The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse Field Season 2006: Mission Accomplished!
Alain Berinstain, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and University of Guelph, Principal Investigator, Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse
Good planning, hard work, an excellent team, and good fortune have resulted in the most successful field season for the greenhouse research team so far. This was the 5th time the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Guelph, and Simon Fraser University have mounted an expedition to Devon Island for maintenance and upgrade of the Mars Institute's Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse systems.
The 18 days on Devon Island went almost exactly as planned; in fact, a few additional tasks were added while we were deployed at the HMP Research Station. All systems were upgraded. Additional cameras were added with two gimbal mounts allowing remote pointing, power monitoring and control was refined, wiring was upgraded, distributed data acquisition systems were installed using new, more robust controllers, more reliable heating for spring-time crops was added, additional communications capabilities were added, active nutrient control was added, and more sensors were deployed, all in the aim of bringing the greenhouse systems to a new level of robustness and reliability.
Through our collaboration with the University of Florida, we have begun to carry out some plant studies that will allow us to develop novel techniques for using the plants themselves as sensors of the environment. In addition, we demonstrated teleoperability of plant growth systems within th greenhouse.
On our way out of the Arctic, at the Resolute Bay staging point, we held a debrief meeting with the team to discuss overall impressions of the experience, lessons learned, and ideas for future research directions. Future research directions will see us focussing more on new sensor technologies including biological sensors, and more plant-growth surface area within the greenhouse. Lessons learned include being more disciplined in terms of freezing software changes before the field season begins. Making software modifications in the field can lead to a situation that requires more testing time than we plan for in the field.
The greenhouse before we started working on it this year.
We now enter the autonomous mode phase of greenhouse operations, with a fall crop well underway. This year, we are growing a mix of lettuce, radish, cucumber, and zinnias. It will be fascinating to watch these plants grow remotely and be kept healthy in an autonomous fashion. A spring growth tray, with seeds in place (but kept dry until spring) will wait for spring activation. We are more confident than ever that all systems will be go next May or June when we send the command to begin the spring crop phase. We intend to serve a lettuce, cucumber, and radish salad to the research station camp next July from crops germinated remotely.
The greenhouse after we started working on it this year.
We had a good mix of veterans and rookies on the team, with a good mix of complementary technical expertise. The dynamics of the group were exemplary. The professionalism was admirable. As the Principal Investigator of these research activities, I have never been more proud of the team and our accomplishments.
