4 ms·
As a systems person, what I really love is how this miracle you describe is itself just one small cog in vast machine of inter-dependent miracles. A plant growi
by nonrandomstring 4y ago
As a systems person, what I really love is how this miracle you
describe is itself just one small cog in vast machine of
inter-dependent miracles. A plant growing from a seed is meaningless
outside the context of soil, liquids and gases in the ecosystem, each
part of some other life cycle.
This was brought home to me when a bachelors student presented a final
year project for an "Aquaponics" [1] controller system. I'd never
heard of such a thing but I was blown away by how far you can take
control systems engineering in your own garden shed. Once you add
fish, nutrients, acidity, micro-organisms and whatnot into the
monitoring equations even the most simplified model takes on a
majestic level of complexity.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics
- arminiusreturns 4y agoThis is why I am so fascinated with closed loops systems such as aquaponiocs. If we can create a closed loop sustainable system in the small scale, we can then decentralize it to avoid the inevitable cause of the first likely long term international 21st century food crisis: monocultural devastation. It also has space exploration implications.
- chubot 4y agoThe mostly failed Biosphere 2 project of the 90s, and the 1996 movie Bio Dome starring Pauly Shore, are relevant to those ideas :) In all seriousness I do think it’s fascinating, and am interested in any developments since then
- deepdriver 4y agoYou may enjoy reading about Lunar Palace 1, China's latest experiment with regenerative life support systems: https://www.space.com/40610-china-mock-moon-mission-lunar-palace-1-photos.html https://www.space.com/40610-china-mock-moon-mission-lunar-pa... Or BIOS-3, the Soviet Union's experiments in this area during the in 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS-3 The EU has the MELiSSA program, which has a nice website and lots of meetings but no human-scale enclosures of which I'm aware: https://www.melissafoundation.org/ https://www.melissafoundation.org/
- nonrandomstring 4y agoAmazing links. Thank you for posting.