~=> Hydroponics in Space <=~

[St. Phatty]

And a little theme music to help us get in the mood for talking about

~=> Hydroponics in Space <=~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI​

I like thinking about growing cannabis, and I like thinking about the detailed logistics of space travel.

So it is natural to think about the 2 of them together.

I was reflecting on this with another member, and I realized 2 things -

1. For space flight, you need a lightweight system. Aeroponics seems to fit that bill.

2. It would be convenient to develop a lightweight soil that uses near-weightless gravel/sand objects for drainage. You are going to have human manure, maybe fish manure, etc. and it will be natural to compost it.

Basically we would need a way to turn human and animal excretions into plant food.

Anyway, I was envisioning something like those styrofoam peanuts, very small pieces, but less yuk-ky than styrofoam. Some of the grow media in hydro stores is pretty lightweight. My guess is, the materials scientists at places like the Jet Propulsion Lab have some good materials like an organic version of that super-lightweight-gel material.

Anyway, I was just wondering how the Brain and Imagination Trust at IC Mag would approach the design task of interstellar pot and food growing.


PS How do you embed a video ? I tried to embed the now classic John Williams composition. Wouldn't go.

 

[RicoT]

You are going to have human manure, etc. and it will be natural to compost it.

Basically we would need a way to turn human excretions into plant food.

I'm out.

 

[yortbogey]

guy here in WA.... EX-Boeing concept guy...worked on NASA space program grow op's....
there direction of choice was and still is a aero FOAM spray that clings to the roots being suspended in air chambers........now the guy is retired and trying to work out the logistics for MJ growing.... next big system idea....

 

[stoned-trout]

I don't really like hydroponics on earth....lol organic soil rules

 

[BB420]

astroponics hahaha

 

[420somewhere]

Lot's of natural Nitrogen, good for the Veg stage

 

[iTarzan]

This reminds me of one of my favorite movies.

Silent Running starring Bruce Dern. He was protecting the last earth plants that were in a greenhouse spaceship.

 

[bombadil.360]

very cool thread St. Phatty!

I think we should not over-look the efficiency of human urine, or piss as a very effective fertilizer. I think it'd be a better option than human feces, because yuck hehehe...

I wonder though, what kind of technology are the extra-terrestials that have visited us already and have collected cannabis specimens using to grow their ganja plants

peace!

 

[St. Phatty]

very cool thread St. Phatty!

I think we should not over-look the efficiency of human urine, or piss as a very effective fertilizer. I think it'd be a better option than human feces, because yuck hehehe...

I wonder though, what kind of technology are the extra-terrestials that have visited us already and have collected cannabis specimens using to grow their ganja plants

peace!

Thanks - couldn't have done it without good old-fashioned shared inspiration ! tiphat (says I have 1 too many images.)

I like talking about UFO's too.

As far as "Soil science/ hydroponics in space", in space you don't have the liberty practiced by most societies, where excretions are 'set and forget'. 99.9% of us don't think much about what happens after we flush. The engineers down at the sewer plant (or the place that recycles the contents of septic tanks) get to think about that.

In space, you got to deal with it.


On the other hand, before the advent of chemical fertilizers, every molecule in our bodies came to us through air, or water, or in the form of a molecule that was recycled from poop of some form. (Well, actually, of many forms). That means, our grandparents or great-grandparents ate food for which organic fertilizer (from poop) was the primary nutrient. Meaning, all their molecules that didn't come from air or water - came from poop.

We are different, we are, "Chemical Man" (and women). Our food plants are mostly fertilized with concentrated chemical fertilizers. So the phosphorus in the calcium phosphate that comprises our bones is likely to have come from an ancient rock phosphate deposit ... for example.


Once I was discussing my diet with a woman who eats Halal. I eat 1 or 2 pieces of bacon every day, because it tastes good and I find that my body needs the fat, especially in winter.

She said, "Pigs eat shit". I didn't really pursue it ... didn't want to start an international incident ... but it would have been an interesting conversation.


The books I've read about UFO's
Ray Fowler's book
Bud Hopkins book, "Missing Time".
Timothy Goode's book, "Above Top Secret".

fiction - Whitley Streiber.

Goode's book is good because it relies only on the reports of uniformed service personnel.

