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#1 2022-07-14 07:49:44

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,385

Large Scale Inflatable Greenhouse

A Super Sized Mars bubble house Farm. Maybe this is what Bigelow should have done instead of 'Space Hotels'? and should mankind exploring the planets truly retreat back into Caves and Lava Tubes? Large inflated structures on the ground and maybe even a flying floating Greenhouse, I'm unsure how one would shield a floating ship during a large solar storm, maybe it would be manned by robots or the people would retreat to a more shielded part of the ship. Any Doors, Tables, Bars, Poles or Walls needed for farm structures would be 3-D printed by AI Digger Rover Factor Robots. Radiation on Mars comes from the soil itself which can be controlled setting new soils and avoiding any plant or animal internal irradiation caused by the ingestion of radioactive contamination, the biggest issue will be toxins, the toxicity due to the presence of perchlorates, (UV) radiation streaming from the sun "activates" chlorine compounds in the Red Planet's soil, turning them into potent microbe-killers. On Earth, the term "soil" usually includes organic content but in space, planetary scientists adopt a functional definition of 'soil' to distinguish the toxic sands from rocks, Phoenix lander first detected chlorine-based compounds such as calcium perchlorate. The levels detected in the Martian soil are around 0.5%, which is a level considered toxic to humans. Dust will be everywhere, there is some edvice of flows on Mars and Quakes but these are rare events. The Aeolian processes or eolian, dust storms and other wind activity will be a main challenge erode, transport, and deposit materials, they will make a Greenhouse red and dirty on the outside, they will block sun getting to Solar panels.

One of the first issues for Robots to do is not just cleaning the soil but to solve is 'Air' getting Moxie units working, some radiation risks might be over stated your Local Nuclear Plant which can be safely controlled or you have uncontrolled dangers from galactic cosmic rays  and solar energetic particles in short bursts of CME activity when the sun gets super-active, a satellite alarm system could be set up to give warnings about the Sun's Solar Storms. The Greenhouse designs differ in China compared to the Western world, in Asia a type of solar greenhouse that is common but mostly unused in the West.  Think of a Giant Supermarket store that is inflated or a super sized Inflatable Circus Tent cut in half, one idea could be to have 'Half a Green House' just as you have quarter cylinder aquariums you have quarter Greenhouses with a wall block the cold from the North and it faces South into the Sun to maximize solar heat collection, the greenhouse is facing south but has solid walls on its north (back), east and west side. During a bad storm a barrier might raise, graded-Z shield, the high-Z layer effectively scatters protons and electrons, this type of shield also absorbs gamma rays, which produces X-ray fluorescence,  alpha particles will not damage people in an orbiting station as they can be stopped by as little single sheet of paper.  Cosmic radiation could become a problem in long term colonies off world and is extremely high energy, and is very penetrating. One idea might be to pull down a night curtain of a solar greenhouse as they do in China, the curtain could act as a shield during Solar Storms but also trap heat, on Earth it is know to be useful for creating a microclimate that could be 8 to 12°C (14 to 22°F) warmer than an unaltered climate.  Many commercial beekeepers in the US are migratory, spending winter in warm climates and moving with the spring to follow the bloom, or pollination contracts for almonds, apples, blueberries and other fruits and vegetables that require bees. Migratory beekeeping also is practiced, especially in France, Australia, South Africa and Argentina, for a long time on Earth much of labor often moves with fruit harvest or to other crops that required human manual picking, maybe this time on a future Mars humans will be required to move with robot pickers and repair them?  On Earth there is a Canadian Snowbird Association also has a French membership, not-for-profit organization dedicated to defending and improving the rights and privileges of travelling Canadians the so-called snowbirds.
http://www.snowbirds.org/

