A Smart Greenhouse That Is out of This World
A team of researchers from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) in Central Russia – along with scientists from other universities and research institutes in the region – recently developed a prototype for an orbital greenhouse. Known as the Orbital Biological Automatic Module, this device allows plants and food crops to be grown and cultivated in space.
Since the beginning of the Space Age, numerous experiments have been conducted that demonstrated how plants can be cultivated under microgravity conditions. However, these studies were carried out using greenhouses located in the living compartments of orbital stations and involved significant limitations in terms of technology and space. For this reason, researchers began working to scale and improve the technologies necessary for cultivating important agricultural crops.
Aleksei Yakovlev, head of the TPU School of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, and his colleagues envision an autonomous module that would be capable of supplying food for astronauts and potentially even docking with the International Space Station. They also indicated the module would contain a cultivation area measuring about 320 ft² and that it would be cylindrical in shape. This would allow the module to be spun up to simulate different gravity conditions.
The smart greenhouse project will incorporate technologies developed at TPU, which includes smart lighting that will accelerate plant growth, specialized hydroponics, automated irrigation, and harvesting solutions. At present, TPU is constructing a new testing ground so they can expand production on the smart greenhouse.
To learn more details about the Orbital Biological Automatic Module, continue reading at Universe Today.
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