There appears to be sort of a 'separation of duties' between the 'grays' and the more humanoid characters. The grays appear to be machines in some sense. They may eat food of some kind but in most of the reports regarding grays, they are piloting the smaller aircraft that do the amazing maneuvers that we hear about sometimes.

The humanoids, we can assume because we don't have access to their version of 'Sunset Magazine', eat food or maybe get some sustenance intravenously. My guess is, their soil science is far more advanced.

In one section of Goode's book, he describes the appearance on radar of an object 6 miles across in Earth skies. It was the sort of incident that makes every technician on site scramble to re-calibrate the radar, while every person who has a free moment just stares at the monitors, or fears imminent doom and calls their families.

In the movie Prometheus, the scale of that incident from Goode's book is communicated. That ship is about 1/2 mile across. They do a good job of showing its scale, especially when it crushes Charlize Theron into the desert sand.


I believe (or am certain) that the humanoid inhabitants of UFO's are eons advanced from us technologically. Since we are just starting down our learning curve in terms of understanding DNA, mapping genomes, using 3D printers to create body parts, it is predictable that UFO's have access to soil science (poop treatment facilities) that is technologically advanced enough that we would be lucky to understand one little part of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have engineered bacteria viruses molds etc. that can turn human #2 into chocolate mousse.

So they would have engineered food storage and production (including space hydroponics) using the technologies of their age.

But I'm not sure there would be much commonality between our 2014 Hydroponics technologies (including space hydroponics) and UFO Hydroponics technologies.


So, getting back to human Hydroponics in Space. I didn't mean to Hijack my own thread.

Got put that Bruce Dern movie on my Netflix queue.

As far as urine, just thinking of one of the last times I went Skin Diving in So Cal. I always thought of it as swimming through seaweed-filled muck but now I realize - those groupers I was admiring, that 9 foot shark I watched from a distance, that whale that surfaced between me and the shore - all provide food for the crabs.

This may never get me invited to a seafood dinner, but, if you like crab or lobster, you have been eating recycled fish-poop.

As far as Urine - plenty of nitrogen there. Dilute it enough (50:1, I'm thinking), and heck yeah it will make good plant food. I even have an extra Green Crack (Cali Connection, great medicine) clone I will try it on, and report back if it doesn't kill it.

Sort of like Fish Aquaponics.

It's interesting how humans react to the subject. It's no problem eating vegetables fertilized with fish poop, but if the subject is human #1 & #2 ... people lose their appetite.


Astroponics, aero foam spray - RIGHT ON !


As far as Ticor's reaction, I basically agree. Having recently had to deal with a failure in my home's septic system that resulted in some rather major smelliness.

But, like I said, in space, you almost don't have a choice. You have to recycle almost everything.

What's interesting is how dependent you then become. For example, if you are using earthworms (in space) as part of the recycling process, and they die ... OOPS ! Food production stops or slows way down.


Overall, I am most impressed by earthworms, because they are able to turn manures directly into protein. I suspect that they have some powerful micro-organisms in their stomachs that help them do it.

Whereas, look at beef - worm castings feed corn, cows eat corn, man eats cows. Not very efficient.

Maybe some astronauts eat earthworms as standard fare ?

 

[bringyalungs]

oh say this happening with cannabis seeds

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/14/mysterious_cherry_trees_from_space_bloom_years_ahead_of_schedule/

wonder if it would speed up sativas, etc, no need for autos anymore

 

[St. Phatty]

oh say this happening with cannabis seeds

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/14/mysterious_cherry_trees_from_space_bloom_years_ahead_of_schedule/

wonder if it would speed up sativas, etc, no need for autos anymore

DANG !

I wonder if it was increased exposure to any kind of rays, which I guess falls in the category of electromagnetic radiation of different frequencies.

The atmosphere protects us a lot from radiation. As an example, the solar cells outside the earth's atmosphere get about twice as much light from the sun, 140 watts per square foot instead of 70.

That's just an example of increased radiation, seeds would be protected from that kind of light.


But about the radiation. In a grow-place like the orbit around the earth, or on the moon, e.g. in a greenhouse, the plants would get that same extra radiation. Of course they can be shaded from it. But I would expect some plants to be able to cope with higher radiation, like Ganja grown in the Himalayas.

