RESEARCH TOPICS

In the research part we focused mainly on the four topics, that were relevant for our project development and what is our actual goal on a one year mission: greenhouse, integration of an aquaponics system, energy and mobility in the cave and water walls life support system implementation.

01 Greenhouse

Plants can play a significant role in the biological life support system (BLSS) in future journeys to space (Meggs, 2010). In the late 20th century, several experiments were done regarding agriculture in space; since plants grown in space will not only be able to substitute food carried from Earth and save weight in the spaceship but will also provide a refreshing atmosphere in the Space Cabin, as they scrub the Carbon Dioxide in the air and produce Oxygen. Studies also showed that plants can help lower humidity levels in the cabin. In addition, growing and caring for a garden will contribute to the physiological well-being of astronauts that are away from home (Ivanova, 1997). Providing light for the plants to grow is also incredibly challenging. The moon stays dark for a period of 14.8 days (about 2 weeks) and follows it 14.8 days (about 2 weeks) of successive light. A hybrid illumination system can collect natural light on sunny days and use LED technologies to provide light on days of successive darkness. The two systems should work coordinatively but not be fully dependent. In addition, the moon has an atmosphere composed of 0 CO2. Gases like Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, and carbon dioxide must be produced artificially in the lunar base. Other challenges include thermal control and Air management.

02 Aquaponics

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. In aquaponics, fish and plants are reared together in one integrated, soilless. The fish waste which is an output of the fish food being eaten by fishes provides a food source for the plants and the plants provide a natural filter for the water the fish live in. aquaponics produces safe, fresh, organic fish and vegetables. When aquaponics is combined with a controlled environment greenhouse, quality crops can be grown for few months. Our prototype consists of an inflatable, transportable greenhouse that will help with plant and crop production for nourishment, air rejuvenation, water recycling, and trash recycling. This is referred to as a bioregenerative life support system

Aquaponics system

Source: NemecR, Production Aquaponik-Farm Brno, 18.05.2021, wikicommons

03 Caves And Equipment

The moon is made up of old basaltic lava flows and the lunar caves are borne from volcanoes, having extremely favourable environmental conditions for human. Choosing the Marius Hills pit that is around 80 m deep, with 65 m diameter, discovered by Japanaese SELENE/ Kaguya Terrain Camera, we had to think about how are we going to bring our habitat into life.

03.01 - ENERGY

We need robots to drill in a cave, or even robots to move and carry cargo, so NASA developed wireless charging solutions for robots on the Moon as part of NASA ‘Tipping Point’ project with WiBotic‘s technology. Solar panels are less feasible when the sun is not shining, and the lunar night on the Moon can last up to 14 days. The goal is to develop a lunar wireless power grid that can power a variety of staffed and unmanned aircraft despite of battery type, voltage, or power level. For now there are three types of wireless charger.

03.02 - MOBILITY: MOON DIVER

Moon diver is designed by NASA to explore the lava tunnels, built to descend hundreds of feet into enormous pits on the surface of the moon. It would land within a few hundred meters from its target pit and serve as an anchor for Axel, a modest two-wheeled rover. The Axel would carry a variety of instruments to explore a lunar cavern, including a stereo pair of cameras for near imaging of the walls and a longdistance camera to view across the pit on the opposite side. A multispectral microscope would examine the cavern‘s mineralogy, while an alpha particle x-ray spectrometer would investigate the rock features‘ elemental chemistry. Axel would investigate the cavern floor once it reached the bottom of the pit, giving humanity its first close look at the moon‘s subterranean worlds.

03.03 - MOBILITY: LIGHTWEIGHT ROBOTIC CRANE

First we would need a lightweight robotic crane that is made of a structurally efficient truss structure with cable actuation that moves like a human arm but with a far larger reach. It may be scaled to accommodate any lander, vehicle, or surface application and it can employ a toolbox of faster end-effectors, or tools, to do tasks including hoisting, forklifting, regolith scooping, welding, and more. The new Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) will be around the same size as the previous prototype, with a 7.62-meter reach and the ability to hoist payloads weighing around one metric ton on the Moon.

03.04 - MOBILITY: MICRO ROVER

Daedalus is a robot, attached to a tether, that would drop the robot into the cave, allowing it to explore on its own. It is a 46-centimetre sphere, with a 360-degree stereoscopic camera, a LIDAR system for 3D mapping and sensors to help understand the subsurface environment, such as temperature and radiation levels. It would also have a rock-testing and obstacle-moving arm. The hanging tether

Lightweight robotic crane by NASA

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/lightweight-cranetechnology-could-find-a-home-on-the-moon would serve as a Wi-Fi receiver and wireless charging head to send data back to Earth.

03.05 - MOBILITY: DRONES

Drones operate within the Earth‘s atmosphere and with a few tweaks, this technology may operate the Moon too with lithium hydride and peroxide propulsion system. The Arne mission is made of a soft-landing spacecraft and three small „hole robots,“ which are spherical flying robots with a diameter of 30 centimetres. The probe would land inside, with a direct line of sight to the earth for communications from the bottom of the pit. Once they land, tiny robots will fly into the side chambers, inspecting the walls and determining the structure.