| Astroculture Research Projects |
AA Institute studies plant growth in a simulated "alien" planetary environment.
Article posted: February, 2003 Copyright © 2004 Abdul Ahad. All rights reserved. 
Imagine... that in a 100 years from now we have the engineering capability and the political will to venture out and build permanently habitable settlements on other planets within our own solar system. What kinds of foods can we potentially grow under artificial conditions on the hostile, low sunlight, extremely cold and icy surfaces of a planet like Mars or on one of the large outer solar system moons like Titan or Triton? To go a little way towards answering this question first hand - without simply taking the "scientists" word for it - I have spent the past several months developing a small, enclosed Astroculture research facility to evaluate plant growth experiments! New research facility with significant automation My research "hab" is still at an early phase of its development and currently has 50 square feet of floor space to enable multiple experiments to be conducted at the same time with a range of separate seed trays. Power is supplied to the facility via a 240-volt AC external lead directly from a mains supply. Inside, sunlight is simulated using three separate 60 watt light bulbs that also generate sufficient heat to counter the sub-zero temperatures of a typical British winter. The combined light output of 180 watts will hopefully be sufficient for photosynthesis to take place to allow full-cycle, ecologically balanced, plant development. The intensity of 'full spectrum' sunlight (averaging 550 nanometres wavelength) at the Earth's surface is roughly 1000 watts per sq. metre in most latitudes. So, my experiment will not simulate the full intensity or spectrum ranges for natural sunlight, as the artificial lights used will be more blue-shifted in output and provide less intensity, but then not all of the incident sunlight is necessarily fully utilised by plants. The length of a 12-hour "day" on the simulated "planetary" surface, when solar lighting and heating will be provided to the growing plants, is controlled by an automatic timer that switches the power ON at local "sunrise" and OFF at local "sunset". I can monitor temperatures inside the facility and keep an eye on the local "planetary" environment from inside the comfort of my own home via remotely transmitted temperature information directly from the "planet's surface"! This is achieved using a remote, wireless temperature sensor permanently stationed "on the planet", which continuously samples the local air temperature and relays a signal to my "mission control" base unit here "on Earth" (i.e. at home) once every 30 seconds on a radio frequency of 433 MHz. Early results from my facility's operation are encouraging. The recent snowfalls experienced in January and February caused the external air tempeartures to fall well below freezing to -6 degrees C overnight...yet the internal, artificially heated environment of my Astroculture research facility never registered a fall below +1 degree C. 
A simplified diagram showing the workings of a 'Controlled Ecological Life Support System' (CELSS) First experiments well under way... I have set up two experiments initially and I will be posting images of the "plant colony's" growth progress in the coming weeks on the usual AA Institute photo website. Credits and Acknowledgments I wish to extend my appreciation here to a distinguished friend and colleague without whose input this project would have been difficult to initiate. Dr. "Smith" of Agent Smith Space Administration (ASSA) provided extensive technology support and advice, esp. in the field of remote sensing and automation solutions - without which this project would be impossible to manage on an ongoing basis in the sub-zero temperatures of a British winter. Astroculture Research main page Copyright © 2003 Abdul Ahad. All rights reserved.
|
|
|