Jane Shevtov
Trans Astronautica Corporation
Notes by Paul Fischer
Making Soil for Space Habitat by seeding with fungi
The Concept
Constructed habitats have many potential uses in space
asteroid mining
research
economy
Need soil for agriculture and green space
Some is agriculture … you need soil to make and maintain space
Asteroids are a potential source of soil but contain toxic organic compounds
Fungi can break down such compounds, making soil
This is called microremeniation
For example, soil contaminated with petroleum
The mission
Constructed habitat used as a research base in mars orbit
supports robotic and human research
Labs allow running rovers in real time with essentially no lag, creation of artificial gravity
Expandable habitat with ample green space
The need for soil why?
Agriculture is the more robust than hydroponics as a source of production, less things that can break down
Easier closed system, such as composting while hydroponics are harder to close the loop
Landscaping …
10^8th kg of soil, so not practical to Ship from earth
Use asteroid regolith as parent material
Contains toxic organic compounds
Fungi degrade such compounds and help soil production on earth
Turn organics from a hazard into a valuable resource
Expandable habitat
Early seed state
Assembly area for new floors
Hydroponic tanks can create compost for soil
First floor dedicated to converting regolith into soil
Inoculate the compost and let the fungi metabolize
Eventually we can grow plants
Expandable habitat
Early seed state
Second soil bearing floor
Regolith is added
The processing happens in the part of the habitat where it will be used
Add in compost inoculate and expand
Mirrors compress sunlight onto the crops
Current research
Selected species
Optimizing growth pH and nitrogen
The next step testing effectiveness at degrading toxics
Q: how large of a launch vehicle would be needed?
A: depends on various industrial processes that depend on asteroid mining, but other things would have to happen first before this happens
Q: impact on earth?
A: it is going to be nitrogen, one project in mind is how to work around the nitrogen limitation, because that is going to be a huge limiting factor, putting it at the live scale
Q: any other applications to organics in space?
A: sometimes it may be a material sometimes a concept, nitrogen can be limiting, but you also think that extremely crude soil
Q: how might the hiapoosa ii analysis affect the re-entry into the atmosphere?
A: the big question is going to be what chemicals are available on the asteroids, organics, metals or other organisms. Around the asteroid we can fuse the leftover materials to create soil
Q: what is the percentage of soil materials vs just taking it to space?
A: earlier work on the life-support side and the numbers that were in there were something around 1^8th to 10^9th kg of soil, so just setting it up would be impossible, but the mass to actually build the habitat… one of the key drivers of the key habitat idea is to start small and expand, like a market-based strategy with a market of materials for all kinds
Q: how well does simulated regulith simulate the qualities of real regultih.
A: the physical attributes are somewhat modifiable
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