Over time you would have a selection of plants geared to the high radiation. I can't help but wonder what the pot plant would do if it could adapt to 90 watts per square foot, or 110, or the full 140.

I wonder if some plants would grow faster.

 

[Weird]

used to work on creating biotopes for such future events

 

[armedoldhippy]

it shouldn't be any harder to grow out there than it is here. just put the plants in a rotating container to create an artificial gravity & that will solve most problems right off the bat. not gonna be many plant pests out there, you know...

 

[St. Phatty]

used to work on creating biotopes for such future events

"Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, which is more commonly used in English-speaking countries. However, in some countries these two terms are distinguished: the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.[1]"


Designed for Space-borne applications ?

was the goal to provide food & convert CO2 back into O2, or some other application ?


I've had times when I was restricted grow-wise so I did it at a public storage space.

Basically had a 4 foot cube with a glass window in the top. The light was outside. The 2x64 cubic foot environment was sealed. I actually mated the one 4 foot cube (with plants) with another 4 foot cube - with a cage and food and water and rats as an O2-to-CO2 scrubber. It produced small quantities of medicinal bud.

The best strain I had at the time was a skunk smelling Sativa. Very resiny. The best of about 100 mexican bagweed seeds, grown out.

I always wondered what you needed to do to have a good sealed environment for Cannabis. Probably something besides converting O2 back to CO2 in small amounts.

 

[jayjayfrank]

genhydro 3 part should work in outerspace

 

[St. Phatty]

>> As far as Urine - plenty of nitrogen there. Dilute it enough (50:1, I'm thinking), and heck yeah it will make good plant food. I even have an extra Green Crack (Cali Connection, great medicine) clone I will try it on, and report back if it doesn't kill it.


The Green Crack clone that I gave the diluted urine to a few days ago is doing just fine.

 

[bombadil.360]

St. Phatty, hello

check this thread out:

urine as fertilizer:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=21381

I have tried it many moons ago and it works, specially for vegging plants, tried it on a few outdoor plants, colombian bagseeds to be exact, they were hungry and after just the first application, they started to green up.

I diluted a lot less than you though, at a ratio of 10:1, ten parts water to one part urine. also, the first stream of urine was not used, sort of like when you need to take a urine test and the first stream of urine that comes out you don't save.

also, the subject needs to be healthy and well hydrated.

I want to smoke ganja with cool aliens; we should try to contact the stoner aliens with delicious nugs of joy lol...

 

[St. Phatty]

St. Phatty, hello

check this thread out:

urine as fertilizer:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=21381


I want to smoke ganja with cool aliens; we should try to contact the stoner aliens with delicious nugs of joy lol...

Urine-as-fertilizer AND stoner-aliens in the same thread.

For what more could we ask ?


My guess is, they have a far more advanced delivery method.

I've heard about the ancient Scythians throwing dried hemp on the fire and enjoying the smoke.

So today everybody has favorite smoking apparati, waterpipes and bongs and vape pens and blow-torches and titanium nails.

How do the stoner aliens imbibe ?

My guess is, they have more advanced delivery methods (beam the THC right into your bloodstream, actually I don't like that idea), but some of them do it the 'old-fashioned way', whatever that is to them.


I get the impression that the grays are sort of like machines or, possibly, pets. i.e. they are subordinate to the Humanoid ET's.

So I can't help but wonder, do the teenage humanoid ET's ever feed pot to the pet because they think it's funny ?

I let my chickens drink beer. I think it's sort of a universal need that space beings have, to get the pet inebriated.

Of course, the grays fly some of the really fast moving craft. An inebriated gray could be a problem.


Maybe that's what happened at Roswell ? Grays over-dosed on ET pot brownies fed to them by bored teenage humanoid ETs looking for a laugh.

Sounds ridiculous, but it's as good an explanation as I've heard.

 

[nkatadelgormo]

Double post

 

[nkatadelgormo]

genhydro 3 part should work in outerspace

Most peope are unaware that General Hydroponics was created by NASA. The formula of the 3part was literally the foundation of all plant nutrition. Originally thought it would be used to grow food on the moon after a nuclear fallout on earth. The formula has not changed since its debut. Powerful food for thought

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/biofarming.html