Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse Status Report July 23, 2003 | Field Reports

Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse Status Report July 23, 2003

By: Alain Berinstain, Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse Principal Investigator

A major milestone was achieved today as we "switched" the greenhouse from camp power off the main diesel generator to solar and wind power. The team has been working very hard over the last couple of days, in difficult weather conditions to erect the windmill structure and to prepare the electronics that control the power.

The wind and solar power are combined and serve a basic function to charge a set of batteries. The batteries generate the 24V DC line that powers the main computer for data acquisition and control (nicknamed "Rama") and the exhaust fans. This 24V power is then stepped down to 12V and 5V, to power circulation fans, pumps, the packet terminal for satellite communications, as well as the small computer that controls communications and acts as a time server (nicknamed "Arthur"). If the batteries are fully charged, and the power generation system is generating excess power, a load diverter will send current to a heating coil in the heat recovery system, that will in turn heat a large mass of water, thereby storing all extra energy. This warm water is then circulated through a radiator/fan combination to augment the propane heating system in the greenhouse.

With this power system up and running, all subsystems are now operational (the other subsystems are heating, cooling, plant growth, heat recovery system, and satellite communications). The next few days will involve a full series of tests and debugging, culminating in full autonomous operation before we leave the HMP site.

We set ourselves an ambitious program for the field season, and we are now confident that all primary and secondary objectives will be met before we leave the field site. From that point on, we look forward to collecting and sharing very valuable data.

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