Elon Musk once said: « If humanity in my lifetime not to land on Mars, I'm oh-oh-very upset i> ».
And if it so happens, or rather does not happen, it will not be the only one. We also would like to see one human foot stepped on the surface of the "red planet". It would seem, what have the manufacturing of mobile devices and interplanetary travel? But in fact there is a connection. For example, in the ranks of our employees have a person who is involved in the development of the concept is quite real space project.
This man's name is Lasse Lindqvist. In the past, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the developer of advanced space suits in a team of engineers NASA. Today he works in Nokia's position as head of the Department of brand programs, and marketing analytics and in combination is part of a team of Finnish space project Space Veggies.
Lasse Lindqvist left photo.
Among other things, seek to make the "red planet" a little greener "Kosmoovoschi" recently won the global space competition NASA , presented his draft Martian greenhouse.
Concept h4>
Team Space Veggies felt that despite the unusual habitat, astronauts and cosmonauts (omitting the various conventions, hereinafter shall denote them marsonavtami), especially considering the length of a Mars mission will require more traditional and familiar earthly human food. As a result, the project participants have developed a special modular design, which is within the team is called the cosmic gardens. It is able to provide marsonavtov organically generated oxygen and food. However, participants Space Veggies were not limited to the development of the module space greenhouse, creating a total ecosystem where marsonavty will also be able to work and rest.
A special point for this project was the creation of mental health care actors in the space expedition. Much attention has been paid to the design of interior space. Engineers have tried to bring the format of the greenhouses to the earth, resulting in their construction is a large area of translucent surfaces, in order to plant and marsonavty able to gain access to sunlight.
« The secret to the success of our project is that it is based on the concept of self-sustaining development i>, - says Lasse Lindqvist. - If humanity wants to conquer other planets and successfully exist outside the planet Earth, we must achieve a higher level of autonomous existence and sustainable development in new areas of our habitat than the one we have today. In addition, we need to be confident in our mental health conditions in space colonies. We must be sure that we do not get together crazy i> ».
The project was created for the future development of the Martian colonies, therefore the design of the database is scalable, and new modules can easily be connected to the existing system.
The technical side h4>
According to the basic idea is that the Martian Space Veggies base consists of two types of spaces:
1. Protected bunker where people can live and work most of the time.
2. acceding to modules greenhouses (space gardens) with a degree of protection from radiation and allow marsonavtam arrange short rest breaks "in nature».
Roughly speaking, the entire Martian Space Veggies base consists of a strong "hard-modules" and more open to external influence "software modules." What is interesting, to provide additional protection "hard-modules" from radiation and downs of small celestial bodies used fairly trivial approach: an outer coating material using the surface of Mars. The soil is blown into the special external cell "hard-module" thereby creating an additional layer of the shell.
Since the modular structure of the base is flexible and scalable, its inhabitants at any time, be able to make any "software module" in the "hard": the outer shell of all station modules is identical and has a special cell, so the "software module" just enough to fill the ground. This multi-function module will be useful, for example, as a temporary solution while expanding the membership of the Martian expedition.
Shell greenhouse sectional
In addition, this technology will not only expand the workspace station, but also to protect it in the event that the station has suffered little damage: the damaged area of the module is sufficient to fill the ground. If the situation can not be corrected, then come to the aid special design of the door-locks, which isolate the damaged segment of the entire station.
It is noteworthy that the core material were selected from a panel of flexible PVC with UV-protected coating. The minimum PVC tensile strength is 6 MPa, whereas the maximum difference in static pressure between the inside and the outside is only 0, 05 MPa, indicating that the correct choice of the material from the viewpoint of safety. If we consider any abnormal situations like Martian storms that according to preliminary calculations the dynamic pressure in such situations will not exceed the figure of 100 N / m, which is compensated by the construction of the walls of the Martian base. And she, by the way, is of sandwich structure consisting of two layers: the upper layer more durable with special cells to hold the soil and the inner layer. This design is intended to compensate for the internal and external pressure: the pressure inside the station is planned to be set at 0, 5 atmospheres for a comfortable existence of the inhabitants of the station.
As the main source of energy the team chose a nuclear reactor, created by promising technology SAIRS (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149197004800118). As the developers of the project is calculated only on those energy sources, which do not require the delivery of fuel, and as additional backup power supply you plan to use solar panels, heat generators and possibly wind turbines.
As for growing plants, the creators of «Space Veggies» plan to use greenhouse systems based on technology aeroponics and later crop using organic soil. Since the Martian atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide doped with nitrogen, argon, oxygen and other gases, they also planned to be used when absolutely necessary. As mentioned above, the modules have a greenhouse light conductive segments that will partially compensate for the adequate supply of sunlight to grow and maintain plant life. In addition, in greenhouses will be installed efficient LED bulbs.
« Mobile technology is very similar in many ways to the space, with the view that both are constantly faced with certain challenges i>, - says Lasse Lindqvist - How do I put the latest technology into a small space reduce energy costs, and, more precisely, learn from them more useful to create a complex interface is simple and user-friendly? On these and other questions the engineers of both spheres have to meet the ever i> ».
