Week 10: Expert interview + Rose, bud, thorn

Expert Interview

Last week I did another expert interview with Omar Gowayed, a PHD candidate at NYU Tandon, who runs the indoor aquaponic farm at NYU Makerspace. The interview was insightful and emphasized the following points:

  • importance of a controlled environment:

    • PH

    • EC

    • CO2

    • UV sterilizer to combat fungus and algae

  • crop compatibility with other crops and the system

  • plants enormous effect on decreasing CO2 levels in indoor environments

  • The system can not be fully automated, maintenance still requires extensive human intervention

Rose, bud, thorn

Rose:

  1. Controlled environment to grow plants in space

  2. limited resources on long-term space exploration => Bioregenarative systems

  3. Plants produce Oxygen + food which are both essential in space

  4. Algae is magical. It can be used as food, fuel and more! (good thing I experimented with growing Spirulina last year!)

  5. Creating an ecosystem of plants bacteria and humans is essential

  6. Importance of crop variety to sustain life

Bud

  1. Using environmental elements to affect crops 

  2. Growing material and structures 

  3. Bio-design and material 

  4. 3d printing live organism 

  5. Genetically engineering crops for each environment 

  6. Time to grow and harvest 

Thorn

  1. Why should the general public care about space farming? Should they be part of my audience?

  2. Prototyping and testing GM plants for space

  3. Too many different ways to approach the challenge

  4. Where and how can I intervene? Where does design come in?

Sara Nejad