Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-11-29 15:40:53

Suppose you wanted to use plants to oxygenate the atmosphere and provide food for astronauts, how big an enclosure would that take? Obviously Biosphere 2 failed in that regard, they used too much rotting organic matter in the top soil which supported bacteria which used up the oxygen supply. Suppose they tried to repeat that experiment with the things they learned from the last one? Problem is, they only tried once, they made some mistakes and didn't learn from those mistakes to apply those lessons to the next experiment. Usually you learn as much from failure as you do from success, you learn what doesn't work and what not to try again, which if followed up upon brings you closer to a successful outcome. How hard would it be to establish a self-sustaining enclosed biosphere on Mars that included 6 humans? How big would that have to be, would you say?

elderflower · 2016-11-30 04:38:00

Three acres and a cow?

louis · 2016-11-30 04:40:59

My point would be that you don't need to ceate an enclosed biosphere. You would vent the air and you would chuck out any mould or similar that might grow.

The aim would not to be create a very complicated ecology (as Biosphere appeared to be doing) but rather creating simple food growing or recreational areas.

I guess one would be looking for low humidity air. below soil irrigation. You don't want damp air or damp top soil. In fact you might want to top off your soil with something inert like natural gravel (or crushed rock). Think of an atrium in a big office block with trees and so on. They manage to avoid becoming a sort of tropical mould zone.

Trees might actually be a good idea. Their leaves can be collected easily and processed for soil in special facilities. Trees can provide a wide range of food stuffs e.g. a wide range of fruits and berries, sap (e.g. maple syrup), high protein nuts (that can also be ground into a flour), coconuts etc They can also provide a wide range of materials including rubber and a wide range of woods. Bamboo would probably be a nice addition to the trees.

Maybe you need also to bring along a team of mobile suction robots to disinfect and clean your windows on a continual basis.

Yeah, so that's my list: trees and bamboo, gravel top layer, hoover up the leaves and process them separately, window cleaning robots, venting of stale air.

The problem I have with big bio domes is catastrophic meteorite strikes. How do you deal with those?

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Suppose you wanted to use plants to oxygenate the atmosphere and provide food for astronauts, how big an enclosure would that take? Obviously Biosphere 2 failed in that regard, they used too much rotting organic matter in the top soil which supported bacteria which used up the oxygen supply. Suppose they tried to repeat that experiment with the things they learned from the last one? Problem is, they only tried once, they made some mistakes and didn't learn from those mistakes to apply those lessons to the next experiment. Usually you learn as much from failure as you do from success, you learn what doesn't work and what not to try again, which if followed up upon brings you closer to a successful outcome. How hard would it be to establish a self-sustaining enclosed biosphere on Mars that included 6 humans? How big would that have to be, would you say?

Terraformer · 2016-11-30 06:36:41

Trees also take a long while to grow. I don't know if you can accelerate that by avoiding winter conditions and subjecting them to increased daylight, though.

louis · 2016-11-30 09:13:02

There are several species of tree that grow very quickly - up to 10-15 feet per annum. The willow is probably the best known among fast growing trees 4-6 feet a year). It might take a while to get some of the more useful trees to grow but I read walnuts grow at 3-4 feet per annum.

Off the internet:

"A walnut orchard can take a few years to come into full production, but then produces up to 6,000 pounds of nuts per acre."

Three tonnes of nuts. Gives an idea of productivity. An acre is 64 metres x 64 metres. So you could probably easily feed 6 people from tree produce in a dome of 100 x 100 metres.

Terraformer wrote:

Trees also take a long while to grow. I don't know if you can accelerate that by avoiding winter conditions and subjecting them to increased daylight, though.

elderflower · 2016-11-30 10:48:29

but willow is useful, Louis. It supplies aspirin and is used to make cricket bats.
So we could have cricket matches and relieve headaches. This means that we need at least 27 astronauts.

louis · 2016-11-30 11:07:25

Ha-ha! V. true.

elderflower wrote:

but willow is useful, Louis. It supplies aspirin and is used to make cricket bats.
So we could have cricket matches and relieve headaches. This means that we need at least 27 astronauts.

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-11-30 11:54:54

Perhaps it might look something like this.

elderflower · 2016-11-30 12:00:06

Any particular reason why you have put it at the moon's north pole, Tom?
With a full earth, the sun should be shining from the opposite side, but the shadows don't indicate this.

Last edited by elderflower (2016-11-30 12:02:13)

SpaceNut · 2016-11-30 22:04:27

I see a plant mortuary as the last seeds of earth were saved.... Man needs to look at this problem differently as we need food from one set, another to create product from and then a 3 to create the needed oxygen... With that if we do have other life within the system not man then we will need to compensate for it as well in the foot print to which we build.

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#1 2016-11-29 15:40:53

Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#2 2016-11-30 04:38:00

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#3 2016-11-30 04:40:59

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#4 2016-11-30 06:36:41

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#5 2016-11-30 09:13:02

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#6 2016-11-30 10:48:29

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#7 2016-11-30 11:07:25

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#8 2016-11-30 11:54:54

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#9 2016-11-30 12:00:06

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

#10 2016-11-30 22:04:27

Re: Organic Life Support Systems: Biosphere 3

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