April 26, 2005
Temperature-63.9 C -83.0 F
Windchill-84.5 C -120.1 F
Wind 9.4 kts Grid 62
Barometer 681.0 mb (10591 ft)
Lunch: Mac & Cheese
Dinner: Game Hens
It has been entirely too long between blogs and I apologize to my readers for not keeping things up to date.
This past Friday the station management announced that we would be having a "Safety Standown" on Saturday. I don’t know what had been going on with me but I had been exhausted the entire week. It could have been all the weight training and intervals that I had been doing and the extra time was appreciated since I needed the rest. Around 11:30 am they dismissed us from work and I went to my room and watched the movie "Office Space" and went to bed for about three hours. I then awoke had dinner and went back to bed.
One guy who I consider the "God Father" lead an effort to have a cooked dinner on Saturday night instead of the usual rummaging through the leftover fridge. They made breckie or breakfast for dinner. We had quiche, pancakes, made to order eggs, fruit, yogurt, seven layer dip and sticky buns. After not eating all day and awaking from my nap I gorged myself on all the good food in the chow line.
Sunday I worked on the house design and found that I was making things entirely too complicated. I have since scrapped my design and started over with a much simpler scheme. I want to raise post and beam bents into place and infill the spaces between bents with straw bales. The bents will support the roof load and strawbale walls will support the second floor along with 3 courses of bales above. My new scheme came about as I was drafting a 3D model of the home when I discovered that I had some coordination problems that rendered my design difficult to construct.
Speaking of constructability, I noticed that one of my favorite groups that I must work with did a magazine article talking about what a great job their product is doing here. Following is a question and answer interview regarding the greenhouse along with the truth.
"Inhabitants can now indulge on self-grown, fresh veggies, instead of living off canned and frozen cuisine.
G G director of the controlled environment agriculture program, built a growth chamber that is currently producing lettuce and other goodies. He also works on another chamber that is planned to go to Mars or the moon in a NASA spacecraft."
When the product was delivered to us it was incomplete, did not meet building code and the mechanical systems did not have the capacities required to control temperature and humidity. The entire chamber had to be rewired, all of the pumps replaced and we still await the manufacture of the 3rd tier of racks.
How does it work?
In extreme environments, plants can be grown in controlled rooms without windows, using artificial light sources, GG said.
"We believe that we can grow any crop anywhere, anytime," he said. "What I don't add on there is at what cost."
But despite the high costs of such a project, researchers were in demand for fresh vegetables because it is impossible to maintain any supply during the long winters"
Before this marvel of modern science arrived on station we had a green house in another building that was half the size and yet had yields similar to the new state of the art facility. We were growing crops "anywhere and anytime" long before the new facility.
As a result, the __________________, which supervises research sent out floor plans and wanted people to bid on a green chamber that would fit their needs.
"I guess we were low bidders, we got it. And that's pretty rare for a university,"
The chamber was built at the ___ in the summer of 2003, using ___ requirements of size and electrical power,. It was then tested and the _____ shipped the chamber.
PS, owner of _________________, lived and worked at the _____ in previous years, and was the primary designer and builder of the green chamber.
It is true that it is rare for a University to win a competitive bid contract except when said University is told what price to beat and Big R is told you will use said university in the construction.
No the chamber was built here and never tested before shipping because the primary designer was stonewalling the job in hopes of having the opportunity to assemble the project on site rather than on the university campus. Big R scheduled three different site visits during construction and no noticeable progress had occurred between visits. Big R had to ship the chamber incomplete and untested to the site so that the government milestone could be met.
Makin' it grow
The plants had to grow from sterile seeds because it is illegal to import soil and live plants, Therefore, all the plants grow hydroponically, which means they grow in a nutrient solution without soil.
A glass wall divides the chamber and the real growth room, where the plants get warm lights, humidity and greenery.
There is also a sitting area where folks can, "play cards, read a book and watch the plants grow,"
The growth chamber not only produces veggies, but also has a positive psychological effect on people at the pole, because they do not see sunlight during the long winter.
Hypothetically, 10,000 heads of small lettuce could be grown in the costly $500,000 chamber annually, but the residents also grow herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers in it,
"We provided a product that solves problems down there, and we will see in the future how well it works."
Reaction to the growth chamber reached from "We hate this piece of junk" to "This is great," but equally important is that the client was satisfied with the project and wants a longer-term relationship with the program.
The above is creative writing at its best! I don’t know where to start but I think I will make it short. Big R wanted desperately to cancel the contract and finish the chamber using their own engineering and outside consultants but were forced to keep and maintain a contract with the university at the direction of the government. They are neither helpful nor proactive and we still don’t like the piece of junk.
NASA dreams
The Mars growth chamber is right now "nothing more than a demonstration" and unsupported by NASA.
"It looks like a long sausage, about 18 feet long and about 8 feet in diameter, so a person can stand up in it," he said. "There are several rows in which we currently grow lettuce."
The chamber has almost no structure, except for the end pieces. Held together by cables, which keep it from blowing away, the chamber utilizes a fan, which blows the plastic shell up like a balloon.
This structure will help astronauts inflate and deflate it as desired and then pack it into a small piece.
There is an important connection between the green chambers. It is possible to test the Mars chamber at the bottom of the planet because the environment there is the closest analog on Earth to the Mars. Both have very low temperatures and high, dry winds.
"We are working with the government and NASA to get a demonstration down there,".
The Mars and ________ programs were "a unique way to demonstrate our capabilities, raise the flag, so to speak there is only one _________."
Well I hope they learned their lesson and choose to include the other departments in the engineering and don’t keep all the intellectual opportunities in the AG department. If they had included the engineering and architectural schools in chamber I suspect the project would have been more trouble free.
