Rampant drug use, grumpiness, depression and minor to serious workplace mistakes, sounds like a business on the ropes and certainly is a recipe for disaster. This scenario is one that no one would ascribe to the ISS, but in fact this is the very process going on 100+ miles over our heads.
Many factors are at play here. Noise, lack of privacy and pervasive florescent lighting have lead to fatigue which leads many of the crew members to resort to sleeping pills to help them sleep.
NASA has acknowledged the problem and one step the have begun to implement is lighting that can simulate night and day. This will be accomplished by changing out the pervasive florescent fixtures with LED units that can brighten and darken as well as change colors.
- By 2016, NASA will have installed new arrays of LED lights in place of the fluorescent lights in the U.S. areas of the station. These arrays will be programmed to wake the crew up with blueish light, project whiteish light during the day, and then send everyone to bed with reddish light in the evenings.
This system has been proven on Earth and it begs the question since day and night lighting is so pervasive in science fiction, one has to wonder why NASA never thought to implement it on the space station?
9 comments:
Now don't get me wrong, I love the ISS. But frankly I think the thing is an entire waste of time and effort. And this is why I say that.
We need to build a station that rotates, so that we could actually walk, without using magnetic boots, etc. The centrigal force of the spin creates enough to keep us on the ground. Why we are still wasting money on these types is just beyond me.
We seem to be stuck on one concept, and one concept only. We need to move forward, not stagnate where we are, which is all we seem able to do.
I had to come back and reread this, as I wasn't exactly what you would call awake the first time.
So basically they are simply using plant growing techniques. Hydroponics, aquaponics, and even simple dirt growing all use the same lighting strategy, (not exactly, but you'll see what I mean).
Blue is used for vegetative growth, and so it makes sense to use it to wake people up with along with the standard white or clear lighting.
Red is for flowering, and is used to simulate the fall cycle basically. Depending on what it is you are growing of course. I can see where this works, and especially for the psychology of the astronauts, cosmonauts, etc.
Wish I could get up there and try a growing experiment with certain types of plants, but I am guessing NASA would tell me where to get off at if I approached them with that idea.
LED's are the wave of the future, without a doubt. I am planning on turning everything in here to led's as I build the place. They are brighter, last longer, and use very little power.
I am going to hazard a guess here and bet that we NEVER see a rotating anything in space. Unless they start using the Moon to produce basic building supplies. Something that rotates has to be many factors stronger and heavier to be able to stand up to the forces that would come to bear.
See Kall, they are trying to cut down on RAMPANT drug use not provide the perfect growing conditions for smokable hemp....
Just counting the launch costs alone...ummm I would say buy the LEDs here and go down in the basement and knock yourself senseless.
LOL, wrong plants brother. I was actually talking about tomatoes, beets, potatoes, radishes etc. Especially root vegetables.
The other is already handled well enough.
I'd like to plant the same plants here, and at the same time plant on the station.
And use different types, and different packing on the soil, especially with the potatoes.
I'm wondering if in zero gravity the root veggies would come out softer.
The problem is the space it would take up to do it properly. And most people don't think of this stuff to do, just for the sake of doing it and seeing what happens.
And yeah, I have thought about the other as well. Hmmmm, now that would be an experience and a half.
Zero gravity and flying. Yeah, that would make for an interesting day to say the least.
I know there's a short story in there somewhere. A disastrous short story, and something that would fit better to Red Dwarf than a written story actually.
Now I am going to show my ignorance of root veggies even though Maine is known for it root vegetable crop.
so micro or no gravity to orientate the seedling. How do you coax the the roots into the soil. Leaves I can guess go for the light, but roots are always thought of as going down into the soil. If something gets a spin in space...it wonn't be living quarters but the gardens spinning....
Now you see what I mean. But roots also reach for water. So if you water from the bottom only, like we do with the upside down tomato plant hangers here...
See, that's what I mean. I don't know, and I want to know.
Also, it might be possible. if they used a small heat rock like for a terrarium, or reptile enclosure, it might bring the roots down toward the heat and moisture.
Could probably do the same with any plant actually, but the result on the root veggies is what I am kind of interested in. Especially the taste and texture.
And as a bonus from using LED's in place of the florescent you will free up power to be used elsewhere-ask any full time RVer.
With you 100% Lynn! I convert anything I can get my hands on to led All my reading lights, and photographic lights are10 to 20 watt leds and they work great! Converted all my flashlights to leds driven by Joule circuits and it is like free power!!! yep yep yep!
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