds operating at different wavelengths.
>
> pic of it... behind and to the left ( looking at me ) of my glorious
> visage.
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/openfly/7558683614/
>
> I'd love to see something like a git project setup for space based
> growing testing kits.
>
> Throw in some STL / code / eagle etc for some citizen science style
> testing.... aka repeatable experimentation.  And we have some real
> live testing of procedures for open source scientific research into
> how to grow stuff in hazardous areas safely.
>
> I think that would be a great easy enough project to get into.  And it
> would probably iron out some of the kinks in getting a bunch of people
> to be able to contribute to a much larger goal.
>
> -Matt
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 2:25 PM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have nothing running ATM but I did a lot of monoculture algae work
> when I
> > was in aquaculture program at UH
> >
> >
> http://contrails.iit.edu/DigitalCollection/1962/AMRLTDR62-116article03.pdf
> >
> > This is where I got my ideas.
> >
> > My test reactor is going to be 18" x 24" x .2"
> >
> > Man sized reactor will be 24" x 48" x .2-.09 with ~20 of them in
> parallel.
> >
> > Algae will be extracted via this device.
> >
> > http://www.parc.com/services/focus-area/clean-water/
> >
> > and o2 / co2 / vox will be monitored by sensors on arduino control.
> >
> > Short term plan is to replicate the boeing experiment and adapt for
> longer
> > term production
> >
> > Longer term, utilizing human wastewater as a nutrient supply and
> electricity
> > source with waterwater fuel cells.
> >
> > Each project is part of a larger plan for a compact biological closed
> cycle
> > habitat.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 11:10 AM, Máté Ravasz <ravaszmeister at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I've just started to build up my own algae cultures at home last month.
> >> Seeing your post on how far you've progressed already in this, I
> immediately
> >> became jealous. Would you by any chance have any publicly available
> data on
> >> how your setup runs? I am building a sunlight powered reactor at the
> moment,
> >> but I would be eager to read up on more advanced methods if possible.
> >>
> >> Thanks for any info,
> >> Mat
> >>
> >>
> >> On 4 September 2012 22:48, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> For big area lighting plasma is more efficient than leds.
> >>> http://www.plasma-i.com/index.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:46 AM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> LED's are more expensive than florescents...and that is after order of
> >>>> magnitude reductions in cost over the last few years. I found some
> vendors
> >>>> in china for LED lights. Florescent technology requires bulb changes
> every 6
> >>>> months to a year, this makes it unworkable for space, but good for
> earth
> >>>> testing. LED research on optimal spectrum for algae growth is an open
> >>>> research field. Another problem is the design for my algae reactors
> needs
> >>>> lights that are 360, but leds are about 130 deg. a bi directional
> light
> >>>> would cost a lot more due to custom nature of such a light, another
> option
> >>>> is to just stack 2 lights back to back... but now you've doubled you
> costs
> >>>> and lighting is more that 50% of the total cost.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:25 AM, Jerry Isdale <isdale at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Growing in space requires light. Space stations may be able to orient
> >>>>> themselves for full time growing but Colonies on moons, etc will
> need some
> >>>>> power source for when their rotation takes them into night (moon
> night = 2
> >>>>> weeks).
> >>>>>
> >>>>> This article talks about using LEDs powered from a small nuclear
> power
> >>>>> source, similar to that powering the Curiosity Rover.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2012/08/31/space-farmers-leds-as-key-to-nasas-permanent-lunar-life-support/
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Jerry Isdale
> >>>>> isdale at gmail.com
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
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> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
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