Sproutnik

Faculty Advisor: Kathryn Wingate

Industry Mentor: Vanter

Project Summary: The design problem we’re facing is that during extended missions, astronauts cannot rely on fresh food brought from Earth because the nutritional value declines over time. 

Plant growth on the moon has never been done before with radiation posing the greatest challenge. Our mission objective is to design, build, test and monitor an autonomous greenhouse system capable of growing 20 healthy AstroPlants under 3m of lunar regolith, while transmitting data to a nearby ground station approximately 100m away for 15 days. 

Over the fall and spring semesters, the project moves from design to testing and validation. In the fall, the team must deliver a report detailing final system requirements, designs for the greenhouse and ground station, supporting prototype and modeling results, a projected budget, parts list, and Gantt chart for spring, along with detailed CAD models of both systems. In the spring, the focus shifts to building of the ground station and greenhouse while testing the design and monitoring the growth of the plants. 

The final report will document the completed prototype, final budget, hardware recommendations for lunar use, test results, verification of requirements, and lessons learned. Testing in lunar gravity, radiation, or vacuum environments is out of scope, as is direct oxygen supply.