LiW@Space
Living Wall for a Space application
Scheda del progetto
Embedding a vegetal system in a heavily 'engineered' and man-made environment such as a pressurised space module is something little explored. LiW@Space studies, designs and prototypes a green wall monitored by advanced sensor technology and enhanced with artificial intelligence capabilities. The project is designed for closed environments; the green wall will allow environmental pollutants to be monitored and possibly degraded. The plants will be able to be eaten safely. In view of the extreme optimisation required by the spatial context, intelligent solutions for the use of water and substrates will also be studied with circular economy strategies.
Contact:
Pierangelo Farina, p.farina@bluegroup.it
Creation of Living Walls in Space
It should be noted that several studies at the level of government space agencies (e.g. NASA) have begun to evaluate the cultivation of plant species within the pressurised living modules of the International Space Station (ISS), which is in low orbit around the Earth and on which there are microgravity-like conditions (more appropriately, it is weightlessness). However, the studies conducted so far such as, for example, a study by the University of Arizona together with Thales Alenia Space on growing a few salad plants on the ISS were limited in time and had a very limited scope.
The level of innovation is clearly 'International'. Nothing has been done before that is so complete (botany, psychology, chemistry, Circular Economy, advanced sensor technology, 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence, VR/AR, Digital Twin, environmental impact analysis). The project is unique and also considers the search for superior psychological well-being for astronauts operating in a highly stressful operational environment by means of a space greenhouse.
- Customers in the space sector, whether they are space agencies (e.g. ESA, NASA, JAXA, etc.) or private customers (e.g. Axiom, Bigelow, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, etc.) have the obvious benefit of having a complete, pre-engineered space greenhouse solution at their disposal, with even a prototype located in a 1:1 scale space module mock-up.
- Customers in the automotive, railway and naval sectors will be able to have an engineered and sensorised mini-greenhouse solution that brings benefits in terms of indoor air quality and psycho-physical well-being. In addition, these same customers will benefit from the expertise developed by partners (e.g. BLUE Enginering) in terms of biophilic design.
- Customers in the agricultural sector will be able to benefit from a robust, industrialised Artificial Intelligence solution to identify plant pathologies through computer vision.