Presentation about AstroPlant, including unveiling of the new prototype.

1. @BORDER_LABSwww.astroplant.io

2. Complex loop climate and agriculture

3. Agri
Climate + Nature

4. CO2 and methane and other greenhouse gases
Biggest
contributor non-
CO2 GHG

5. Forests and biodiversity loss
Main cause for
deforestation and
biodiversity loss

6. Water use
Accounts for 80% of water extraction from
natural lakes, aquifers, streams, rivers

7. Creating dead zones

8. Insect armageddon

9. 75% of the world’s poor live in rural areas and depend on agriculture

10. Unpredictable weather = not good for farming
Migration and urbanisation
Unpredictable & more extreme weather –
how will people adapt?

11. Downward spiral
How to break this
downward spiral?

12. Mars
CONGRATS!
You’ve been selected to be part
of an elite group that will move
to Mars.

13. 19571969
2003 2016

14. ✔ Getting a dog in orbit
✔ Bringing someone into space and back (alive)
✔ Getting people on the Moon
✔ Building a space station
✔ Chasing comets
q Building a Deep Space Gateway (in progress)
q Getting humans on Moon / Mars
q Terraforming Mars
q …

15. From SF to reality

16. Earth
SAVE Earth!!

17. AstroPlant – for this planet and other one

18. AstroPlant is developing technology, yes, as well as educating a
new generation of urban and space farmers.
✔ Open Source Hydroponics Plant Lab
✔ Public Data Sets about Plant Growth
✔ Inspiring Young Explorers
Building the Future of Food Production with A New
Genaration of Urban and Space Farmers

19. We need you to engage this next generation of urban and
space farmers… And scientists and hackers and makers and
tinkerers and sustainability advocates.

21. Where are we now?

26. MVP
(unveiled
today)

27. Semi-controlled growbox
• RaspberryPi + custom PCB
• Fully controllable custom
growLED system (intensity +
spectrum)
• Two or three fans
• Simple hydroponics system
• Sensors:
• Temperature (air, water)
• Humidity
• CO2
• Light
• EC
• Regular camera + IR camera
• Manual input by citizen scientist:
• pH water
• Size of leaves
• Weight of the plants
• Root length
• etcetera

28. AstroPlant extension shield

29. Custom LED system (controlled)
Various off-the
shelf sensors
and actuators
Raspberry Pi
Zero W +
extension shield All written in Python

30. Why do we need to know?
Don’t we do this already?

31. No backup ecosystem – seeing plants as machines
Seeing plants as biological
machines that can be controlled

33. Recycling on the ISS

34. Going to Mars
• 1000 days in isolation
• Crew of six requires 30
tonnes of water, oxygen, and
food.
• Max payload 9 tonnes

36. .. four men, four women and 4,000 species of plants and
animals were sealed inside this giant terrarium for a two-
year experiment that ended in 1993.
The would-be Eden became a nightmare, its atmosphere
gone sour, its sea acidic, its crops failing, and many of its
species dying off. Among the survivors are crazy ants,
millions of them.

37. MELiSSA

38. MELiSSA: turning metabolic waste into
consumables
• Waste
• CO2
• Feces
• Urine
• Non-edible biomass
Inspired by nature.
• Consumables
• O2
• Food
• Water

41. I: Liquifying compartment
• In:
• Human waste
• Non-edible biomass
• Out:
• Fatty acids
• Minerals
• Ammonium
• CO2, H2

42. II: Photoheterotrophic-compartment
• Further digestion
• In
• Smelly and poisonous stuff
from compartment I
• Out
• Minerals and NH4

43. III: Nitrification Compartment
• In
• Urine
• Minerals
• O2
• Out
• Minerals
• NO3

44. IVa: Algae Compartment
IVb: Higher Plant Compartment
• In
• Nitrates
• CO2
• Out
• Food!
• Oxygen!
• Non-edible biomass

48. How to
characterise all
these potential
space crops?

49. AstroPlant: a small DIY plant lab stuffed with sensors?

50. AstroPlant design
principles

51. #1 – Engage a new generation of space farmers

53. electronics
digital fabrication
space science
plant science

54. 2 teachers, 5 students from
Gent work on AstroPlant
extensions (02, climate
control) and will start using it
for their final year project from
January

55. Who will eventually tend these space gardens?
Design robot farms? Improve crop yields?

56. #2 - Create impact by being open and accessible

57. FAIRCHILD CHALLENGE
WEVOLVER OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE
OPENAG
Open Source Software
Open API for plant data
Open Source Hardware
Online Collaboration

58. #3 – Reduce, reuse, recycle

60. Ask the team today:
- Sidney, Tai, + Javi (Avionics) > electronics
- Thomas > backend software + plant API
- Seppe > all about plants, hydroponics (and bugs)
- Gernot > casing design & materialisation
- Davide > circular logistics & sourcing
- Daniel > business and UX

61. Christel Paille, Christophe Lasseur – MELiSSA, ESA
Raffaella Pappalardo – ESA
GJ van t Veen – Dutch Coast, Jungle Works
Michel Behre – Border Sessions
Angelo Vermeulen – SEAD, TU Delft
WeVolver – open source hardware
Avionics – electronics company
Association for Vertical Farming – plant science & vertical farming
Advisers and
partners

62. NEXT for AstroPlant
2018
• New testing round until launch of the KickStarter in Q1-2018
• New standards for open plant data sharing
• Spark interest among 1000+ young people
• Grow the AstroPlant consortium and community
2019
• Educational programs across EU / world
• Spinoff technologies, companies, and projects
• Scientific insights
• Preparing for ISS experiment

63. NEXT for Border Labs
space for humanity with
more projects – same
approach
ESA’s partner in open
source and community-
led efforts on the
intersection of space
technologies and
humanity
Open source
Technology &
Innovation
Community
development
Science &
Education

64. @BORDER_LABSwww.astroplant.io

65. Splinter Sessions (after the panel discussion)
• Circular Logistics – Davide, Gernot
• Finance and marketing – GJ, Raffaella
• Community – Veronica
• Education, science – Christel, Thieme, Seppe
• Tech – Thomas, Sidney

68. copenhagenletter.com