We do not know what Martian Dust or Lower gravity will do Long Term to the human body, however in the far future Hardy Robots or Genetically Engineered Animal Cyborgs might have less damages from the climate of Mars, there might even become genetically engineered helpful beasts of Burden in a far future.  Eichhornia crassipes, the common water hyacinth aquatic plant native to South America seems resistant to the perchlorates and could be used to help remove the toxic salts from the environment, although the plants themselves would end up containing a high concentration of perchlorates, which might be later processed for some other purpose. Mars sands or 'soil' is shown to have presence of several minerals, including feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine, and suggested that the Martian soil in the sample was similar to the "weathered basaltic soils" of Hawaiian volcanoes, the Viking Landers and Curiosity rover showed evidence of water molecules, sulphur and chlorine, as well as hints of organic compounds however this could be terrestrial contamination. The mines of Mars might be highly dangerous,  silicates will be everywhere and these types of dust produced during mining is known to produce lung disease in miners on Earth, including cancer. Perhaps the people who worked 1 year inside the mines could get better and live a more healthy life inside a Greenhouse or some flying Eco-Balloon-Ship and recover? With Sucessful telescopes like JWST getting packed into a flattened space and put into a smaller upper faring of a rocket there is a chance a Structure on Mars would also self-assemble like an origami transformer robot. Another reason to go inflatable, avoid the Winter, go noamic with the Carnie lifestyle, Food will be stored in 2 locations from the previous season, the Farm will go South to Follow the Sun and be fully portable and easy to move, during the Southern winter after another harvest the Farm will be packed up once again and move back North just as Eskimos move for food or nomadic Gypsy Roma peoples, Farming Pastoralism, Gutter punk artists or the Carny, or carnie or traveling carnival employee, New Age bohemia travellers, housetruckers of New Zealand or people on the Indian Sub continent go "freighthopping" moves from one place to the next, the old retired in campervan a self propelled motorhome and RV Recreational vehicle moving along the Coast from Washington State, Oregon, California State and along the East the older moving North Carolina, South Caroline, Georgia and Florida State following the weather they most like, maybe the person of Mars will be nomadic with Nomad Farming.


Giant Village sized Cars/Tanks
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10094
'Maybe on Mars it would not be one single vehicle but a series of Cars/Trucks linked with each other like a Convoy or Wagon Trail?'


Plans for mobile base - on the mars...
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8928


This website talks of temperatures
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12 … house.html
This article also talked about this style of Greenhouse unfortunately the images illustrating what they were doing have since been removed. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2010 … ese-style/
'On a chilly mid-February night, the temperature inside their greenhouse remained 10-15 °C (18-27 °F) warmer than outside. The effect was even more pronounced in Manitoba, where indoor temperature on a cold February night remained 30 °C (54 °F) warmer than outdoors. In both northern China and southern Manitoba the greenhouses kept conditions favorable for cool-season vegetable production through the depth of a very cold winter without burning fuel for heat.'
This website has calculations
https://www.fao.org/3/t4470e/t4470e0c.htm
'The solar greenhouses presented in this paper are easily constructed with cheap materials. They can be cultivated in cold winter without or with little supplemental heat. Frequent maintenance such as laying on and taking off the thermal curtains is required that may not be convenient for the developed countries because of the high labor cost. But it may not be a problem for the developing countries when labor is very cheap.'

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-07-14 10:19:49)

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#2 2022-07-14 07:50:50

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,385

Re: Large Scale Inflatable Greenhouse

Gamma Rays will stunt plant growth.  Experiments have shown that rye plants in the gamma-ray group weighed 48% less than the regular group, and the weight of the garden cress exposed to gamma rays was 32% lower than their unblasted counterparts. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 … 65649/full


Exploring How Radiation Exposure Will Affect Life Forms on the Way to Mars
https://science.nasa.gov/technology/tec … ay-to-mars

To help provide context for future missions, we also gathered the radiation exposure data from the Mars Curiosity Rover mission while it traveled to Mars and after it landed on the planet’s surface. For the Moon, we used radiation data from the Apollo astronaut’s radiation monitors, recent robotic explorers, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Moon and Mars data will enable researchers to place each study in the context of the predicted radiation environment of future missions beyond Low Earth Orbit.

ESA astronauts Andreas Mogensen and Thomas Pesquet wore  mobile dosimeter during their missions that gave them a real-time snapshot of exposure. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space … s_targeted Mars will have less radiation than the Moon, its thin atmosphere will give some protections

Past structure building farmer threads on new mars


Designing the best greenhouse demonstrator for Mars https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5512 ,   Bigelow and evolving situations of reality https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8303
Current experiments on algae, lichen etc.? https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=236  3D printing - strong progress https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8231 Dimple Greenhouses https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9510
Chinese greenhouses https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9924 Infrastructure https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10077  bamboo
we also have many discussions on alcohol fuel creation and hemp https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7354 Greenhouses https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5672
Dirigibles on Mars - A practical means of transport?
Flying or Floating ecosystem Greenhouse? https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=3509
Bigelow announces to habitation module/life support system. https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9138
Light weight nuclear reactor, updating Mars Direct https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7025 ,  Air. Shelter. Water. Food. https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7687 Radiation amount type risk mitigation https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8762 https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8199
A new thread - on Bigelow's space prize
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2174
Habitat Design on Mars   Genetic Engineering on Martian crops https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8796 Earth / Mars Orbiting greenhouses for ship supply https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10220
Greenhouse Architecture https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8804

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-07-14 07:58:59)

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#3 2022-07-14 19:18:24

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,972

Re: Large Scale Inflatable Greenhouse

While clear natural lighting is preferred it's that radiation exposer to man in suits that is the issue for gardening in one.
Nice link finding

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