High-Level Project Summary
The development of technologies has led to the fact that humanity currently needs young professionals with creative and flexible thinking who will implement new ideas and technologies. Therefore, we developed the "Space Tree", a special installation in the form of a tree, on which there are plants with sensors from which we receive information about the growth of the ecosystem. The idea is that with the help of the application, children compare the possibility of plant development on Earth and on Mars, inventing new ways to implement the program of colonization or food security, and learn to treat the natural environment carefully not only of our Earth, but also of the entire universe.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Currently there are problems such as an outdated approach to training and an inadequate material and technical base. As a result, there is a lack of the necessary number of young specialists with flexible and creative thinking, whose task is to create new technologies and ideas based on a solid scientific base, supported by a creative way of looking at things.
But when we create the right conditions for our existence, we tend to forget of consequences as the result the nature of our one and only planet suffers. No more one and only! Our planet used to be the one until more and more scientists started talking about colonization. It’s not a dream. It’s not an empty talk. More and more people started seriously thinking of so-called new home. People tend to think that no more mistakes of the past would appear in the future putting the responsibility on the scientists. However, all the changes start from us and inside of us.
Therefore, considering these problems, we have decided to present to you the "Space Tree" - an "ecoclimatic station for the cultivation of biodiversity", which is depicted in the form of a tree on which 10 plants are located. The installation is mobile, autonomous and independent of energy and water supply.
The installation itself is in the form of a stand with 5 shelves, each of which has 2 plants. A pipe for water supply is connected to each of them, and there is also a UV lamp above each of the shelves. The bucket with water is located at the bottom of the stand on special scales that allow you to monitor the amount of water in it.
Sensors are located on the stand to monitor the needs of the plants. They receive all the necessary data about the state of plants and the environment. Therefore they allow determining soil moisture, light level, temperature, pressure and air humidity.
The main component of the system is Raspberry Pi - the microcomputer that takes the data from the sensors in, coordinates irrigation and light systems and creates a so-called bridge between stand and mobile application.
Each shelf has its own small computer - a microcircuit with an STM8 processor. All the elements of his shelf are connected to it. The elements are two soil moisture sensors, one light sensor and a relay to control the UV lamp and the pump. There is a total of 5 STM8 on the stand. They are all connected to the Raspberry Pi and feed it real-time data. Raspberry Pi checks the data and as soon as this value is unsatisfactory, it reinforces the corresponding control command — turning the field on or off, increasing or decreasing the light level.
System has two power supply modes. First mode is network power, the second is solar panels.
It means that children can observe how the living organism grows and how the outer processes influence the plant.
The main idea was not only to seed in children a love for plants and an understanding that we need to take care of nature but also to integrate this institution into the school by adding to it lecture-methodological programs in chemistry, physics, ecology and biology. An application with augmented reality will not only allow children to follow sensors and receive data but also will provide the opportunity to compare the process of growing plants on Earth and on the closest planet to us - Mars. The users will be able to feel like scientists and try to colonize Mars. Also, we are planning to add augmented reality to the application to turn science into an interesting quest for children.
Our team has 6 creative people that met in the Noosphere Engineering School and were united by the shared idea that was born a little beforehand. The idea is STEM development in Ukraine where our product was this tree. That is why when we took part in the app challenge, we partially had the product ready.
We are currently working on installing all the elements of our tree and all we have to do is to finish our application and fully test the MVP. After that, we can proceed to the search for educational institutions that will agree to implement in their educational process our now not only "earth tree" - "ecoclimatic station for growing biodiversity"
Space Agency Data
We used some of the data from NASA and CSA to determine the amount of water and nutrients for plants, whether it is possible to use the soil of other planets as a substrate for growing plants, and what type of plants have already been grown by our scientists in space. It was needed to find out what ratio of air components is required.
We discovered all this from various sources of sites, projects of NASA and their Partners.
Hackathon Journey
We were inspired by the movie "The Martian". Watching how a person had to grow plants from scratch in the extreme conditions, we thought that it would be great to show children how extremely difficult it is, to make their brain think about small, seemingly ordinary things, and on difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible things. You can help them become scientists who look for ways to solve problems, and not tell themselves that it's impossible, or it won't concern me. Sayings like “I'm not an astronaut”, or “I am not a technician" should be banned forever.
Involvement and creativity are capable of changing the reality.
References
[1]-https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders/agricultural-and-water-resources-data-pathfinder
[2]-https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders/agricultural-and-water-resources-data-pathfinder/find-data#vegetation
[3]-https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Mars_Express_detects_liquid_water_hidden_under_planet_s_south_pole
[4]-https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/04/Comparing_the_atmospheres_of_Mars_and_Earth
[5]https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B0
[6]-https://www.nasa.gov/stem/about.html
[7]-https://zoom.cnews.ru/rnd/article/item/vybrano_pervoe_rastenie_dlya_vyrashchivaniya_na_marse
[8]-https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/environmental-justice
[9]-https://www.space.com/mars-water-ice-map-northern-hemisphere
[10]-https://uainfo.org/blognews/1613148592-idealnye-usloviya-dlya-zhizni-v-kakoy-tochke-marsa-budut-vysazheny.html
[11]-https://cipotato.org/blog/indicators-show-potatoes-can-grow-mars/
[12]-https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2016/04/space-potatoes.html
We used the following tools:
Canva - for creating and editing our presentation:
https://www.canva.com/templates/EAEsku1A4WM-galaxy-drawings-slides-theme/
AutoCAD - for creating a Forest shelf, logo and drawing.
Artist: Olha Osadcha
Figma - for creating a prototype of the visual image of our application.
Artist: Kateryna
Kalinchenko
Tags
#plants #STEAM #NASA #learning #tree #growing #ecology