A low-cost autonomous and scalable hydroponics system for space farming

IF 2 Q3 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

HardwareX Pub Date : 2025-01-18 DOI:10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00625

Jae Hyeon Ryu , Jeonghyun Baek , Zarin Subah

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

An alternative food production system using hydroponics is proposed to grow vegetables in a controlled environment that is implementable in space. The proposed system is an autonomous, modular, scalable, and soilless food production platform (ASFP) that can be installed in a spacecraft by meeting requirements and constraints set by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A suite of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors was used to monitor indoor climate as well as water quality in ASFP. Average values of air temperature and relative humidity in the environmentally-controlled room are maintained between 20–24 °C and 48–62 %, while water quality components, including dissolved oxygen (DO, ppm), electrical conductivity (EC, µS/m), pH, and water temperature (WT, Celsius) are monitored by the IoT sensor in real-time during the growing period. Repeated measure analysis is also performed to evaluate the plant growth performance. The result indicates that plant growth is attributed significantly to pH and EC values. A real-time data visualization and sharing platform is another avenue for the space farming ecosystem in the years to come.

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来源期刊

HardwareX Engineering-Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

18.20%

发文量

124

审稿时长

24 weeks

期刊介绍： HardwareX is an open access journal established to promote free and open source designing, building and customizing of scientific infrastructure (hardware). HardwareX aims to recognize researchers for the time and effort in developing scientific infrastructure while providing end-users with sufficient information to replicate and validate the advances presented. HardwareX is open to input from all scientific, technological and medical disciplines. Scientific infrastructure will be interpreted in the broadest sense. Including hardware modifications to existing infrastructure, sensors and tools that perform measurements and other functions outside of the traditional lab setting (such as wearables, air/water quality sensors, and low cost alternatives to existing tools), and the creation of wholly new tools for either standard or novel laboratory tasks. Authors are encouraged to submit hardware developments that address all aspects of science, not only the final measurement, for example, enhancements in sample preparation and handling, user safety, and quality control. The use of distributed digital manufacturing strategies (e.g. 3-D printing) is encouraged. All designs must be submitted under an open hardware license.