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

Thu Sep 6 04:14:16 CEST 2012

@paul Supposedly it only works around a peak of 300nm with no effect within
50nm above and below. If you can find cheap leds in that spectrum you will
be a millionaire in the waste water treatment industry they need just under
300nm for uv sterilizers, which is the major power consumer on treatment
plants. Standard is florescent.

@Mate I agree some plants absorb some light more than others, but in
general you need blue and red. There are two basic chlorophyll types, A and
B, and each has a red and blue adsorption peak. A is around 430
(blue/violet) and 660 (deep red) while B is around 460 (blue) and 630 (red).
 http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e24/3.htm Green/yellow is
mostly useless. The thing with leds is they produce a very tight band of
wavelength and plants only respond to a tight band of red/blue so you can
buy led lighting and get screwed. Marine fish tanks get algae blooms with
660nm so I think that would be a good place to start with tests on algae.
Plant growers seem to be using 630nm. But 630's are brighter than 660's of
the same power output so it could just be a power issue.

Here's some info i got on fish tank forum. (They seem to be the only guys
trying to grow algae (marine) with leds, outside of academia behind pay
walls.

"One other interesting result that someone posted was that they were
running a scrubber with an array of 6 3W 660 reds for about 6 months, and
when they added one 455 blue LED to the mix, the growth changed
dramatically, not so much in bulk but in form; the algae 'roots' where it
was attached to the screen/substrate became substantially stronger (harder
to scrape the algae off) and the algae strands thenselves became thicker.
This suggests that the blue component does not so much contribute to
overall growth as it does to some other strengthening factor."

Supposedly a and b are for absorbing light at different times of day.... I
dunno, but I do agree that the field is ripe for hackerspace exploitation.

On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 12:15 PM, Paul Szymkowiak <paulszym+cchs at gmail.com>wrote:

> also in SMT flavours, but  apparently not as bright:
>
>   http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290741652723
>   http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251024873978
>   http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261092332506
>
>
> On 6 September 2012 08:04, Paul Szymkowiak <paulszym+cchs at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> > Also you need UV for vitamin d production which cannot be produced by
>> leds...for now.
>>
>> Would these not be suitable?
>>
>>    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200609595424
>>    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271023896302
>>
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> Paul Szymkowiak
>> gplus.to/paulzee
>> twitter.com/paulzee
>>  <http://twitter.com/smartenergywins>twitter.com/hackmelbourne
>>
>>
>>
>> On 5 September 2012 09:07, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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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