Windchill-84.5 C -120.1 F
Wind 9.4 kts Grid 62
Barometer 681.0 mb (10591 ft)
Lunch: Mac & Cheese
Dinner: Game Hens
It has been entirely too long between blogs and I apologize to my readers for not keeping things up to date.
This past Friday the station management announced that we would be having a "Safety Standown" on Saturday. I don’t know what had been going on with me but I had been exhausted the entire week. It could have been all the weight training and intervals that I had been doing and the extra time was appreciated since I needed the rest. Around 11:30 am they dismissed us from work and I went to my room and watched the movie "Office Space" and went to bed for about three hours. I then awoke had dinner and went back to bed.
One guy who I consider the "God Father" lead an effort to have a cooked dinner on Saturday night instead of the usual rummaging through the leftover fridge. They made breckie or breakfast for dinner. We had quiche, pancakes, made to order eggs, fruit, yogurt, seven layer dip and sticky buns. After not eating all day and awaking from my nap I gorged myself on all the good food in the chow line.
Sunday I worked on the house design and found that I was making things entirely too complicated. I have since scrapped my design and started over with a much simpler scheme. I want to raise post and beam bents into place and infill the spaces between bents with straw bales. The bents will support the roof load and strawbale walls will support the second floor along with 3 courses of bales above. My new scheme came about as I was drafting a 3D model of the home when I discovered that I had some coordination problems that rendered my design difficult to construct.
Speaking of constructability, I noticed that one of my favorite groups that I must work with did a magazine article talking about what a great job their product is doing here. Following is a question and answer interview regarding the greenhouse along with the truth.
"Inhabitants can now indulge on self-grown, fresh veggies, instead of living off canned and frozen cuisine.
G G director of the controlled environment agriculture program, built a growth chamber that is currently producing lettuce and other goodies. He also works on another chamber that is planned to go to Mars or the moon in a NASA spacecraft."
When the product was delivered to us it was incomplete, did not meet building code and the mechanical systems did not have the capacities required to control temperature and humidity. The entire chamber had to be rewired, all of the pumps replaced and we still await the manufacture of the 3rd tier of racks.
How does it work?
In extreme environments, plants can be grown in controlled rooms without windows, using artificial light sources, GG said.
"We believe that we can grow any crop anywhere, anytime," he said. "What I don't add on there is at what cost."
But despite the high costs of such a project, researchers were in demand for fresh vegetables because it is impossible to maintain any supply during the long winters"
Before this marvel of modern science arrived on station we had a green house in another building that was half the size and yet had yields similar to the new state of the art facility. We were growing crops "anywhere and anytime" long before the new facility.
As a result, the __________________, which supervises research sent out floor plans and wanted people to bid on a green chamber that would fit their needs.
"I guess we were low bidders, we got it. And that's pretty rare for a university,"
The chamber was built at the ___ in the summer of 2003, using ___ requirements of size and electrical power,. It was then tested and the _____ shipped the chamber.
PS, owner of _________________, lived and worked at the _____ in previous years, and was the primary designer and builder of the green chamber.
It is true that it is rare for a University to win a competitive bid contract except when said University is told what price to beat and Big R is told you will use said university in the construction.
No the chamber was built here and never tested before shipping because the primary designer was stonewalling the job in hopes of having the opportunity to assemble the project on site rather than on the university campus. Big R scheduled three different site visits during construction and no noticeable progress had occurred between visits. Big R had to ship the chamber incomplete and untested to the site so that the government milestone could be met.
Makin' it grow
The plants had to grow from sterile seeds because it is illegal to import soil and live plants, Therefore, all the plants grow hydroponically, which means they grow in a nutrient solution without soil.
A glass wall divides the chamber and the real growth room, where the plants get warm lights, humidity and greenery.
There is also a sitting area where folks can, "play cards, read a book and watch the plants grow,"
The growth chamber not only produces veggies, but also has a positive psychological effect on people at the pole, because they do not see sunlight during the long winter.
Hypothetically, 10,000 heads of small lettuce could be grown in the costly $500,000 chamber annually, but the residents also grow herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers in it,
"We provided a product that solves problems down there, and we will see in the future how well it works."
Reaction to the growth chamber reached from "We hate this piece of junk" to "This is great," but equally important is that the client was satisfied with the project and wants a longer-term relationship with the program.
The above is creative writing at its best! I don’t know where to start but I think I will make it short. Big R wanted desperately to cancel the contract and finish the chamber using their own engineering and outside consultants but were forced to keep and maintain a contract with the university at the direction of the government. They are neither helpful nor proactive and we still don’t like the piece of junk.
NASA dreams
The Mars growth chamber is right now "nothing more than a demonstration" and unsupported by NASA.
"It looks like a long sausage, about 18 feet long and about 8 feet in diameter, so a person can stand up in it," he said. "There are several rows in which we currently grow lettuce."
The chamber has almost no structure, except for the end pieces. Held together by cables, which keep it from blowing away, the chamber utilizes a fan, which blows the plastic shell up like a balloon.
This structure will help astronauts inflate and deflate it as desired and then pack it into a small piece.
There is an important connection between the green chambers. It is possible to test the Mars chamber at the bottom of the planet because the environment there is the closest analog on Earth to the Mars. Both have very low temperatures and high, dry winds.
"We are working with the government and NASA to get a demonstration down there,".
The Mars and ________ programs were "a unique way to demonstrate our capabilities, raise the flag, so to speak there is only one _________."
Well I hope they learned their lesson and choose to include the other departments in the engineering and don’t keep all the intellectual opportunities in the AG department. If they had included the engineering and architectural schools in chamber I suspect the project would have been more trouble free.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 9:08 PM
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